It’s November 1, which means National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) is once again upon us, and I’m in. It also means Halloween was last night, and in my house we have a number of family traditions around the celebration, the most relevant of which for this post is that I always make a pot of something hot for us to have after trick-or-treating.

Last night was particularly cold – it was literally freezing, with a wind chill below freezing and actual snow coming down – and I will confess that I did not go trick-or-treating with my gang to even one house. I can’t even say that it was because I needed to see about dinner, because I had put that in the slow cooker hours earlier. Basically, I was just a wimp.

So I said good-bye to Death:

And I said good-bye to the Decapitated Dude:

 

And I wished all three of my fellas good luck.

 

And I stayed home and handed out candy.

I also used the time to take selfies:

 

And take pictures of the cat:

And roast pumpkin seeds:

(whoops! no picture, because they are all in our bellies)

So it’s not like I was wasting time while my kids and husband froze out there begging for candy, amiright?

I usually make regular chili for Halloween, but this time I decided to do White Chicken Chili. I took a recipe I’d never made before and paleo-fied it. It was good, but I think it could be better next time. I’ll share it here, and if you have any suggestions, I’m interested!

Slow-Cooked Paleo White Chicken Chili

• 8 cups chicken broth
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium-sized yellow onion, chopped
• 3 tablespoons, coconut oil, divided
• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half
• 1 medium-sized jalapeño, seeded and minced
• 2 4oz. cans chopped roasted green chiles
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the coconut oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; sauté onion until tender.
2. Add the chicken, jalapeño, and remaining tablespoon of oil and cook until the chicken is no longer pink on the outside, 5-6 minutes; transfer everything to the slow cooker.
3. Add the roasted chiles, oregano, cumin, cloves, cayenne, and 8 cups of chicken broth to the slow cooker; stir to combine.
4. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 6 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. During the last hour, add the coconut milk, chopped zucchini, and salt.
5. Remove the chicken from the cooker, shred with a fork, and return to the cooker.

recipe heavily adapted from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook (NYM Series) (affiliate link) – I LOVE this cookbook.

The original recipe called for 3 chicken breasts, which is what I used last night. I realized afterwards that I should’ve doubled that to make up for the fact that I wasn’t using beans (as called for in the original recipe). So I’ve doubled the chicken above, though I haven’t yet made it that way. I just know that the soup as I made it needed more protein (and generally more substance).

This was really good, but it wasn’t as thick as traditional white chicken chili, which has beans in it. I added coconut milk to it to make it a little creamier, but I still would’ve loved it to be a bit thicker. Paleo people, what would you do? Add arrowroot? Pureed pumpkin? Some other thickening trick?

This is a recipe I’m interested in refining, so I will definitely keep working at it, and will share my results.