I’ve adopted an Allrecipes.com recipe for white chili and made it my own, tweaking things each time I’ve made the chili, which I’ve done a few times in the past couple months.

The recipe is pretty mild in the spice department, so last week I decided to substitute pepper jack — normally, one of my favorite cheeses — for the Monterey jack listed on the original recipe.

Two cups of pepper jack made things a little too hot to handle for me. I can handle a little heat, but even my boyfriend, who amps it up, was sucking down ice water between spoonfuls. Cutting the chili with some additional chicken broth helped, but next time I think I’ll try using half the pepper jack, half the Monterey jack.

That said, here’s my adaptation of the original recipe.

I like more beans than the recipe calls for, so I added another can, and puree more than the original recipe suggests for a thicker consistency. I also threw in an extra garlic clove, because really, who doesn’t love garlic?

Also, I don’t use cayenne, and I substitute black pepper for white pepper only because of what’s in my spice cabinet. I typically buy a big can of broth, which has at least 5 cups, but never seem to use what the recipe calls for.

Ingredients

1 white onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ pounds ground turkey

8 ounces canned diced green chiles

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

ground black pepper to taste

4 (15 ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

4 cups chicken broth

1 cup shredded Pepper jack cheese

1 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese

Directions

Start by chopping the onion and mincing garlic.

In a large pot over medium heat, combine onion, garlic and ground turkey, stirring occasionally and sautéing for roughly 10 minutes, or until the turkey is well browned.

Add the chiles, cumin, oregano, cinnamon and pepper and sauté for 5 more minutes.

Add 2 ½ cans of the beans and the chicken broth (I start with 3 cups and add more as desired) to the pot. Puree the remaining 1 ½ cans of beans in a food processor and then stir the pureed beans into the pot, along with the cheese. Stir and simmer for 10 minutes. Possible garnishes include avocado slices, cilantro, additional cheese, sour cream and/or crumbled tortilla chips.