The White Lotus Chili

The name of this chili really doesn't have anything to do with this pulled pork mac and cheese chili. I chose the name because I thought it would be a funny presentation in my friend's chili cook-off, which I won presentation in by the way :). I thought this was pretty tasty too but I knew it would be risky to not do a traditional chili. I took inspiration from a recipe I found on myrecipes.com. Let me know what you think!

Ingredients

- 1 Tablespoon olive oil

- 1 pound pulled pork, room temperature (I bought un-sauced already cooked pulled pork from the grocery store but you can cook the pork instead however you'd like)

- 2 cups chicken broth

- 1 cup water

- 1 10 oz can mild diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained

- 8 oz pasta shells (I did Banza shells but you could also do macaroni)

- 1/2 cup 2% milk

- 4 oz full fat cream cheese

- 4 oz shredded cheddar cheese, plus more for garnish

- Tabasco chipotle pepper sauce, to taste

Instructions

1. Heat oil in dutch oven, add pulled pork and cook for 5 minutes while breaking it up.

2. Add broth, water, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil.

3. Stir in pasta, cover and cook for 10 minutes.

4. In a saucepan, heat milk and cream cheese over medium heat. Stir frequently until cream cheese melts.

5. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in cheddar. Note: this will be an odd texture but it will become creamy in the next step :).

6. Add cheese sauce to dutch oven and stir.

7. Top with Tabasco and shredded cheese (optional)