Need an easy dinner the whole family will love on a busy weeknight? ThisWeeknight White Chicken Chiliis a cozy, satisfying meal made with leftover chicken, creamy white beans, green chiles, and warm spices. It’s packed with protein and flavor, with a rich, creamy broth made without cream cheese or heavy cream!
Why We Love This White Chicken Chili
Chili in basically any form is one of my purest comfort food meals when the weather gets chilly. (no pun intended!) True, it might be more about the chili toppings but there really isn’t anything better than a warm bowl of chili on a cold night.
Here are a few reasons why we loooove this white chicken chili recipe so much that it’s become a regular meal in our fall and winter meal rotation:
Leftover chicken from a roast chicken, grilled chicken, or a rotisserie chicken make this a super easy chicken chili for busy weeknights.
Bursting with bright flavor from green chiles and dried spices, this chili recipe is light and fresh, even with a creamy broth and loads of toppings.
Fantastic wholesome dinner, filled with protein and fiber from the white beans (cannellini beans) and an extra boost of protein from shredded tender chicken.
A creamy broth makes this white bean chicken chili thick and rich without cream cheese, heavy cream, flour, or sour cream.
Leftovers taste better the next day. Yep, it’s totally one of those meals where you’ll fight over bringing the leftovers to work or packing it in a Thermos for school lunches.
What to Serve with White Chicken Chili
Aside from the toppings, let’s round up some ideas for what to serve with white chicken chili, shall we? Here are some of my favorite sides:
Ingredients for the Best White Chicken Chili Recipe
This chili recipe has mostly pantry staples as its main ingredients and if your pantry is stocked, you’ll only need a couple of extra ingredients to grab from the grocery store before making it.
Here is the list of ingredients you need. Be sure to keep scrolling down to the recipe card for the full printable Ingredients list and the full recipe!
Jalapeño: This adds flavor, rather than spicy heat. If you want to really spice this chili up, don’t remove the jalapeño’s ribs and seeds when you chop it up.
Aromatics and Spices: Onions, fresh garlic, dried oregano, ground cumin, sweet paprika, ground cayenne pepper, Kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper
Chicken broth: Homemade always has the best flavor but boxed low-sodium chicken broth works just fine too.
Canned white beans: My preference for white beans is cannellini. Great Northern beans work here too. And pinto beans are also a great substitute if you don’t have white beans in the pantry.
Diced green chiles: These canned chiles are one of my favorite pantry staples to keep on hand. I always have a couple cans at the ready for recipes like this one and others like hot corn dip and crock pot vegetarian chili.
Shredded chicken: For the tender chicken in the chili, you can cook and shred raw chicken breast. My shortcut for meals on busy weeknights though, is to use leftover chicken (like from a whole roast chicken) or rotisserie chicken.
Corn: You can use frozen corn or canned corn (drained first) for this chicken chili recipe.
Most chili recipes have a similar and basic list of instructions so let’s get started with how to make this one! Be sure to keep scrolling down to the recipe card for the full list of Instructions!
STEP 1: Sauté the onions and jalapeño peppers in olive oil in a Dutch oven. Stir in the garlic and spices and keep cooking until they are fragrant.
STEP 2: Add the chicken broth, white beans, and diced green chilies to the onion mixture. Bring the chili base to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes.
STEP 3: Off the heat, mash about half of the beans or purée them with an immersion blender or in a food processor. Stir the bean mixture back into the pot.
STEP 4: Add the cooked chicken and corn and let the soup warm through for a few minutes.
STEP 5: Serve while still hot with the toppings of your choice.
How to Thicken White Chicken Chili
Typical thickeners for soup and chili are heavy cream, a flour and butter roux, a cornstarch slurry, sour cream, and cream cheese. You’ll need none of these for this white chicken chili recipe.
And that’s because the white beans play a major role for other than just flavor, nutrition, and texture. The white beans are a thickener!
That’s right, my friends! You’ll mash up about half of the beans into the chicken broth until you have a thick and creamy broth. It’s quite a transformation!
To mash the beans, you can:
Use a potato masher directly in the pot,
Mash the beans with a wooden spoon against the side of the pot, or
Transfer about half of the beans to a bowl and use an immersion blender or a food processor to blend the beans until smooth. Then, stir the creamy bean mixture back into the broth.
Can You Freeze White Chicken Chili?
You can absolutely freeze white chicken chili! The chili can be frozen for up to 3 months.
To freeze, cool and transfer the leftovers to a freezer-safe container like a plastic soup container or zip-top bags.
My favorite way to freeze chili and soup is in Souper Cubes containers. They are silicone molds with lids that are made for freezing food. They prevent freezer burn on food and you can pop the frozen food right out and into a pot to reheat because the silicone is soft and pliable.
Can You Make Crock Pot White Chicken Chili?
This recipe is perfect to make in the crock pot for a longer cook when you want to come home to a ready-to-eat fully cooked meal. Here’s what you’ll do:
Add the onions, jalapeños, garlic, and spices to a crock pot.
Stir in the chicken broth, green chilies, and rinsed and drained white beans (remember: cannellini beans, pinto beans, or Great Northern beans).
Nestle 2 raw chicken breasts into the brothy mixture. (If you want to use cooked leftover chicken instead of raw, add this in at Step 6.)
Cook on LOW for 6 hours.
Transfer half of the beans to a bowl and mash or purée with an immersion blender or in the bowl of a food processor. Stir the mashed/puréed beans back into the chili.
Remove the chicken and shred it in a bowl, then transfer it back to the chili. Mix in the corn. Continue to cook on LOW for another 10 minutes until the corn is heated through.
Serve with your favorite toppings – avocado, crushed corn chips, sour cream, chopped cilantro, etc., etc., etc.!
White Chicken Chili is the easy dinner for busy weeknights you didn’t know you needed. Made with pantry staples, leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken, and without cream cheese, this is a creamy white bean chicken chili you’ll want to keep in your fall and winter recipe rotation.
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Ingredients
UnitsScale
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/2 jalapeño pepper, seeds and ribs removed, finely chopped
2 tbsp minced garlic (about 5 cloves)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp sweet paprika or mild chili powder
Pinch of cayenne pepper, to taste
1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
Freshly cracked black pepper
4cupslow-sodium chicken broth
2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
2 (4-ounce) cans diced green chiles
2 1/2 to 3cups cooked shredded chicken (from 1 roast chicken or rotisserie chicken)
1cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
Instructions
In a large Dutch oven or pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and jalapeño and cook, stirring often, until the onions are tender, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic, oregano, cumin, paprika, cayenne, salt and a few grinds of black pepper, and cook for 1 minute, until fragrant.
Add the chicken broth, cannellini beans and diced green chiles with their liquid; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the broth has reduced by about half, 18 to 20 minutes. Off the heat, use a wooden spoon to mash some of the beans against the side of the pot. Continue mashing the beans until the broth is noticeably thicker.
Return the pot to medium, stir in the chicken and corn, and cook until heated through, about 3 minutes. Juice the lime half over the pot, then taste for seasonings and add more salt, black pepper, and cayenne, if desired.
Serve the chili in bowls topped as you like with a lime wedge, shredded cheese, pickled red onions, diced avocado, sour cream, chopped fresh cilantro, and/or crushed tortilla chips.
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