Chicken Chili Recipe
White chicken chili is the chicken-based cousin to my classic chili recipe. It’s made with pre-cooked chicken (grab a rotisserie chicken or use up your holiday leftovers!) and white beans, and it’s packed full of flavor! The best part? The creamy texture is made WITHOUT any heavy cream! Here’s how I do it. The technique is similar to the pureeing that I do in both my corn chowder and my potato soup, but rather than pureeing a large portion of the finished soup, we’ll start by pureeing two of our base ingredients. For this recipe, you’ll puree together part of your white beans with a bit of chicken broth. We’ll stir this back into the mix later on in the recipe, and voila! A creamy texture without any cream. It’s magical! ✨
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Creamy base that’s not too heavy or rich. Ready in under an hour! If you’re looking for a filling weeknight dinner for the whole family, you need to try this recipe! Packed full of flavor from ingredients like jalapeño, diced green chilis, lime juice, and plenty of spices. Great for using up leftover chicken! You can also pick over a rotisserie chicken or use my super simple crock pot shredded chicken (highly recommend! 👌🏼).
Ingredients
Don’t be overwhelmed by the amount of ingredients here; I promise this recipe is super easy!
Chicken broth I do not used a reduced sodium broth for this recipe. If you choose to do so, I recommend taste testing as you go to make sure your white chicken chili has enough flavor. If it tastes bland, you simply need more salt! Beans. Use cannelini beans or white kidney beans. You’ll need two cans; we’ll blend half of the first one with some of the chicken broth to create a creamy base, and then we’ll add the rest in later. Spices. Including cumin, onion powder, ancho chili powder (a favorite spice of mine, I use it in everything from chili to taco soup), cayenne pepper, and black pepper. If you don’t have any ancho chili powder, then you can use regular chili powder and a dash of smoked paprika. I do recommend trying to find the ancho chili powder though–it adds such a nice flavor! Diced green chiles. I use mild diced green chiles, but you can use the hot version if you like. You can also use the fire roasted diced green chilis–I use them in my regular and leftover turkey chili recipes, and I love them! Sour cream. We’ll stir this in at the end for a bit of creaminess. Full-fat greek yogurt could also work in a pinch, but sour cream is best.
SAM’S TIP: Feel free to adjust the spice level to your liking and add more cayenne pepper (or a few jalapeno seeds) if you like your white chicken chili to be on the spicy side. A dash of hot sauce just before serving is also a great idea! 🌶️ Conversely, reduce or leave out the cayenne entirely if you’re not a fan of heat or are serving to kids! This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make White Chicken Chili
SAM’S TIP: If you want to add tortilla strips to your soup, then consider making the homemade version from my chicken tortilla soup! They are seriously so simple to make at home. Enjoy! Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜 I originally published this recipe in FEbruary of 2018. I’ve updated the post to include more helpful tips and to add a recipe tutorial, but the recipe itself is unchanged (other than minor clarifications in the recipe — the ingredients and technique remain the same!).
More Cozy Soups & Chilis to Try:
