My Favorite White Chicken Chili Recipe
We’ve all made the classic chili with beef, kidney beans, tomatoes, and the
traditional chili spices but have you tried white chicken version yet?
Want to see how to make this chili recipe? Watch the video!
This is a recipe you’ll want to be making year round, even as it starts to get warm
outside. It’s probably different than what you’d expect with the label of “chili”
in the title but it is amazingly delicious!
You’ll love the way the flavors of this chili blend together, those tender pieces
of chicken and that creamy broth. It tastes far different from the classic chili
but it’s a welcome change. Everyone loves this soup!
And it’s just that much better when you load on the toppings. Who wouldn’t love the
addition of fresh avocado slices, crunchy tortilla chips, flavorful cheese and
fresh cilantro? Bring on those toppings!
What Ingredients go into White Chicken Chili?
Chicken -I prefer rotisserie chicken but left-over cooked chicken will work great
too.
Garlic and onion – these aromatics adds lots of flavor here. Use fresh minced
garlic.
Chicken broth – for even more flavor try this soup with a homemade broth.
Green chilies – be sure to buy the mild kind unless you like heat.
Cumin, Paprika, Oregano & Coriander – these creates the perfect blend of spices
here.
Cannellini Beans – great northern beans will work great too.
Frozen Corn – canned corn will work too, I just never have cared for the flavor.
Neufchatel cheese – cream cheese will work great too. I usually use Philadelphia
but the store was out.
Lime – be sure to use fresh lime not the bottled stuff here.
Cilantro – feel free to add more to taste.
Desired toppings – I like to add avocado, tortilla chips, and cheese.
How do You Make the Best White Chicken Chili?
Heat olive oil in a 6 quart enameled dutch oven over medium-high heat.
Add onion and saute 4 minutes minutes.
Add garlic and saute 30 seconds longer.
Add chicken broth, green chilies, cumin, paprika, oregano, coriander, cayenne
pepper and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Bring mixture just to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 15 minutes.
Add Neufchatel cheese to soup along with corn, whole beans and pureed beans and
stir well. Simmer 5 – 10 minutes longer.
Stir in chicken, fresh lime juice and cilantro. Serve with Monterrey Jack cheese,
more cilantro, avocado slices and tortilla chips if desired.
The Trick For A Creamy White Bean Chicken Chili
You’ll notice there’s a step in the recipe that instructs you to process some of
the Cannellini beans with some of the soup broth. I saw this once while I was
watching Giada making a soup on Food Network. If I’m remembering right, she added
some pureed Cannellini beans to give the soup a creamy texture.
I thought that idea would be perfect to make this white bean chicken chili extra
creamy so I decided to adapt that method and I loved it (if you don’t have a food
processor or just don’t want to have to clean a food processor then yes, you could
just add all the beans in whole).