This hearty white bean chicken chili is a snap to make in your slow cooker! Keep it simple, or serve it up with a rainbow of fresh toppings to make it extra-festive.
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What's the Story Behind this Recipe?
White chicken chili is a rich, hearty stew of white beans, savory chicken, and aromatic vegetables and herbs. It isn't flashy or fancy; it just does its job, satisfying your hunger and leaving you feeling truly nourished.
This chicken chili recipe is super easy to make, and requires only about 20 minutes of actual hands-on time. The chili goes together in three basic steps: soak the beans, make the sofrito (a simple, sautéed blend of vegetables, herbs, and spices), and cook everything together a slow cooker.
One of the things we love about white bean chili is that it seems to satisfy even picky eaters, and people who "don't like spicy things." You can serve it simple - in a bowl with a spoon - or make things fun and festive by offering an array of colorful toppings alongside to add interest and texture to your chili bowl.
What Goes into this Recipe
As written, our White Chicken Chili recipe makes a relatively mild chili. You can spice it up by leaving the seeds in the jalapeños and/or adding spicier peppers to the mix.
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
★ Beans: We recommend using small white beans or navy beans for this chili.
★ Chicken broth: The stock or broth you use will determine the flavor base for your chili. You can used boxed or canned broth; however, we prefer to use a richer homemade chicken broth.
If you've never made homemade chicken stock, be sure check out our super-easy step-by-step tutorial. Homemade stock is easy to make, economical, and freezes very well.
★ Chicken: We suggest using rotisserie chicken, or leftover chicken or turkey for this recipe.
★ Green chilis: You can roast a couple of mild chilis yourself, or use a small can of diced green chilis. In this case, either one is a good choice.
When we use canned chilis, we try to buy the whole ones in a big can and distribute them into freezer bags to be used as needed. This ends up being much less expensive than buying the little cans.
★ Onions: Use a white or yellow onion.
★ Lime juice: Use fresh or bottled lime juice.
TIP: Make it a habit to zest every piece of citrus that goes through your kitchen before juicing it. When sealed in a small, air-tight bag, citrus zest freezes very well, and will keep for up to three months in the freezer.
★ Jalapeños: For very mild chili, use just one jalapeño, and removed seeds before chopping.
Spice it up even more by adding a minced Serrano to the mix.
How to Make White Bean Chili in a Slow Cooker
Soak Beans
If you are using canned beans, simply drain and rinse the beans in the colander and proceed to the next step: prepare the sofrito.
Dry beans should be soaked before cooking; it shortens the cooking time and improves the texture. You can either do this overnight, or by doing a quick soak.
If you don't soak the beans, add about 2 hours to the total cooking time.
We recommend doing a quick soak:
In a medium saucepan, cover the beans with enough water so the water-line is at least 2 inches above the top of the beans.
Bring the beans to a boil quickly over high heat. Once they are boil, continue to cook for one minute, and then remove from heat.
Remove the beans from the heat, cover, and let sit for one hour.
Drain in a colander and discard the soaking water. (Draining off this water decreases the content of a particular type of sugar called oligosaccharide which the human body cannot fully digest. Oligosaccharide is what causes gas and bloating.)
Set rinsed and drained beans aside while you prepare the sofrito.
Alternative Prep: Cover beans with hot water and soak them overnight.
Prepare Sofrito
In a large heavy skillet over medium heat, sauté onions in the olive oil over medium high heat.
Cook until the onions are translucent and just beginning to turn brown; about 8-10 minutes.
Add garlic and jalapeños, and cook for 2 more minutes. Add spices and stir to thoroughly combine.
Add mild green chilis and lime juice, and cook until most of the moisture has evaporated.
Slow Cook Chili
Place the beans, prepared sofrito, and chicken broth in a slow cooker.
- Soaked beans: Start with 5 cups of chicken broth.
- Canned beans: Start with 4 cups of chicken broth.
Cover and cook on low until the beans are very tender.
- Soaked beans: Cook for 6-8 hours on low. (Begin checking the beans after 5 hours, and then every 30 minutes until they are cooked to your liking.)
- Canned beans: Cook 3-4 hours on low.
Add additional broth or water as necessary.
Finish & Serve
When beans are very tender, use an immersion blender or potato masher to mash some of the beans up. This will slightly thicken chili. (Don’t overdo it or you will have bean puree!)
Stir in the shredded chicken and corn, and heat through. Season to taste.
Expert Tips & FAQs
Chili Toppings
We love to serve this white bean chili with an array of toppings, so everyone gets to customize their own bowl!
Some of the toppings we enjoy are:
- avocado
- lime wedges
- sour cream
- crushed tortilla chips
- chopped cilantro
- sliced jalapeños
- grated cotija cheese
- pico de gallo
Sofrito is a fragrant blend of herbs, spices, and chopped vegetables that is used to season stews, soups, rice, beans, and meats. Used much as French mirepoix is used in European cooking, sofrito is an integral part of Latin and Caribbean cooking. (Check out this Arroz con Pollo recipe for an example of cooking with sofrito.)
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Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili
Equipment
- 1 heavy skillet
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry navy beans or 3 - 15 ounce cans Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 large onion chopped: ~ 12 ounces
- 2-3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 4 ounces can diced green chilis
- 1-2 whole jalapeños finely chopped; for mild chili, removed seeds
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1½ teaspoons dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 5-6 cups chicken broth
- 1 pound shredded chicken
- 1 cup sweet corn cooked; fresh or frozen
Toppings (optional; as desired)
- avocado slices
- lime wedges
- sour cream
- tortilla chips
- chopped cilantro
- sliced jalapeños
- grated cotija cheese
- pico de gallo
Instructions
Soak Beans
- If you are using canned beans, simply drain and rinse the beans in the colander and proceed to prepare the sofrito.
- Dry beans should be soaked before cooking; it shortens the cooking time and improves the texture. You can either do this overnight, or by doing a quick soak.If you don't soak the beans, add about 2 hours to the total cooking time.
- We recommend doing a quick soak:In a medium saucepan, cover the beans with enough water so the water-line is at least 2 inches above the top of the beans.Bring the beans to a boil quickly over high heat. Once they are boil, continue to cook for one minute, and then remove from heat.Remove the beans from the heat, cover, and let sit for one hour.
- Drain in a colander and discard the soaking water. Set rinsed and drained beans aside while you prepare the sofrito.
- Alternative Prep: Cover beans with hot water and soak them overnight.
Prepare Sofrito
- In a large heavy skillet over medium heat, sauté onions in the olive oil over medium high heat. Cook until the onions are translucent and just beginning to turn brown; about 8-10 minutes.
- Add garlic and jalapeños, and cook for 2 more minutes.
- Add spices and stir over heat to thoroughly combine.
- Add mild green chilis and lime juice, and cook until most of the moisture has evaporated.
Slow Cook Chili
- Place soaked beans, prepared sofrito, and chicken broth in a slow cooker. • Soaked beans: Start with 5 cups of chicken broth. • Canned beans: Start with 4 cups of chicken broth.
- Cover and cook on low until the beans are very tender. • Soaked beans: 6-8 hours on low. Begin checking the beans after 5 hours, and then every 30 minutes until they are cooked to your liking.• Canned beans: Cook 3-4 hours on low. Add additional broth or water as necessary.
Finish and Serve
- When beans are very tender, use an immersion blender or potato mashed to mash some of the beans up. This will slightly thicken chili. (Don’t overdo it though or you will have bean puree!)
- Add the shredded chicken and corn, and heat through. Season to taste.
- Serve with toppings on the side: avocado, sour cream, lime wedges, crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, cotija, and/or chopped cilantro.
Notes
Nutrition
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate, complete, and useful.
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Originally published November 8, 2016. Post has been updated with new content, images, and recipe direction to improve reader experience.
Catherine @ Ten Thousand Hour Mama says
After Tuesday, I'm gonna need about 4 years of comfort food. This would fit the bill!
Create/Enjoy says
That sounds delicious! Great that you gave several time options! I am totally into soups and stews this winter. =)
Bet this would also be great in an instant pot!
Renée ♥ says
Thank you! If you try it in the Insta-Pot, I'd love to know how it turned out and what setting/time you used.