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    🏠Home » Recipes » Chili Recipes

    White Bean Chicken Chili

    Feb 20, 2020 | Last Updated Apr 15, 2021 by Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

    Recipe Table of Contents    
    5 from 3 votes

    My best stovetop white bean chicken chili that will leave you wanting more. With hearty white beans, tender chicken, and a rich, spicy broth, this will become your favorite.  Just follow these easy step by step photo instructions.

    Excellent White Chicken Chili from 101 Cooking for Two

    Table of Contents
    • 🐓Chicken and the Broth
    • ✔️Tips
    • 📖Chicken Chili Recipes
    • 🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
    • 📖Recipe
    • 💬 Comments

    Blue ribbon divider used for visual effect

    Introduction

    I'm a huge chili fan, who else has 10+ chili recipes on their site. But this one stands out for me. It is just so darn good.

    I wanted to use the chicken to make broth for the soup so I needed a new recipe. I want simple and common ingredients. Nothing was just right, but I found a nice inspiration recipe at The Pioneer Woman Cooks. A few simplifications and modifications were all that was needed.

    On a heat scale, this is 3/10, but on a taste scale, it's a 10 for us.

    My Rating

    My rating system. Great 5 out of 5

    The mere volume of soup produced almost made me rate it a four. Remember this is cooking for two, but it will freeze well.

    🐓Chicken and the Broth

    I suggest using skin-on bone-in split chicken breasts here. That is to generate the broth and generally that works great. You can use thighs or even a whole chicken. The model recipe used a whole chicken. I don't want to strip the meat off a cooked whole chicken.

    But after frequent cooking this recipe, I find that sometimes there is just not enough chicken taste. You can fix the taste issue in several ways. You could just use chicken broth instead of water. Or add some chicken bouillon of some type.

    Skinless boneless chicken breasts could be used but will never generate enough chicken taste, so you will need to use broth instead of water.

    You can also use pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. You will need about 4 cups of shredded precooked chicken and use broth instead of water. Obviously, pick up the instructions after the shredding of the chicken.

    ✔️Tips

    Size of the recipe.

    This is an older recipe and when I did this, there was a teenage boy and lots of his friends around. This is an easy recipe to cut in half.

    To thicken or not?

    I used some masa flour to thicken. If you don't have the masa flour, you can use cornmeal or corn starch. Or you can just skip the whole thickening part.

    ❄️Storage

    Like most chili, good refrigerated for 3-4 days. And good frozen for 3-4 months.

    📖Chicken Chili Recipes

    Ultra Simple Crock Pot White Chicken Chili

    Low Fat High Taste Crock Pot White Chicken Chili

    Salsa Verde White Chicken Chili a la Crock Pot

    Instant Pot White Chicken Chili

    This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.

    101's Best Recipes, Chili Recipes
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    🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

    Cutting cut chicken breasts in half on board

    Trim the chicken of any trim-able fat then split in half to aid cooking.

    chicken pieces in soup pot covered with water

    Place in a large stockpot and cover with 8 cups of water. Bring to boil then decrease to low to simmer. Cover with lid and cook until internal temp is 160°. About 40 minutes.

    minicing a jalapeno on black board

    Mince five cloves of garlic and chop a large onion. Then prep the jalapeno by splitting it and removing the seeds and veins before mincing.

    shredded chicken on board

    Remove the chicken and allow to cool for about 20 minutes and then hand shred discarding the skin and bones. Combine all ingredients except the masa flour and simmer for about 2 hours. Stir occasionally.

    adding messa flour slury to chili pot

    Optional Thickening (I usually don't): Mix the masa flour in ¼ cup very hot water and mix well. Combine the soup and frequently stir for another 10 minutes then remove from heat.

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    📖Recipe

    Excellent White Chicken Chili from 101 Cooking for Two

    White Bean Chicken Chili

    From Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
    My best stovetop white bean chicken chili that will leave you wanting more. With hearty white beans, tender chicken, and a rich spicy broth this will become your favorite.  Just follow these easy step by step photo instructions.
    Tap to leave a Rating
    5 from 3 votes
    Print Email CollectionCollected
    Prep Time: 10 minutes
    Cook Time: 3 hours
    Total Time: 3 hours 10 minutes
    Servings #/Adjust if desired 12 servings

    Ingredients

    US Customary - Convert to Metric
    • 3 split chicken breast with bone and skin - see options in notes
    • 8 cups water
    • 1 onion - large chopped
    • 1 jalapeno pepper - cleaned and minced
    • 5 cloves garlic - minced
    • 72 oz Navy beans - precooked, drained
    • 8 oz diced green chilles
    • 4 teaspoons ground cumin - increase if you want spicy
    • ½ teaspoon paprika - increase if you want spicy
    • ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper - increase if you want spicy
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • ½ teaspoon white pepper - black is ok if you don't have white
    • 4 teaspoons Chicken soup base - or 4 bouillon cubes
    • 2 tablespoon masa flour - in ¼ cup hot water

    Instructions

    • Trim the chicken then split in half to aid cooking.
    • Place in a large stockpot and cover with 8 cups of water. Bring to boil the decrease to low to simmer. Cover with lid and cook until internal temp is 160. About 40 minutes.
    • Mince five cloves of garlic and chop a large onion. Then prep the jalapeno by splitting it and removing the seeds and veins before mincing.
    • Remove the chicken and allow to cool for about 20 minutes and then hand shred discarding the skin and bones. Combine all ingredients except the masa flour and simmer for about 2 hours. Stir occasionally.
    • Optional Thickening (I usually don't): Mix the masa flour in ¼ cup very hot water and mix well. Combine the soup and frequently stir for another 10 minutes then remove from heat.
    See the step-by-step photos in the post. Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions but the photos DO NOT print.

    My Private Notes

    Click here to save your own private notes only you will see. These will print and be saved for your next visit.
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    Recipe Notes

    Pro Tips:

    1. This is an easy recipe to cut in half.
    2. You need about 2 pounds of chicken after cooking. You may use almost any chicken. A whole chicken or chicken thighs work well.
    3. If you use skinless chicken or precooked chicken, then use chicken broth instead of water. If pre-cooked then start at step 3.
    4. Add some chicken bouillon to the broth if needed after cooking the chicken. Taste test it every time.
    5. You can thicken with Mesa flour, corn starch or corn meal. Or skip thickening entirely.
    6. This is about 3/10 on my heat scale. You can decrease that by elemimating the jalapeno. Or increase by doubling the jalapeno or adding additional cayenne pepper.
    7. Good refrigerated for 3-4 days or frozen for 3-4 months.

    To adjust the recipe size:

    You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

    Nutrition Estimate

    Calories : 230 kcal (12%) | Carbohydrates : 27 g (9%) | Protein : 25 g (50%) | Fat : 3 g (5%) | Saturated Fat : 1 g (5%) | Polyunsaturated Fat : 1 g | Monounsaturated Fat : 1 g | Cholesterol : 42 mg (14%) | Sodium : 1194 mg (50%) | Potassium : 556 mg (16%) | Fiber : 7 g (28%) | Sugar : 1 g (1%) | Vitamin A : 150 IU (3%) | Vitamin C : 2.5 mg (3%) | Calcium : 70 mg (7%) | Iron : 3.8 mg (21%)
    Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.
    Course : Main Course
    Cuisine : American

    © 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.

    Originally Published December 4, 2010. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Sherri Kiefner

      June 21, 2020 at 10:32 pm

      Hi Dr. Dan,
      This chili sounds fabulous. I just have a question about the beans. Do you use canned beans or cook dry beans for this recipe? If canned, is the 72 oz based on the weight listed on the label (before they are drained)? If dry, what would the dry uncooked weight be?

      Thanks,
      Sherri

      Reply
      • Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

        June 22, 2020 at 8:02 am

        Hi Sherri,

        Welcome to the blog.

        The 72 oz is the weight listed on the jar including liquid. About 1/4 to 1/3 of the weight is the liquid. So 72 oz becomes about 48 - 54 oz of cooked beans. Consider jar and can as the same.

        1 pound of dry beans will make about 2 pounds when cooked (32 oz). When packed in cans or jars with liquid, It would be about 48 oz.including the liquid.

        So 72 oz of packed beans will be about 48 oz when drained. So if using dried beans. You could use 1 1/2 pounds to get that. Always soak your beans (Google that), it will decrease the gas. It takes about 2 hours to cook beans at a simmer - but it always seems to a bit longer for me. So you could presoak your beans then just cook in the chili as it simmers for 2 hours. It should work. It may take a bit longer, just cook to the point that the beans ore done.

        A lost note, it's chili, a few more or less beans will be fine.

        Hope that helps.

        Dan

    2. Shirlene Kenny

      February 21, 2020 at 10:21 am

      This is suppose to be cooking for two, this soup makes enough for 12! I will try it adjusting the ingredients to enough for 4. I don't have kids at home any more there is just my husband and I. When I have tried to adjust your receipes before they didn't come out very good.

      Reply
      • Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

        February 21, 2020 at 10:31 am

        Hi Shirlene,
        Welcome to the blog.
        Yep, this is one of the big ones but it cuts in half fairly well. I cover that above in the post. Use the adjustment in the number of servings, it will do the math for the ingredients. It will not adjust the text in the instructions, however.

        Chili recipes tend to be big due to the ingredients. See https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/recipes-not-two-servings/ for a more complete explanation.

        You might want to check the Small crock pot are where there are smaller chili recipes https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/recipes-not-two-servings/ The low fat one is a variation of this recipe.

        Dan

    3. Nicole

      December 21, 2010 at 1:01 pm

      White Chicken Chili is on the regular rotation at our house. I love the fact that you used masa to thicken it up. My recipe calls for cream, but I would love an alternative. I will try this next time.

      Reply
    4. Dr Dan

      December 05, 2010 at 10:11 pm

      Exactly why I did it. A hot meal with just enough heat and great taste.

      Reply
    5. Chris

      December 05, 2010 at 8:12 pm

      With the cold snowy weather we've had today, this looks so inviting!

      Reply

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