Slow cooker white chicken chili
Creamy, mild and full of tender chicken and white beans, with green chiles for warmth and cream cheese stirred in at the end.
- 400 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 6
- About $2.91 a serving
- 450 calories
- Good the next day
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 cans diced green chiles, 4 oz each
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1½ lb chicken breasts
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 4 oz cream cheese, cut into cubes
- 1 lime, juiced
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped (optional)
- ½ cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (optional)
From your pantry
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 450 calories, 42 g protein, 47 g carbs and 11 g fat, and costs about $2.91 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No chicken broth? Vegetable broth or bone broth works.
- No chicken breasts? Boneless chicken thighs or chicken tenderloins work.
- No frozen corn? Canned corn works.
- No limes? Lemons work.
- No cilantro? Fresh parsley works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the onion, the garlic, and and the beans.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Mash one can of the beans in a bowl with a fork until mostly smooth.
Dolly’s tip: The mashed beans are what make the chili thick and creamy, with no flour needed.Put the onion, garlic, green chiles, all the beans, the broth, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper in the slow cooker and stir.
Lay the chicken breasts on top, cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or HIGH for 3 hours.
Timer: 360 min
Lift the chicken out and check it: 165°F in the thickest part, or white all the way through.
Food safety: Chicken and turkey are done at 165°F in the thickest part. A thermometer is the only sure check. Without one, cut into the thickest piece: it should be white all the way through, with no pink.
the chicken with two forks and stir it back in with the corn and cream cheese.
Shred. Shredding means making thin strips, either on the big holes of a grater or by pulling cooked meat apart with two forks. Shreds soak up sauce and mix evenly through a dish.
How you’ll know: Cooked chicken pulls apart into strands with little effort, and cheese comes off in long, loose strips.
Cover and cook for 15 more minutes, then stir until the cream cheese into the broth.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Low heatTimer: 15 min
Squeeze in the lime, taste for salt, and serve with cilantro and jack cheese on top.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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