Crockpot White Bean Chicken Chili

White Bean Chicken Chili is a comforting crockpot recipe that’s loaded with tender chicken, dried beans, and tangy green chiles, slow cooked all day and then topped with your favorite garnishes!

Course Soup

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

Total Time 10 10

Servings servings

Calories 399kcal

Author Samantha Skaggs

Equipment

6-quart or larger Slow Cooker

Ingredients

1 pound dried white beans Navy or Great Northern
2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts and/or thighs
3 tablespoons minced garlic fresh or (refrigerated) jarred
2 (4-ounce) cans mild diced green chiles
1 jalapeño diced (OPTIONAL)
8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 ½ tablespoons ground cumin
½ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper optional
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons masa OR fine corn meal
1 cup whole milk warmed

Garnishes

Chopped fresh cilantro
Crushed tortilla chips
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Chunks of avocado
Sour cream
Salsa
Pico de gallo
Pickled jalapeños

Instructions

Rinse and drain beans and place in the bottom of a large (7- to 8-quart) slow cooker. Lay chicken breasts on top, and add garlic, green chiles, and jalapeño (if using) to the slow cooker. Carefully pour chicken broth over ingredients, and season with cumin, paprika, cayenne (if using), and black pepper. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or until beans are tender.
An hour before serving, remove chicken to a plate or cutting board. Mix masa into warm milk, stir mixture into white chili, and replace lid of slower cooker. In the meantime, cut chicken into large chunks and shred it with two forks. Add chicken back to the white chili and taste for seasoning, adding salt and adjusting spices as necessary. Cover and continue to cook for one more hour.
Before serving, garnish with a generous amount of cilantro, crushed tortilla chips, and shredded cheese, plus whatever other toppings appeal to you. Leftovers may be covered and refrigerated for up to 5 days, or frozen (in a freezer-safe bag or container) for up to 3 months.

Video

Notes

The weight of chicken pieces varies, but when I make this recipe with chicken breasts, I typically use 3 large chicken breasts or 4 smaller ones. If they're super jumbo chicken breasts, I may only use 2. It also somewhat depends on how much chicken you prefer in your chili.
In lieu of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and/or thighs, you may use an equivalent amount of your favorite bone-in chicken pieces, which can better retain moisture when slow cooked for a long period of time. Just discard any skin or bones when you remove the chicken to shred it.
Dried beans can take varying amounts of time to become tender when cooking in a slow cooker. This time can be affected by a number of factors, from the age of the beans to the heat level of your slow cooker.
- Older model slow cookers often heat to a lower temperature than newer model slow cookers. Therefore, you must be familiar with how hot your particular slow cooker runs.
- My favorite slow cooker is actually a model that doesn't get overly hot (similar to the heat level of older model crockpots). When I use it to make this recipe, I often have to cook on HIGH for 8 to 10 hours before the beans are tender. But again, I am familiar with how that particular slow cooker of mine runs cooler, so I expect it and plan for it. I let the beans get a head start and then add the chicken after a few hours.
- Old beans can take considerably longer to cook than fresh beans...or sometimes they never fully soften! Keep in mind that using beans immediately after purchasing them from the grocery store doesn't necessarily mean that they weren't already sitting in a warehouse for a while prior to that. So it's wise to buy dried beans shortly before you plan to use them.
- The first time I make a new crockpot bean recipe, I typically cook it on HIGH. That way, if the beans are tender earlier than anticipated, I can always switch the heat to WARM until it is time to eat. It's not as easy to "speed up" dried beans that are still crunchy at dinner time. 😉
Make this white chili as spicy or as mild as you wish by increasing or omitting the jalapeño and/or cayenne pepper. If you just want the flavor of a fresh jalapeño without the heat, remove the seeds and membranes before finely dicing it and adding it to the crock pot.
For a thicker texture, you may use an immersion blender to puree a portion of the cooked beans, after the chicken has been removed for shredding and before it's stirred back in.
If you don't have any masa on hand, you may sub finely ground cornmeal instead. I do not recommend skipping this ingredient as it adds noticeable depth of flavor to the recipe.

Nutrition