How to Make Our Favorite White Chicken Chili Recipe
We had been looking for a white chicken chili recipe last year when we came across one published on a major recipe site that met our needs and had great reviews. Though it was a decent rough template, it called for four ounces of generic canned chili peppers. Unless you are on a scientific expedition to Antarctica, or hiding in a fallout bunker following nuclear annihilation, there is no reason to find that acceptable. If you’re going to go to the trouble of making something at home, a few extra minutes of work can make the end result much more delicious so we modified our white chicken chili to ultimately use a mixture of fresh chili peppers that included Poblano, Anaheim, Jalapeño, and Serrano, the latter of which is the secret to adjusting the spiciness level for your family’s preferences. We also changed the ratio of garlic and introduced ground coriander.
Despite making this white chicken chili countless times, I’ve never posted the recipe. With both of us in the kitchen this afternoon (we’re also working on a nectarine white chocolate cream pie, which I’ll post later), we each took a camera and documented what we were doing so those of you who love to cook could try it at home. Even if you don’t think you have a culinary bone in your body, this is a great first recipe to try as the entire process can be reduced to two bowls and a pot. (Seriously, do the prep work by assembling each bowl, and from there, it’s a matter of dumping things in the pot in the right order.)
Josh & Aaron’s White Chicken Chili Recipe Ingredients
Here’s what you are going to need to make this recipe:
- 1 fresh Poblano chili pepper
- 1 fresh Anaheim chili pepper
- 3 fresh Jalapeño chili peppers
- 1 fresh Serrano chili pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound fresh skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 32 ounces of Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained (two 15.5 cans)
- 14.5 ounces of low-sodium chicken broth
- 4-5 cloves of chopped garlic
- 1 large yellow onion
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
White Chicken Chili Recipe Nutrition and Serving Portions
This white chicken chili recipe serves four people and, as a rough approximation, each of those servings has 472 calories, 25.3 grams of carbohydrates, 31.5 grams of protein, 29 grams of fat, 1,052 milligrams of sodium, 6 gram of fiber, and 5.7 grams of sugar. Don’t quote me on the final numbers, yet, as I have to put it into a spreadsheet and calculate the precise tally for the dish.
A Step-By-Step Guide In Pictures To Making This White Chicken Chili Recipe
Ready? This is going to be easier than you think. After you’ve gone to the store and have all of your ingredients, we need to do the prep work.
Gather your ingredients, a cutting board, and a knife to get started on the white chicken chili recipe …
… and to the right, we’re working on one of the desserts. We settled on a nectarine white chocolate cream pie with graham cracker and almond crust. I’ll post that later when it’s finished. Update: It’s finished. You can see step-by-step pictures here.
After you’ve washed all of your produce, you need to cut the chili peppers. The heat from peppers comes from the seeds, so to temper the pain, you’re going to remove the seeds from all of the peppers except the Serrano (which we will discuss in a bit), scrape the inside, and discard those seeds. A word of warning: Wear food safe gloves or wash your hands throughly and often. Otherwise, you’ll get the natural oils underneath your fingernails and your hands will burn for days.
Once you’ve scraped and seeded the peppers, chop them into bite-sized chunks. This is the heart of the flavor for the white chicken chili recipe, as well as making it visually appealing. You can make them any size you want; we prefer the cuts a bit larger.
The Serrano chili pepper – the little skinny one – is hot. We like our white chicken chili to burn to the point your eyes sometimes run and you feel like your mouth is on fire so we leave the seeds in when cutting this pepper. If you don’t want that level of spiciness, you can either attempt to seed it (which is difficult given how small the plant is) or you can use less of the pepper itself, maybe cutting it in half.
Once you have all of the chili peppers cut and put in a bowl, it’s time to move on to the next step …
You need to open, and wash, the Great Northern Beans.
Not only do they look better in the white chicken chili recipe, they taste better with the cream that is added later than their red counterparts would.
Throw the rinsed beans on top of your chili peppers …
Add your spices to the bowl – coriander, cumin, oregano, black pepper, cayenne pepper, salt …
Now, pour in your chicken broth and set the bowl aside. It’s time to move on to the second bowl.
Using your new, second bowl, cut up your onion …
… and your garlic …
… and your chicken.
Put all three – onion, garlic, and chicken – into your second bowl. That’s it. You’re now ready to cook this white chicken chili recipe and the prep work you did will make the whole thing significantly easier.
Take your two bowls and put them by the stove so they are there when you need them.
Heat the olive oil in a suitable pot. We used a 5 quart cast-iron Le Creuset French oven because the enamel seems to make cooking chili easier but anything that would work for traditional chili will work for this white chicken chili recipe.
Once the olive oil is heated, add the onion, garlic, and chicken bowl first, stirring occasionally to avoid burning.
You’re going to cook it until the chicken no longer has any pink in it, which will take 10-15 minutes depending on your setup, chicken thickness, and pot selection. The smell at this point is very French as the onion and garlic begins roasting and the chicken simmers in the juices.
After that part is done, and your chicken no longer has any visible pink in it, you are going to add your second bowl – the one with the peppers, spices, and beans. Dump it on top and mix it into the pot, integrating everything together. Turn up the heat and bring it to a boil. Once it is boiling, reduce the heat so that it is simmering. Cook on a simmer for 30 minutes or more, allowing the dish to break down the ingredients and combine all of the flavors together.
Towards the end of the 30 minutes of simmering, you’ll see that everything is softening and melding into what you expect a good chili to look like.
Turn off the stove, remove the chili pot from the heat, and add your sour cream and heavy whipping cream. This is going to help cut the spiciness of the peppers and make the final white chicken chili smooth.
Once you’ve blended everything in the pot together, that’s it! You’ve made this white chicken chili recipe! Time to enjoy it.
You can top the finished chili however you like. Saltines are a classic go-to, but if you want something with a more Latin flavor, anything with a bit of lime is a wonderful counterbalance (e.g., lime salted tortilla chips). You can also opt for shavings of a complimentary cheese if that’s your thing.
Happy eating! If any of you try this recipe and make modifications of your own, I’d love to hear it. It’s a wonderful template that can be tweaked to your preferences.
I need to go finish the nectarine white chocolate cream pie. It shouldn’t take too long – there is a lot of waiting as different parts have to chill before you bring it all together – but I’m interested to see how it will turn out in the end. I also have a plum tarte tatin I want to try and a white chocolate and peanut butter cream pie, as well. Oh! And the Apricot and Green Tea Mille-Feuille I saw mentioned on a Japanese show called Black Butler. I talked about it during one of my Wednesday Wrap-Ups, but I want them to turn out like the ones The Ravenous Scientist posted from Sadaharu Aoki on a visit to Paris.
There’s no way we’re going to be able to enjoy all of this ourselves so it looks like I’ll be handing out free food for the next week. If you know me in real life and live in the area, you might have a dish of some sort coming your way.
