I have a new favorite soup to add to my weekly rotation – white chicken chili. Okay, it’s a chili, not a soup, but it falls into that soup, stew, chili category that I love so much. I make a huge pot of the soup du jour at the beginning of each week, store it in jars in the fridge, and we eat off it all week. It’s easy, quick, healthy lunches and dinners (and Jeff sometimes eats soup for breakfast, but I can’t get on board with that insanity) on hand. Chili is one of Jeff’s favorites, but I am not a big fan of tomatoes, so traditional chili doesn’t get me too excited. If I pack it with enough pasta and cheese, I can tolerate it, but that sort of defeats the purpose of eating a healthy soup. But, I love creamy soups, so a white chicken chili seemed like a good idea. I looked up a few different white chicken chili recipes to add to my own soup-making knowledge and this is the recipe I settled on after making it a few times.
You can jump down to the recipe if you just want to print it, make it, and skip all of the chit-chat. As with most soups I make, I start by sauteeing the aromatics, in this case, onions, garlic, and mild green chilis, along with dried spices, in olive oil until they are soft.
I added the beans and chicken stock, reserving one can of beans to puree with some broth from the soup pot. This adds some body to the chili without adding other thickeners like cornstarch or flour.
Once the beans are cooked, I turn down the heat to add the component that makes the chili creamy – cream cheese. I use the same technique I do with the beans and puree the softened cream cheese with some broth from the soup pot. This tempers the cream cheese and makes it smooth before adding to the chili.
(Sorry about the quality of this picture. I put my phone through the wash and it damaged one of the lenses.)
Before adding the cream cheese puree to the soup, I turned down the heat. Stir in the creamy mixture and then add the corn and shredded chicken (since both of those just need to be warmed through.) You don’t want to add cooked chicken and corn too soon or the chicken might dry out and the corn will get mush.
I finish with a squeeze of lime and chopped fresh flatleaf parsley. You can use cilantro if you like it, but I am one of the unfortunate people who thinks cilantro tastes like soap. It’s apparently a genetic thing, so it’s parsley for me. Jeff looks at me like I’m crazy when I say cilantro tastes like soap, so he didn’t get that gene.
Anyway, this chili is easy and it is so tasty! Both Jeff and I love it. We add a little bit of shredded Colby jack cheese on top and eat it with a side of tortilla chips.
If you’d like some more soup recipes, you can find them HERE. Some of my favorites are potato ham and carrot & white bean.
White Chicken Chili
Equipment
- dutch oven
- blender or immersion blender
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breast, cooked & shredded (or a rotisserie chicken)
- 1 large sweet onion, diced
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp salt
- freshly ground pepper
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
- 2 32 ounce boxes of low sodium chicken stock
- 1 7 ounce can mild green chilis, drained and rinsed
- 4 15 ounce cans of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 10.8 ounces frozen sweet corn (or fresh when in season)
- 12 ounces cream cheese (1 1/2 blocks)
- 1 freshly squeeze lime juice
- chopped parsley or cilantro (to taste)
- desired toppings - sour cream, lime, avocado, tortilla chips, colby jack cheese, etc.
Instructions
- If raw, cook chicken breast with desired method, allow to cool, and shred. Set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a pan and add onion, garlic, spices, and saute until onions are translucent and tender.
- Add chicken stock, chilis, and three cans of beans (drained and rinsed.)
- Ladle about a cup of broth from the dutch oven into a separate bowl along with final can of beans (drained and rinse.) Puree broth and beans with an immersion blender (or use a traditional blender.) Pour pureed bean mixture into soup and bring to a boil. Turn heat to medium and cook for 15-20 minutes until beans are tender.
- Reduce heat to a simmer.
- In a separate bowl (or blender) add cream cheese and about a cup of broth from the soup. Puree with an immersion blender (or traditional blender) until cream cheese is smooth. The hot broth will also temper the cream cheese.
- Add cream cheese mixture to the soup. Add sweet corn. Increase heat to medium to allow chili to thicken and corn to heat through/cook, for about 15 minutes.
- Add shredded chicken, chopped fresh parsley or cilantro, and freshly squeezed lime juice
- Top with desired toppings. I like a little shredded colby jack cheese and some tortilla chips for dipping.
- Stores well in the fridge & reheats well
11 Responses
I live in Texas, and have to say that traditional tomato based chili is my go-to and a favorite reliable chili for me.
I understand if you don’t like tomatoes, although I can’t imagine that, but to serve anything other than red chili would be a problem with my guests.
To each his own, however!
That loos delicious will have to try it! Thanks Marian
Just thought I’d pop on to say…I also think cilantro tastes like dirty soap (sometimes it’s worse and smells like cat urine).
Seems those of us with Ashkenazi Jewish and Northern European (German) ancestry are the most affected by the gene. Who knew?
I love chicken chili as well. Just so tasty. When you pureed a can of white beans with the chicken stock, I think I heard the angels sing. Brilliant. I’m doing that next time to see how it goes for me. Never can seem to get it thick enough to my liking.
My son’s wife does not like my homemade chili. She grew up on canned chili and will only eat that. She loves chicken. She eats so much chicken I tell her she is going to grow wings. I’m going to make this and see if she changes her mind about homemade chili. It looks really good to me. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Thanks for the recipe! We like to host a soup dinner for our family during these cold days, serving three kinds of soup. This will make a nice addition! Also, I made your Chicken Patties yesterday. I had never tried ground chicken. It went together easily and tasted good with some crisp-tender broccoli, and now I have a protein stash for lunches. Thanks!
We love both tomatoes & beef chili AND white chicken chili. Your ingredient amounts are larger than my recipe, but I’m going to try them. I like the idea of emulsifying a whole can of beans and I love the addition of cream cheese! Brilliant! Will skip the corn; not a fan and I live in the Midwest! I highly recommend 1/2 +/- of a teaspoon of cinnamon; it adds delicious depth. I also add the freshly squeezed juice from 1 or 2 limes. I have a few friends with the “cilantro tastes like soup” gene. I’m making this for a soup potluck dinner coming up this month…thank you for these great ideas!
Oh…and cumin!! Can’t forget the cumin!! 1-2 tablespoons.
Yes, cumin would be a good addition. I had a bad experience with a cumin cookie I adventurously tried and it almost instantly made me nauseous. My tastebuds weren’t made for a mouthful of whole cumin seeds! Anyway, it’s been ruined for me.
We love soup and have it often! For us it is both delicious and very”leftover friendly”! We are currently enjoying chicken gnocchi….love it and it is so easy to prepare and reheats beautifully.
Actually, from what I have learned in herbalism over the years, cilantro only tastes “like soap” to those people who need its medicinal values the most! It helps clear heavy metals from the body.