White Bean Chicken Chili
A quick and easy white bean chicken chili recipe that's good for your body and your soul in equal measure. This meal is equally at home as a weeknight family dinner, toted along in your lunchbox, or doubled for a dinner party. If you're long on leftover turkey after Thanksgiving, you could shred up a pound of cooked turkey meat and add it to the chili in place of chicken. (Or, as I've started to do, buy and shred a whole small rotisserie chicken.) If you do that, add the full amount of chili powder to the chili itself rather than dividing it.
Servings: 8
Calories: 358kcal
Ingredients
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about one pound total or a little more)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil plus more for drizzling on chicken before roasting
- 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder divided**
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt divided
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 large yellow onion diced small
- 1 green or red bell pepper diced small
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour*
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 3 cups good vegetable or chicken broth
- 8 ounces canned diced mild green chilis
- 2 15.5- ounce cans white beans drained and rinsed
- 10 ounces frozen corn
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- ¼ cup minced red onion
- Juice of ½ lime cut the other half into wedges for serving
- Shredded sharp cheddar or jack cheese optional
- Sour cream optional
Instructions
- If you are starting with raw chicken breasts: Preheat oven to 400°F with a rack in the center. Place chicken breasts in a small roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon chili powder, a bit of the salt, and pepper. Turn with tongs to coat evenly. Bake until cooked through, 20 minutes give or take. Set aside to cool. (If you are starting with cooked chicken or turkey, skip this step and simply add the full amount of chili powder to the pot in step 2 below.)
- While the chicken bakes, warm the remaining two tablespoons olive oil in a medium Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and pepper along with remaining salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and a little bit browned, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring frequently, until very fragrant, about a minute. Add flour, remaining 1 teaspoon chili powder and the cumin and stir to coat vegetables. Cook, stirring, for one minute.
- Pour in the broth and diced chilis and raise heat to high. Stir a few times to incorporate flour, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer for about five minutes.
- Using two forks, shred chicken. Add chicken, beans, and corn to pot along with any accumulated juices from the chicken roasting pan, and simmer for a few minutes more to warm through.
- Off the heat, stir in cilantro, red onion and lime juice. To serve, ladle into bowls and pass cheese, sour cream and lime wedges at the table if you like.
Video
Notes
* Substitute a good gluten-free flour blend such as this one to make this meal gluten-free.
** I learned the hard way a few years ago to specify for a global audience that chili powder refers to the American-style spice blend, not pure ground red pepper.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 | Calories: 358kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 24g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 44mg | Sodium: 691mg | Fiber: 9g | Sugar: 11g