This chicken chili was born out of a friendly challenge—I was asked to prepare several kinds of chili for a church event, and to my surprise (and delight), this one stole the spotlight. It was the unanimous favorite, with people coming back for seconds and asking for the recipe before I even packed up my pot.
Served with crunchy tortilla chips and a few pickled jalapeños for zing, it's an instant crowd-pleaser—comforting, hearty, and just a little unexpected.
As with most of my recipes, what you’ll find below is more of a guide than a rulebook. I measure… loosely. If something feels right, I trust the instinct and toss it in. Got extra celery? Use it. Prefer chickpeas over cannellini beans? Go for it. This chili is flexible, forgiving, and always flavorful—just the way good food should be.
Ingredients:
- Yellow Onion | 1, large | Diced
- Fresh Jalapeños | 3 - 4 Whole | Chopped
- Olive Oil | 1 - 2 Tablespoons
- Garlic | 4 - 6 Cloves | Chopped
- Low-sodium Chicken Broth | 3 cans
- Diced Green Chilies | 2 cans, 7 oz each
- Cumin | 1 1/2 Tablespoons
- Paprika | 1 1/2 Tablespoons
- Dried Oregano | 2 Tablespoons
- Ground Coriander | 2 Teaspoons
- Cayenne Pepper | 2 Teaspoons
- Salt and Pepper | To taste
- Cream Cheese | 2x 8oz Packages
- Corn | 2x 16oz Packages | Frozen
- Cannellini Beans | 4-6 (15 oz) cans
- (half for in the chili, half pureed for thickening, get 6 if you like thick chili)
- Cooked Chicken | 4 cups
- (3 - 4 lbs fresh chicken breasts generally equals the correct amount, or close enough for rock and roll)
- Lime Juice, Fresh | 3 Tablespoons
- Fresh Cilantro | 1 Bunch
- Pickled Jalapenos
- Tortilla chips
Cook the Chicken:
Cook chicken in any way that you most like your chicken. I have used smoked, bbq'd, roasted or pan fried and they all turn out great. I generally season them all with cumin, paprika, garlic & onion along with whatever else I'm feeling at the time. A good key to cooking here is color, this entire chili comes out looking a bit "beige", so having a good pop of color on the protein makes it look good. Once it's cooked and mostly cooled, I chop mine into small chunks around 1/2" - 1/4". Set aside for later.
Making the Chili:
- Heat the oil in a saucepan and add onion, garlic and jalapenos and sautee till soft.
- Add chicken broth, green chilies, cumin, paprika, oregano, coriander, cayenne pepper and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring mixture just to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 30 minutes.
- Puree half of the beans and set aside. Add a little chicken broth if you can't get it to blend smooth. Feel free to leave some chunks if you like chunkier bits.
- Drain and rinse other half of the beans.
- Add cream cheese to chili. Cut the cheese into chunks when adding it and add them slowly to make sure they get melted fully.
- Add both sets of beans, frozen corn, lime juice and chicken and simmer for 30 - 45 minutes. STIR OFTEN! Due to the extra thickening stuff, stuff can settle at the bottom, stick and subsequently burn.
Can be served immediately, stored in the fridge for quite a while or frozen for a quick meal. Regardless, I assure you, you will be the star of dinner with this one.
