Healthy Chicken Chili

White chicken chili in a bowl topped with cheddar cheese and jalapeños.

Healthy chicken chili is a flavor-packed comforting meal on a cold day. It's dairy free, yet rich and creamy. Filled with good-for-you ingredients and loads of protein, it keeps you full for hours. Even better, it's incredibly easy to make as you load the ingredients into the slow cooker, set it, and forget about it! There's seriously no other healthy chili like it!

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine American, Mexican

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 3

Total Time 3 20

Servings servings

Calories 376kcal

Author Alana Lieberman

Cost $15

Equipment

Ingredients

3 jalapeños
1 yellow onion chopped
4 garlic cloves minced
1 green bell pepper chopped
1 tablespoon cumin
2 tablespoon olive oil
3 uncooked boneless chicken breasts (around 2 lbs)
2 cans yellow corn (15.25 oz each)
2 cans fire roasted diced green chiles (4 oz each)
2 cans white great northern beans (15 oz each) drained and rinsed
2 cans low sodium chicken broth (14.5 oz each)
salt and pepper to taste
for garnish: fresh lime juice, cheddar cheese, sliced jalapeños, and tortilla chips

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
Char the whole jalapeños by holding them over the open flame of your stove and rotating them until they’re dark on all sides. If you don’t have a gas stove, you can place them whole on a broil-safe sheet pan and broil them on high for a few minutes until charred. Watch them carefully.
Place the charred jalapeños in a bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Allow them to sit for 5 minutes before removing them from the bowl. Peel off the skin of the jalapeños and remove the inner ribs and seeds. Set them aside.
On a sheet pan, add your diced onions, green pepper, garlic, olive oil, and cumin. Mix it around to coat it all evenly in the oil and cumin. Place the sheet pan in the oven and roast until the onions and pepper become soft, about 10 minutes.
Add the cooked onions, pepper, and garlic to the slow cooker. Top them with the chicken breasts, corn, 1 can of the canned green chiles, 1 can of the beans, and 1 can of chicken broth.
To a blender, add the other cans of green chiles, beans, and chicken broth, along with the charred jalapeños. Blend until smooth and add the mixture to the rest of the ingredients in the slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper.
Mix everything together. Cover the slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 6 hours. When done, remove the chicken, shred it with two forks, and place it back into the slow cooker.
Serve individually and top with fresh lime juice, cheddar cheese, sliced jalapeños, and tortilla chips.

For stovetop healthy chicken chili:

Follow all the above directions, but place everything into a tall stock pot instead of a crockpot. Cook on the stove for about 30 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Then, follow the rest of the final steps above.

Notes

If you don’t like as much spice, you can opt to replace the jalapeños with an additional green bell pepper instead and prepare it in the same way as described for the jalapeños.
For an even thicker broth, blend an additional can of beans. Just be aware that the chili thickens a bit more by the next day and gets plenty chunky from the chicken and corn.
White chicken chili is excellent for lunch or leftovers the following day. The flavor tends to build as it rests and it also thickens a little bit more. To store, allow the chili to cool off and place it in the refrigerator up to 4 days. You can also freeze it for 4 to 6 months.

Nutrition