Crockpot White Chicken Chili Recipe

This Crockpot White Chicken Chili recipe is perfect to make for dinner tonight!

Chili is perfect for a cold night when all you want to do is warm up your body and soul. This chili recipe is clean and easy to make in your slow cooker!

How Spicy Is This White Chicken Chili?

The spice is very mild. You can up the spiciness by adding jalapeno peppers if you want. You can also use cayenne pepper if you prefer that.

What To Serve With CrockPot White Chicken Chili

This is great served with one of the following on the side:

• A grilled cheese sandwich or grilled cheese roll-ups.
• English muffins
• Garlic bread
• A green salad

Why Is My White Chicken Chili Runny?

Any time you make chili like this, it will tend to be on the runnier/brothy side because you don’t use the usual chili ingredients that thicken things up. If you enjoy that, great! If not, read on…

How Do You Make White Chicken Chili Thicker?

You have a couple of options if you want to thicken this chili.

1. You can add starch during the cooking process.
2. You can reserve some of the beans for blending (or use extra beans just for this purpose).
3. You can drain/rinse the beans so there is less overall liquid in the finished chili.

If you use starch, you’ll want to make a slurry with cool water or broth first. Use about 2 tbsp. of starch to 1 tbsp. of water. Whisk it until smooth, then stir it into the pot.

If you want to use beans to thicken this, I recommend using extra beans. Blend them with a tiny bit of broth until they are smooth. Then add it to the chili.

You can also use a combo of blended beans and starch slurry to get this super thick. The addition of yogurt will help as well.

If you opt to drain the beans, know that the broth itself will still be on the thinner side. So you may want to do any combination of the above suggestions.

Making White Chicken Chili Creamy

To make this chili creamy, simply stir in 2 cups of plain yogurt after cooking. This can be regular yogurt, Greek yogurt, or non-dairy yogurt. I used the Kite Hill brand of almond milk yogurt. (Not paid to promote them).

Recipe Variations

• Try adding some corn to this.
• Try adding sour cream if you want this to be truly rich and creamy.
• Some folks may like to add a splash of heavy cream.

What If I Don’t Have Rotel?

This is a relatively simple fix. All you have to do is use a 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes as well as one or two, 4 oz. cans of green chilies.

How To Garnish Crockpot White Chicken Chili

Opt for one or more of the following to top things off. I highly recommend using all of them in generous amounts!

• Green chiles
• Lime juice
• Avocados
• Fresh cilantro
• Tortilla chips – We like to crush ours.

About The Ingredients

Boneless skinless chicken thighs – you can also use boneless skinless chicken breasts.

Great Northern beans – low sodium if canned. You can use any type of white beans, like cannellini beans.

Rotel – I used the organic variety that has a very clean ingredient list. However, if you cannot find this, (not all Rotel is clean) you can use the suggestion above.

Red onions – diced.

Large garlic cloves – minced.

Chili powder

Ground cumin

Chicken broth (or stock) – reduced sodium, no sugar added.

Salt and black pepper – to taste.

Yogurt – Optional if you want this to be creamy. You can also try sour cream or cream cheese if you prefer that.

How To Make Crockpot White Chicken Chili

Prep all your soup ingredients.

Place the chicken in the crock.

Add all the remaining ingredients to the crock.

Stir well. Cook the chili for 6-8 hours on low in a slow cooker, or on high pressure for 25 minutes if using an Instant Pot or Ninja Foodi pressure cooker.

While the chili cooks, prep all the garnishes as needed.

When the chili is done cooking, remove the crock from the appliance and let it cool for at least 10 minutes. Then stir in the yogurt and season with salt and pepper to your liking. Note that adding the garnishes adds tons of flavor, so you won’t need to go overboard with the salt and pepper.

Ladle some chili into a bowl.

Garnish as you like and serve.

Storage

Store this in an airtight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

Freezing

This freezes better without the yogurt added (if you use it). Pack it well and store it in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Reheating

Reheat in a microwave or in a pot on the stovetop.

Recipe Supplies

For this recipe, you’ll need a slow cooker, an Instant Pot, or a Ninja Foodi. If you need one, you can click any image here to be taken to that product on Amazon. (Affiliate links)

More Healthy Chili Recipes

• 2 Bean Turkey Chili
• Turkey Chili

White Chicken Chili Crockpot Recipe Card + Video

Recipe from the Gracious Pantry® archives, originally posted on 5/17/12.
Recipe updated on 3/24/23.