This 5-ingredient white chicken chili recipe is super quick and easy to make, full of great flavor, and always a crowd fave!
After sharing a new recipe for easy (red) chicken chili, I thought I would circle back today to share one of my all-time favorite recipes for easy white chicken chili.
Even better — my favorite easy white chicken chili recipe that is made with just FIVE easy ingredients. ♡
This recipe is as easy as it gets. Simply stir all of the ingredients together, bring the soup to a simmer, ladle it up while it’s nice and hot, then pile on your favorite toppings and enjoy! I’ve probably made this recipe at least a hundred times over the years, and it always has a way of hitting the spot. It also freezes and reheats well if you would like to save the leftovers or make and save a big batch for easy meal prep.
I’m telling you — this recipe is always a winner. Let’s make a batch!
5-Ingredient White Chicken Chili Ingredients:
To make this white chicken chili recipe, you will need the following five ingredients (plus I highly recommend going big on toppings):
- Chicken: Any kind of diced or shredded chicken will do. I typically shred a rotisserie or use leftover frozen chicken from my Instant Pot Shredded Chicken or Baked Chicken Breasts recipe.
- Salsa verde: Either homemade or store-bought, whichever you prefer. I will note that store-bought brands of roasted salsa verde can vary pretty dramatically in terms of heat. So if you prefer a milder soup, I would definitely recommend finding a salsa that is on the milder side.
- Beans: You are welcome to use whatever type of beans you love best for this chicken chili. I typically use white beans (such as Great Northerns), but pinto, garbanzo or black beans would be delicious too.
- Chicken stock: Because this ingredient list is so short, I recommend using a good-quality brand of chicken stock or veggie stock, whichever you prefer.
- Cumin: We will also add in a hint of cumin to the broth to helps round out the seasonings in the salsa verde.
- Toppings: Finally, I recommend using a generous amount of whatever toppings you love best! I almost always add cilantro and fresh avocado to my soup. But a crumble of tortilla chips, diced red or green onions, sour cream, shredded cheese (sharp cheddar, Monterrey Jack or a Mexican-blend), crumbled cotija cheese, and/or sliced jalapeños would also be delicious additions!
How To Make This Soup:
To make this 5-ingredient white chicken chili recipe, simply…
- Combine ingredients. Stir together chicken stock, shredded chicken, beans, salsa and cumin in large stockpot.
- Bring to a simmer. Cook on high heat until the soup reaches a simmer. Then reduce heat to medium-low to maintain the simmer briefly for 5 minutes.
- Serve. Then ladle the soup up into serving bowls, garnished with your favorite toppings.
Possible Variations:
There are so many ways that you could get creative with this soup recipe! For example, feel free to…
- Add extra veggies. If you would like to add some extra veggies to this soup, diced poblano peppers, onions and/or potatoes (feel free to use frozen hash brown potatoes as a shortcut) are some of my other favorite additions.
- Make it in the Crock-Pot or Instant Pot. This soup really just needs to be stirred together and warmed. So feel free to let it simmer on low in the Crock-Pot or use the sauté button on your Instant Pot, if you would prefer to use one of those appliances.
More Favorite Chili Recipes:
Here are a few more of my go-to chili recipes, if you would like to give them a try!
5-Ingredient White Chicken Chili
Ingredients
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 3 to 4 cups cooked shredded chicken
- 2 (15-ounce) cans beans of your choice, rinsed and drained (I used Great Northern beans)
- 2 cups (16 ounces) salsa verde (store-bought or homemade)
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- optional toppings: diced avocado, chopped fresh cilantro, shredded cheese, chopped red or green onions, sour cream, crumbled tortilla chips, fresh jalapeño slices
Instructions
- Combine ingredients. Stir together chicken stock, shredded chicken, beans, salsa and cumin in large stockpot.
- Bring to a simmer. Cook on high heat until the soup reaches a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue simmering for 5 minutes.
- Serve. Serve immediately, garnished with lots of your favorite toppings.
Notes
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
Ok, so I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to cooking (I’m really bad at it!), so I don’t know how to figure out how many chicken breasts I need for the slow cooker method. I know you said 4 cups, but how many breasts would that be? TIA!
Hi Danielle! No worries, but if you look at at the “slow cooker method” in the recipe instructions, it says 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts – you should be able to get about 4 cups of chicken from those. We hope you enjoy this! :)
This is simmering on my stove right now. It smells absolutely out of this world. I got ambitious and tried your recipe for salsa verde, but didn’t have a mortar and pestle so I just chopped everything up and threw it in. The 5 ingredient part of the soup was super easy, I might give myself a break next time and buy a jar of salsa verde. I chopped up some avocado and cilantro, and got some tortilla chips and shredded cheese. Can’t wait till the boyfriend gets home from work to get his reaction!
Thanks for sharing Carly, we hope you and your boyfriend love it! :D
Hi there! The 5-ingredient white chicken chili sounds SO good! I’m about to start prepping a bunch of meals to freeze for when my first baby is born in a few weeks, and I was wondering if you think I could just dump the ingredients raw (including raw chicken) into a ziploc bag or container, and then just thaw overnight before putting it all in the crockpot to cook for the day? I would make sure the chicken is fully thawed before starting it in the crockpot. Would love to hear what you think! Thanks!
Thank you Tiffany, and congrats on being a new mom, that’s amazing! :D And yes, we think all of that would be fine! We hope you enjoy!
Made this tonight for a group of 10 unique people. One is a Chinese chef. They all loved it! And they all went back for seconds! Huge complement! I seasoned my chicken with chicken rub, hungaren pepricka, s&p and small amount of shallot vinegar. Put a pat of butter in the stockpot and cooked the chicken. Let set and pulled apart. added all the the ingredients to the stock I used to cook the chicken. Found the salsa verde in the salsa isle. Toppings I used were cubed avocado and vine tomatoes. Shredding monetary and cheddar cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips (south of the border) and fresh cilantro. Big hit! Thank you for such a great recipe!!! Will use again and again. New favorite, so easy!
Thanks for sharing Lori, we’re so happy it was a hit! :D
I just found this recipe a couple of months ago and I love it! I’ve made it several times since then. The only thing I’ve tried to modify is to have a greater proportion of solids to liquids. I’ve tried adding an extra can of beans, chopped onions, and diced green chiles. I’ve considered adding rice or quinoa. Have you ever tried that and do you think it would work well? (I always use the crock pot version by the way.)
Thanks Jennifer, we’re glad to hear that! We think quinoa would be an AWESOME addition to this! We would make the quinoa on the stovetop (according to the package instructions), then just mix it into the chili before serving. We hope you enjoy!
Does anyone know the nutritional info on this chili? I am super excited to make it, but would like to know calories, carbs, etc… :-)
Hey Joie! We’re sorry but we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. The reason we aren’t publishing nutrition facts on the site is the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!
This was absolutely amazing. I did all of the fixings: sour cream, chips, cheese and avocado and it was a HUGE hit for my husband and my stepson. Even my 1 year old loved it! Only one question.. My stepson said it was too “spicy” (but I added a lot of sour cream and cheese to tone it down) Was it the cumin or the salsa verde I used? Just wondering which one to change up next time. Thank you!!
Thanks Sarah, we’re so happy you and your family enjoyed this! Hmmm, we’re not really sure why your stepson found it spicy, because cumin doesn’t contain any heat and salsa verde is generally pretty mild. Maybe you could try less salsa verde next time?
I loved this recipe, but made a few modifications. I added an extra can of beans, and made a 5 tbsp. butter/5 tbsp. flour roux to thicken it up. Very hearty and delicious!
I was impressed with the Herdez salsa verde. We live in Texas, so I was apprehensive to use something out of the jar, but it was wonderful! Thanks! :)
Thanks for sharing with us Amanda, we’re happy you enjoyed this! :)
This is brilliant! So glad I found you via pinterest. 5 ingredient recipes are right up my alley :-0
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Monet, we hope you love it! :)
This sounds almost too good to be true! But love the simplicity of just 5 ingredients. I’ll be making this tomorrow for my daughter and her fiance. They were in a car accident on Christmas day, and have limited mobility right now, and this sounds like something that they can easily just heat up by the bow as needed. I had 2 questions I’d like to ask. 1. Is there a particular of salsa verde that you prefer to use? and 2. How do you think it would be if made with ground chicken instead of shredded?
Hi Lora! We’re so sorry your daughter and her fiancé were in a car accident, that’s so upsetting! :( We like the Frontera brand, and while we think you could probably use ground chicken, we think the shredded would definitely be better. We hope they get well soon, and we hope they enjoy the chili!