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!
I am sitting at my office at work eating the leftovers for lunch. Yummy! I especially love the use of homemade salsa verde in the soup. I had a lot of tomatillos from my garden that went to good use in this soup. I wanted it to be a thicker chili so I ended up adding two additional cans of beans and using a potato masher to mash some of the beans up to thicken the soup further. I also added 1/2 cup of cream because I like creamy white chicken chilis. And I added some oregano. “Souper” yummy, I will definitely make again.
Do you add the additional ingredients: avocado, cilantro, onions, cheese to the crock pot, or after the chicken has cooked with the salsa and beans only? Making this tomorrow morning for dinner, so please let know..
Hi Marisa. I would add the additional ingredients at the very end when serving. Enjoy!
I made this last week and I’m already making it again tonight. I absolutely LOVED it. As did my brother and I will now have fight him over the last cup :) I followed your recipe exactly and came out perfect. I will always make this tasty dish.
I made this tonight and it was great! I followed the stove-top method almost exactly (I used a little less chicken because I needed some for another recipe) and it came out fantastic! I used Trader Joe’s salsa verde. I do just want to mention that this says yields 2-4 servings and I would say it is closer to 5-7 (which was a pleasant surprise!).
AWESOME recipe! We loved it! I added onions, fresh garlic and diced green chili’s. I used the Herdez Salsa Verde from the grocery store and it was great! I did add 2 tbsp of cornstarch to thicken it up a bit and it was perfect. I love when I find a quick and easy recipes that I can make during the week. This is one of the best ones yet! Thanks Ali! :)
I’m all about simple recipes with few ingredients and this one was perfect! Made it for the first time tonight and will definitely be making it again!
The chicken chile looks so good I’m going to make it for my family tonight! Always looking for ways to incorporate Tomatillos into meals. I grow and can them each year and then spend the rest of the time trying to figure out how to use them in everyday cooking. This recipe is fast simple and looks way delish. Thanks for sharing it.
My husband loves white chicken chili, especially when it cooks alll…day…long. Me, I love the chili but not the time commitment, so I tried this last night and was blown away. This is amazing. Better than any recipe I’ve used before for white chicken chili. And so easy-I marinated chicken breasts in a medium-spicy hot sauce for a couple hours before cooking, then shredded-that was the worst part. This recipe was awesome and SO. Unbelievably. Easy. Even my husband-lover of all things slow-cooked for hours-was impressed by how awesome this recipe is. We topped with cilantro, avocado, sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips, but the soup tasted great without any of them. This is definitely going in the recipe rotation.
Those huge chunks of avocado are calling my name :) Looks great!
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical because of the simplicity of ingredients. But it turns out, everything goes together so well! I cooked chicken thighs during the day in my timer crockpot, then shredded the chicken when I got home and made the remaining ingredients. The salsa verde recipe worked out perfectly too. Thanks for posting! This one is a keeper. :)