This white chicken chili is easy and full of flavor. With only real-food, gluten-free ingredients, it’s a healthy comforting meal that can be made either in the Instant Pot or slow cooker.
Comfort food.
Chili is one of my favorite comfort foods. Creamy or chunky, I love its savory filling goodness. My mom, however does NOT like it, so I didn’t realize that I loved it so much until adulthood.
And I’m not very picky about the kind, either (as long as it doesn’t contain limas… ew). While more traditional multi-bean chilis are delicious, I love plain meaty chilis, white chilis, and “throw-everything-from-the-fridge-in-the-pot” chilis too! You really can’t go wrong with a big ol’ pot of comfort food.
Speaking of comfort food, here are a couple more of my favorite meals of comfort, if you’re on the look-out:
- Beef & Kale Soup in the Instant Pot
- Cheesy Bacon Lentil Stew
- Easy, Creamy, Dairy-Free Mac ‘N Cheese
- Spaghetti Squash Pizza Casserole
- Creamy Roasted Red Pepper, Sausage, and Cauliflower Soup
- Easy Gluten-Free Biscuits & Gravy
White chicken chili.
This easy version of white chicken chili happens to be one of my family’s favorites. It’s made with great northern beans and chicken, with the addition of sour cream optional (but usually taken in my home). While I don’t eat beans very often, this meal is one of my exceptions.
I love that this recipe can be easily adapted to go in the Instant Pot or the crock-pot. Whether you’ve got your act together or not, you can stick it in the slow-cooker in the morning, and it’s ready for lunch (or stick in at lunch time, and it’s ready for dinner), or stick it in the Instant Pot and it’s ready in 1/2 hour.
Either way, you win. And so does your family.
Ingredient notes.
While you can get your beans anywhere, I love getting mine from Azure Standard. If you haven’t tried them, they’re pretty much an online health food store. Their products are wonderful, very high quality, and a wonderful price! I like to get the non-gmo beans, so that they sprout easily.
If you aren’t into chopping up raw jalapeños or green chilis, you can totally use some canned ones. I prefer fresh, though.
For the meat in this recipe, you can use either boneless chicken breasts or thighs. Either one is delicious. I use thighs, since I have a sensitivity to white meat. (I know, I’m weird.) If you’re not into meat, you can always leave out the chicken. Of course it wouldn’t be white chicken chili then, it would just be white chili. Still delicious, though! I’ve done it quite a few times when I’m out of chicken.
In the recipe card I’ve linked to some of the products from my affiliate partners that I like to use. Purchasing through these links won’t cost you anything extra. Thanks!
White Chicken Chili in the Instant Pot or Slow Cooker
Free of grain, gluten, eggs, and sugar, with dairy-free option.
Ingredients
- 6 cups organic navy beans, pre-soaked for at least 8 hours (I like to sprout mine first)
- 2-3 cups organic boneless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into chunks (about 2 chicken breasts or 3 thighs)
- 3 cups chicken or veggie stock/broth
- 2 jalapeños or green chilies, seeded and chopped
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 teaspoons Himalayan salt
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 cup sour cream (leave out for dairy-free)
Instructions
Place all ingredients except the sour cream in an Instant Pot or slow cooker and stir to combined.
In the Instant Pot, cook on ‘manual’ for 25 minutes, then use the quick release. I use the Instant Pot Duo 6 quart 7-in-1.
For the slow cooker, cook on high for 5-6 hours, or until beans are tender.
Stir in sour cream, if using.
Are the nutritional facts right? 117 grams of carbs for 1 serving seems very very high? I have trouble believing that is accurate. Or perhaps another question is how big is a serving- several cups?
I really have no clue. Haha. I just plugged the ingredients into the online calculator. I’m not sure how it calculates things or how big it’s serving size is. Sorry!
This looks delicious! I’m keeping it in mind as a possibility to try this weekend! 🙂
Thank you, Julia! I hope you get to enjoy it!
Oh gosh that looks amazing! We are snowed in and I just happen to have a bag of navy beans! We might have to do this!
I hope you enjoy it, Renee!
This looks so delicious! And, I can’t wait to try it with sprouted beans!
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it!
Man, this looks so good! Perfect for colder weather!
It’s definitely comfort food, Cheryl!
White chili is the best, perfect for a superbowl party too!
Ooh, good thinking!
I’ve never tried white chicken chili but I love the idea of it and it looks so comforting.
It’s definitely a comfort food, Linda!
Wow this looks so good, and I’ve been craving nothing but soup lately so I really need to try this soon!
I hope you enjoy it, Kari! It’s so easy and comforting. 🙂
Love this recipe! Will definitely make in my IPot!
Thanks. Can’t wait to try this wonderful ‘warm up’ recipe!
I hope you enjoy it, Carol!
I am totally making this tomorrow! I just wanted to verify that it’s 6 cups of dried beans? I hardly ever used dried (I know that I am pretty much just admitting that I am lazy) but 6 cups dried seems like a crazy amount of beans to me.
Sorry for the confusion, I’ll try and clarify. It’s 6 cups of soaked beans, so that would be a little less than 6 cups of dry beans. They soak up a lot of water. Sooo… 6 cups of soaked beans is probably pretty close to 6 cups of canned beans. I hope you enjoy the chili, Mary!
Are canned beans gluten free? How many servings of chili does this make?
Canned beans should be gluten-free, but if you’re worried you should read the label on the back to make sure. 🙂 This recipe feeds my family of 8.