White Bean Chicken Chili

Jan 25

There are lots of versions of Chicken Chili. This is our version that we’ve been making for years. It’s one we turn to when we have a fridge full of leftovers. It starts with having some good meat from a whole rotisserie or roast chicken leftover. A few cans of white beans, with some items most likely in fridge, and dinner is ready in 45 minutes. Easy and warm on a cold winter night. (although tastes great in the summer too).

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Start with chopping an onion. White or yellow works best, but since this is a great place for leftovers, any onion will do. Chop into chunks.

Chop the cooked chicken into cubes.

Breast meat works best but, use whatever you have left. Once the onions have softened a bit in the oil, add the chicken just to coat with oil and heat.
Note: if you don’t have cooked chicken 2 breast halves can be used. Just cook the chicken first, cut raw into cubes. Once the chicken is fully cooked, remove and then start the sautéing the onion in the oil in the same pan.

Cilantro, cumin and red chili powder are the key herbs and spiced for this dish. These can be increased or decreased in the amount used based on your flavor preferences. This version is not spicey at all, so cayenne could also be added if a super hot chicken chili is preferred.

It all comes together pretty fast. At this point turn the heat down to medium low so the chicken does not burn at the bottom.

Add the beans with their water to the chicken. This gives additional liquid that will mostly absorb and keep the bottom from burning.

Everyone always has barbeque sauce and salsa in the fridge, right? We happened to have some of our homemade barbeque sauce on hand. The recipe for the barbeque sauce can be found: HERE.

As for the salsa this was a combination of two leftover salsas. Great use and helped clean out the fridge!