20 Chicken Chili Recipes for When Your Family Can Predict the Menu

The post 20 Chicken Chili Recipes for When Your Family Can Predict the Menu appeared first on Penny Pinchin' Mom.

White chicken chili is great, until your family can guess the side dishes before you even start cooking it. Back when my kids were little, I made it almost every Sunday one winter, and that’s how I ended up testing every non-cream base I could find.

That’s exactly what you’ll get here, grouped by flavor so you can just pick one and call dinner decided. The slow cooker buffalo chicken chili with whole shredded breasts practically cooks itself, the 30-minute stovetop version fits a busy weeknight, and the mild buffalo chicken chili splits the sauce so everyone at the table can handle the heat.

Buffalo Chicken Chili, Four Ways

1. Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Chili With Whole Shredded Breasts

Two pounds of chicken breasts go in whole, right on top of diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, a drained can of beans, chopped onion, and about half a cup of buffalo wing sauce. No cream anywhere, so the tang stays sharp instead of getting rounded off. Six to seven hours on low, then check that the chicken has reached 165°F, pull it out, shred it with two forks, and stir it back into the pot.

The chicken has to be fully thawed before it goes in. Frozen breasts in a slow cooker sit too long in the unsafe temperature range, so thaw in the fridge overnight.

A buffalo chicken chili crockpot dinner only works if you start it early, so set this one up in the morning when you know the afternoon will get away from you. Prices will run higher or lower depending on where you shop, but this gives you a ballpark.

Total time: 7 hours | Appliance: 6-quart slow cooker | Heat: medium | Servings: 6 | Cost: about $13 to $15 for the full pot

2. 30-Minute Stovetop Buffalo Chicken Chili

Thirty minutes only works if the chicken is already cooked or cut small, so pick one: shredded meat off a rotisserie chicken (around $7 at Walmart or Kroger), or raw breast diced into half-inch pieces that cook through in about eight minutes. Whole breasts simmered in the pot will blow past the time, and you’ll be eating at eight o’clock.

Everything else is dump-and-stir. Onion softened in a little oil, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce, a can of beans, buffalo wing sauce to taste, and ten minutes of simmering to pull it together.

This is the Tuesday version of buffalo chicken chili, the one that happens when nobody planned anything and the pantry has to carry it.

Total time: 30 minutes | Pot: Dutch oven or large saucepan | Heat: medium | Servings: 5 | Cost: about $12 to $14 for the full pot

3. Buffalo Chicken Chili With Celery and Carrots

Everything that normally sits next to the wings on a platter goes into the pot instead. Two celery ribs and two carrots, both diced small, cooked down with the onion before the tomatoes go in. The carrots soften into a little sweetness that takes the edge off the vinegar, and the celery keeps a bit of bite.

Blue cheese crumbles belong on top and nowhere else. Stir them in, and they melt into something gluey, so set the container on the table and let people spoon their own.

Last fall I had the grandkids over for a Chiefs game, and the wing-night vegetables were already out on the counter anyway. Into the chili they went, and nobody noticed they were eating carrots.

Total time: 45 minutes | Pot: Dutch oven | Heat: medium | Servings: 6 | Cost: about $14 to $16 for the full pot

4. Mild Buffalo Chicken Chili

If you’ve got a kid at the table who tries one bite of anything buffalo and reaches straight for the milk, cut the sauce in half. A quarter cup of buffalo wing sauce plus a full 15-ounce can of tomato sauce gives you the same tangy, peppery flavor at roughly half the heat, and the extra tomato keeps the pot from tasting thin.

Nothing else in the pot changes.

Serve it with shredded cheddar and crushed tortilla chips on top. Adults can shake hot sauce over their own bowls and bring it right back up to where they wanted it.

Total time: 40 minutes | Pot: Dutch oven or 5-quart pot | Heat: mild | Servings: 6 | Cost: about $11 to $13 for the full pot

5. Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Chili With Chicken Thighs

Thighs are the reason to use the pressure cooker here. Boneless skinless thighs run cheaper per pound than breasts at most stores, and they come out of the Instant Pot tender instead of stringy, which is what breasts sometimes do under pressure.

Sauté the onion first, add two pounds of thawed thighs, the tomatoes, beans, and buffalo sauce, then cook on high pressure for 12 minutes with a 10-minute natural release. Total time, including the pressure build, is right around 35 minutes. Confirm the chicken has hit 165°F before you shred it.

Good for the nights when you remembered dinner at five thirty. A chicken chili Instant Pot batch gives you slow-cooker texture on a stovetop schedule.

Total time: 35 minutes | Appliance: 6-quart Instant Pot | Heat: medium | Servings: 6 | Cost: about $11 to $13 for the full pot

6. Buffalo Chicken Chili With White Beans

Swapping kidney or pinto beans for cannellini or great northern beans changes the whole feel of the pot. White beans are softer and a little creamy on their own, which rounds out the vinegar in the buffalo sauce without a drop of cream cheese or heavy cream going in.

Two cans, drained and rinsed, with one of them mashed against the side of the pot with a spoon. That mashed can thickens everything and is the only trick this recipe needs.

Canned beans do a lot of heavy lifting here, and two pounds of chicken still stretches across six real servings without anyone noticing the stretch.

Total time: 45 minutes | Pot: Dutch oven | Heat: medium | Servings: 6 | Cost: about $12 to $14 for the full pot

7. Extra-Hot Buffalo Chicken Chili With Fresh Jalapeño

For the people who read “buffalo” and were hoping for more than tang, this is the top of the range. One fresh jalapeño, seeded and minced, goes in with the onion at the start so the heat cooks into the base instead of sitting on top. A second jalapeño, sliced thin and raw, goes on as a garnish for anyone who wants it sharper.

Bump the buffalo wing sauce up to three-quarters of a cup and add a quarter teaspoon of cayenne.

One warning worth taking seriously: this is hot enough that it’s worth making the milder version in item 4 alongside it if the table is mixed. Trying to cool a hot pot back down after the fact never really works.

Total time: 45 minutes | Pot: Dutch oven | Heat: hot | Servings: 6 | Cost: about $13 to $15 for the full pot

Green Chicken Chili, Four Ways

8. Salsa Verde Chicken Chili (One Jar Carries the Whole Pot)

If you only make one green chicken chili this winter, make this one. A 16-ounce jar of store-brand salsa verde does every bit of the seasoning work, because the tomatillos, green chiles, onion, and lime are already in there. You add a pound and a half of diced chicken breast, two cans of great northern beans, a cup of broth, and a teaspoon of cumin. That’s it, and you won’t be roasting anything or hunting down an ingredient your store doesn’t stock.

Heat depends entirely on the jar you grab, so read the label before it goes in the cart, since most salsa verde at Walmart and Kroger is labeled mild or medium, and the hot ones usually sit right beside them.

Total time: 35 minutes | Pot: Large pot or Dutch oven | Heat: medium | Servings: 4 to 6 | Cost: about $11 to $14 for the full pot

9. 20-Minute Green Chicken Chili With Rotisserie Chicken

A rotisserie chicken turns the green base into a weeknight pot you can have on the table before anybody asks what’s taking so long. Pull the meat off the bird, which gives you roughly four cups, and simmer it with salsa verde, two cans of white beans, broth, and a little cumin for about ten minutes.

My daughter dropped the grandkids here one afternoon when daycare closed early, and this was dinner with twenty minutes of notice. A rotisserie bird runs about $7 at Walmart, which is often less than raw breast meat by the pound anyway.

Total time: 20 minutes | Pot: Large pot | Heat: mild to medium | Servings: 4 to 6 | Cost: about $12 to $15 for the full pot

10. Chicken Chili Verde With Roasted Tomatillos

This is the from-scratch green one, and it tastes like it. Husk and rinse a pound and a half of fresh tomatillos, about ten of them, then broil them on a sheet pan with a jalapeño and a quartered onion until the skins blister and go black in spots, roughly 8 to 10 minutes. Blend the whole pan with a handful of cilantro and a squeeze of lime, then pour it over chicken thighs and simmer.

Charred tomatillos bring a tartness and a little bitterness that jarred salsa verde smooths away. It’s the difference between fine and memorable. I stepped out of the kitchen once during that broil and came back to a sheet pan of black hockey pucks, so stay put. Tomatillos cost around $2 a pound at Kroger and go cheaper in late summer.

Total time: 1 hour | Pot: Sheet pan plus Dutch oven | Heat: medium | Servings: 4 to 6 | Cost: about $13 to $16 for the full pot

11. Roasted Poblano Chicken Chili (Green Flavor, Almost No Heat)

For the family where one person wants green chile and another person considers black pepper spicy, poblanos are the peace treaty. Four of them, broiled until the skins blister, then sealed in a covered bowl for ten minutes so the steam loosens the peels. The skins slip right off under your fingers.

Chop them into a pot with chicken, white beans, broth, cumin, and oregano. You get that deep roasted green flavor with barely any burn, because poblanos sit way below jalapeños on the heat scale. Four poblanos cost about $2.50 at Aldi.

Nobody has to doctor their bowl.

Total time: 50 minutes | Pot: Broiler plus large pot | Heat: mild | Servings: 4 to 6 | Cost: about $12 to $15 for the full pot

12. Hatch-Style Green Chile Chicken Chili

Green chili chicken lives or dies by the chile you buy. Hatch is a place, not a flavor description, so a chile is only Hatch if the can or bag says it was grown in Hatch, New Mexico. Plenty of mainstream stores stock green chiles that taste the part without that label, which is why I’m calling this Hatch-style. Check the international aisle first, then the frozen section, where true Hatch chiles show up seasonally in late summer and fall.

Two 4-ounce cans of chopped green chiles plus a pound of chicken, white beans, broth, and cumin builds the pot. That roasted-chile smell is exactly what this chili is reaching for, even from a can.

Total time: 40 minutes | Pot: Large pot | Heat: mild to medium, depending on the chiles | Servings: 4 to 6 | Cost: about $12 to $16 for the full pot

13. Instant Pot Green Chicken Chili With Hominy

Hominy is what sets this one apart. Those puffy corn kernels give the green base a chewy, almost posole-like texture that beans alone never deliver, and a can costs around $1.25.

Boneless thighs, salsa verde, one can of white hominy, one can of white beans, and broth go in together. Seal, pressure cook on high for 10 minutes, then let it release naturally for 10 more. Figure 30 minutes total once the pot builds pressure. Thighs come out shreddable and stay juicy, and they cost less per pound than breasts. Confirm the chicken has hit 165°F before you shred it against the side of the pot.

Total time: 30 minutes | Appliance: Instant Pot | Heat: medium | Servings: 4 to 6 | Cost: about $10 to $13 for the full pot

Smoky Chicken Chili, Four Ways

14. Chipotle Chicken Chili With a Slow-Building Heat

Chipotles in adobo are the smokiest thing in the canned aisle, and they’re the reason this pot tastes as if it sat over a fire. Start with one pepper, minced fine, plus a teaspoon of the adobo sauce. Taste after ten minutes of simmering, then add a second pepper only if you want it. Heat varies a lot from can to can, so the pot you make in March may be noticeably hotter than the one you make in June, same brand and all.

Diced chicken thighs, two cans of pinto beans, and a can of crushed tomatoes round it out. A 7-ounce can of chipotles comes in around $2, and you’ll use maybe a third of it.

Total time: 45 minutes | Pot: Dutch oven or large pot | Heat: medium to hot | Servings: 4 to 6 | Cost: about $12 to $15 for the full pot

15. Smoked Paprika Chicken Chili With Fire-Roasted Tomatoes

When somebody at your table taps out at anything hotter than black pepper, this is the chicken chili recipe that still tastes like it has something going on. Two cans of fire-roasted diced tomatoes, about $1.50 each, bring char without chile burn, and a full tablespoon of smoked paprika carries the rest.

Use Spanish smoked paprika if your store has it, sometimes labeled pimentón. McCormick’s version is around $5 at Walmart, and a jar will outlast a whole winter of chili nights.

Chicken breast, one can of white beans, one can of pintos, and onion simmered down. Picky eaters read that smoke as depth and keep eating.

Total time: 40 minutes | Pot: Large pot | Heat: mild | Servings: 4 to 6 | Cost: about $11 to $14 for the full pot

16. Ancho Chile Chicken Chili With Rehydrated Dried Peppers

A bag of dried ancho chiles costs about $4 and makes the deepest, darkest pot on this list. Back when we were paying off debt, those bags were how I got restaurant flavor out of almost nothing. Simmer three or four anchos in hot water for 20 minutes, pull the stems and seeds, then blend them with a cup of the soaking liquid and a can of diced tomatoes.

What you get is raisiny and faintly bitter in the best way, with heat that stays mild.

Ancho chili powder works if the dried pods aren’t in your store. Use two teaspoons and skip the blender step.

Total time: 55 minutes | Pot: Blender plus large pot | Heat: mild | Servings: 4 to 6 | Cost: about $12 to $16 for the full pot

17. Smoky Bacon and Chicken Chili

Four slices of bacon do the work here that a chile pepper does everywhere else. Render them in the bottom of the pot first, set the crisp pieces aside, then brown your diced chicken right in the drippings so every bite picks up the smoke.

Store-brand bacon runs about $5 for a 12-ounce package, and you’re only using a third of it, so the rest goes to breakfast.

Build from there with pintos, diced tomatoes, chili powder, and a half teaspoon of smoked paprika to echo the bacon. The crumbled bacon goes back on at the table as a topping so it stays crunchy instead of turning soft in the pot.

Total time: 50 minutes | Pot: Dutch oven | Heat: medium | Servings: 4 to 6 | Cost: about $13 to $16 for the full pot

18. Leftover Grilled Chicken Chili That Saves You 25 Minutes

If you grilled chicken over the weekend and there are two breasts sitting in a container nobody’s touched, this is where they go. The char is already on them, which means you skip browning entirely and cut roughly 25 minutes off the usual stovetop time.

Chop about three cups of cooked chicken, add it in the last ten minutes so it doesn’t shred to nothing, and let the tomatoes, beans, and cumin do the rest.

With the chicken already on hand, the rest of the pot comes in at around $7. Starting from raw chicken instead puts you closer to $13, and costs more time on top of that.

Total time: 30 minutes | Pot: Large pot | Heat: medium | Servings: 4 to 6 | Cost: about $7 to $11 for the full pot

19. Pulled Smoked Chicken Chili With the Added Smoke Dialed Back

My husband fires up the smoker before Chiefs games, and whatever’s left Sunday night turns into Monday dinner at our house. Smoked chicken is already carrying a lot, so cut the smoked paprika to a half teaspoon and use one chipotle at most. Otherwise the pot tastes like an ashtray, and I say that from experience.

Two to three cups of pulled smoked chicken, a can of black beans, a can of pintos, and fire-roasted tomatoes. If you’re buying rather than smoking, a pound of pulled smoked chicken from a barbecue counter runs $10 to $12 and makes the pot more of a splurge.

Total time: 35 minutes | Pot: Large pot | Heat: medium | Servings: 4 to 6 | Cost: about $9 to $18 for the full pot

20. Ground Chipotle Powder Chicken Chili With Nothing Left Over

Skip the can entirely on this one. Ground chipotle chile powder gives you the same smoked-jalapeño flavor in a form you can actually measure, which matters when the canned version swings hot and cold on you. Start with a half teaspoon for mild, go to a full teaspoon for medium.

McCormick’s ground chipotle is about $6 for a small jar at Walmart, and Badia runs a couple dollars less if your store carries it. Either one keeps for a year on the shelf, and an opened can of adobo goes fuzzy in the fridge long before that.

Diced chicken breast, two cans of beans, tomato sauce, and onion. It’s the fastest smoky version here and the easiest one to repeat exactly.

Total time: 35 minutes | Pot: Large skillet or pot | Heat: mild to medium | Servings: 4 to 6 | Cost: about $11 to $14 for the full pot

Dinner Just Got Interesting Again

That white chicken chili rut is real. When your family can predict the menu before the pot even hits the stove, it’s time to shake things up, and now you’ve got 20 ways to do it.

Pick whichever one sounds good right now. You already know how to make chili. The jar of salsa verde or the bag of dried anchos handles the part that’s new.

The post 20 Chicken Chili Recipes for When Your Family Can Predict the Menu appeared first on Penny Pinchin' Mom.