White Chicken Chili Recipe (Healthy & Easy)
White Chicken Chili Recipe (Healthy & Flavorful)
Last updated: September 12, 2025
Cream Cheese Chicken Chili (Rotel + Ranch).
This page is our flagship white chili—lighter, dairy-optional, and broth-forward.
Healthy White Chicken Chili (No Cream Cheese)
Try this easy, healthy white chicken chili recipe!
This easy white chicken chili recipe is a great one to add to your dinner rotation, especially during the colder weather seasons. Gotta love soup and chili in the Fall and Winter!
I’ve tried a few different white chicken chili recipes, but I really like this one because it’s a healthy recipe and it still has a lot of great chili flavor!
Some of the other recipes I’ve tried were a bit bland and needed garnishes like cheese and/or sour cream and more to make them taste good. I don’t mind eating this one plain though! Additional garnishes aren’t necessary at all — they just make this white chicken chili even better!
Simple ingredients & substitutions
House style for our white chili: keep it truly white with white beans (Cannellini or Great Northern) and diced green chiles (not Rotel). Season with cumin, coriander, and oregano, then finish with fresh lime and cilantro. If you like it creamier, add a dollop of Greek yogurt as a topping—we don’t stir dairy into the pot so the base stays light and brothy.
Cooking White Chicken Chili in the Instant Pot
This one cooks up great in the Instant Pot too! If you dice up your chicken beforehand, you can set it to cook for just 10 minutes, with a quick release.
OR, leave your chicken breasts whole and place them on top of all the other ingredients. Cook for 20 minutes, quick release, and use a fork to remove chicken. Shred the chicken and then stir it back into the soup. It’s that easy!
Don’t like a crunchy onion?
If you don’t want that little bit of crunch from the onion, you can soften it first. Simply add the olive oil to a skillet (or Instant Pot) and heat it up. Then sauté the onion for a few minutes until it is softened.
Scrape the skillet contents into the slow cooker, if cooking with that method, then add the other ingredients and carry on with the recipe as written.
Stovetop White Chicken Chili (Quick Method)
- Sauté aromatics: Warm 1–2 tbsp olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and a pinch of salt; cook 3–4 minutes until translucent. Stir in garlic, cumin, coriander, and oregano; cook 30–60 seconds until fragrant.
- Simmer: Add chicken (diced or whole breasts), white beans, diced green chiles, and broth. Bring to a gentle simmer; cook 20–25 minutes (or until chicken is cooked through).
- Shred & finish: Remove chicken to shred; return to pot. Add lime juice, taste, and season with salt/pepper. Ladle into bowls and top with cilantro, avocado, crushed tortilla chips, or a spoon of Greek yogurt (if desired).
Pro Tips to Keep It Truly “White”
- Use white beans + green chiles (skip Rotel).
- Keep dairy as an optional topping, not in the pot.
- Finish with lime juice to brighten the broth.
- Serve with white cheeses (Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack) if you want a cheesy finish without changing the base color.
FAQ
How do I keep my white chili actually white?
Skip tomatoes (use green chiles), and don’t melt cream cheese into the base. If you want creaminess, add a spoon of Greek yogurt on top of each bowl.
What beans are best?
Cannellini or Great Northern keep the texture creamy and the flavor mild; navy beans work too but break down a little more.
How can I make it dairy-free?
This recipe is naturally dairy-optional. Simply skip the yogurt/cheese toppings and stick with the broth-forward base.
More soup & chili recipes you might like
- Easy Crock-Pot Vegetable Soup
- Quick Hearty Chili
- Slow Cooker Chicken Quinoa Soup
- Easy Crockpot Lentil Soup with Sausage (Freezer Meal)
- Slow Cooker Homemade Beef Stew Freezer Meal
More family favorites
Hope you give this white chicken chili recipe a try and love it too! You might also like my favorite chicken noodle soup recipe:
It’s super easy to make in the Instant Pot and probably the best chicken noodle soup I’ve ever tasted!
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Healthy White Chicken Chili Recipe (Slow Cooker or Instant Pot)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1 cup diced onion about 1 medium onion
- 2 cans great northern beans or other white beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 7-ounce can diced green chilies
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 to 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup frozen corn optional
Instructions
Slow Cooker Instructions:
- Add olive oil to the bottom of the slow cooker pot. Then add the chicken and the rest of the ingredients.
- Cook on low for 6-8 hours in the slow cooker.
- Remove the chicken breasts from the slow cooker once cooked through and shred. Then return the shredded chicken to the pot and stir to combine.
- Serve with shredded cheese, cilantro, sour cream, or other garnishes, if desired.
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Dice chicken into 1-2 inch cubes. Saute with the onions in the oil for a few minutes, then stir in all the other ingredients.
- Cook for 10 minutes on high pressure. You can quick release or natural release!
- OR, leave your chicken breasts whole and place them on top of all the other ingredients.
- Cook for 20 minutes, quick release, and use a fork to remove chicken.
- Shred the chicken and then stir it back into the soup.
Recipe Notes
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This was amazing! Our son made this when we were visiting. I will be making it in the next few days.
So glad you liked it! Thank you for commenting, Freda! 🙂
Is the serving one cup?
Sorry, I actually haven’t measured the yield on this recipe yet. The serving amount is just an estimation for about how many people the recipe could feed.
Would you give the instructions for using the Instant Pot? Very tasty with the crock pot, but just got an Instant Pot.
Fun – I love my Instant Pot! I would just add all of the ingredients to the pot and cook for 30 minutes on soup setting, or until the chicken is cooked through.
Made this in the instant pot tonight and it was amazing! I sautéed the onions right in the pot before I put everything else in.
Awesome! So glad it turned out well for you. Thanks for your comment, Jaime.
I’m fixen to try this recipe in instapot but use rotisserie chicken instead just abecause thats what i have on hand. Wish me luck!
Sounds good! You won’t have to really cook it since your rotisserie chicken is already cooked. Just throw it in for a couple of minutes to heat it up and enjoy!
This is delicious! I don’t like the texture of onions or green chili’s so I sautéed the onion then puréed both that and the chili’s. I have made this twice in two weeks and have passed this recipe along to other family members! Yum!
Excellent! I’m so glad you are liking and sharing this white chicken chili recipe. Thank you for your comment, Penny!