So, last weekend I was really craving White Chicken Chili. I knew I would be gone most of the week so making a crockpot full of goodness was not the best idea for a single gal because I’d be stuck eating that all week. But, I had enough and I wanted that goodness. I decided the worst thing that would happen is I’d throw some in my freezer or take extra to work for my co-workers.

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I’ll go ahead and admit I didn’t have an official recipe (go figure!). I even went rogue and didn’t pull up my AllRecipes app or open Pinterest. I was hoping the back of the chili mix would give me some more insight, but it didn’t. So, yes, this whole thing is made up. But, its a perfect meal for a cold night that cooks in the crockpot all day while you do other things. You will have leftovers, so plan to take a treat someone else or fill your freezer for another night you are wanting to be lazy!

Print Recipe

Green Chile Chicken Chili

This Green Chile Chicken Chili is a quick variation of White Chicken Chili where you throw everything together in the crockpot and let it do all the work while you are cleaning, working, or running errands. Keep it simple, but keep it southwest.

Prep Time5

Cook Time4

Ingredients

1 Cup Frozen seasoning blend onions, etc or 1/2 onion, sautéed
1 Pablano or Hatch Green Chile pepper de-seed, grilled and diced (use a bell pepper instead to eliminate spice)
1 package White Chicken Chili seasoning mix
1 can Great Northern Beans or Navy Beans
1 can Cannelloni Beans white kidney beans, or Garbanzo Beans, or Hominy
1 can chopped Green Chilies
1 box Reduced Sodium Chicken Broth
1/2 bag frozen Chicken Fajita Strips go with Tyson so you have a good brand of meat
1/2 cup verde or tomatillo salsa – can be eliminated to reduce the spice
fresh cilantro cheese, chips or cornbread

Instructions

Put everything together in the crockpot and simmer on low for 4-6 hours.

Notes

Last night when I got home, I pan sautéed/browned about 1/2 C of the seasoning blend. Honestly, it wasn’t measured its what was leftover and in a Ziploc bag in my freezer. Once cooked, it cooked down to about 1/2 cup. If you like onions and are good with that in your base of the soup, I would have probably suggested 1/2 an onion. Browning them last night while I still had some energy and just putting them in the fridge made prep this morning much easier! I also cut up 1 Pablano pepper and roasted it in the oven on a cookie sheet. Again my adjustment would be to put that thing on a grill whole and then cut it up afterward. I cut it into tiny pieces and they just didn’t hold up in the oven. I wanted the “roasted” flavor so for sure I should have char-grilled it on the burner or grill pan. I love the poblano flavor, but it probably added some heat that many would not want. I added it to the onions and put I the fridge to just dump in the crockpot this morning.

Variations: for those who have issues with any of these ingredients you could use shoepeg corn, mexi-corn, black beans, hominy, garbanzo beans, or zucchini (add right before you serve). If I were to pan-fry the chicken before I put it in the crockpot, I would probably add some seasoning and not add it to the crockpot until I was ready to eat.

How do I make Green Chile Chicken Chili the @bigpittstop way?

Last night when I got home from a late work meeting, I pan sautéed/browned about 1/2 C of the seasoning blend. I just used up what I had in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. I also cut up the poblano pepper and roasted it in my oven. It didn’t stand up very well to that cooking method, so I would recommend grilling them on an outdoor grill or blistering on a burner. Hatch green chilies or shishitos would also be really great pepper options, depending on your level of spice tolerance.

After I prepared the onions and peppers, I just put them in a storage container so the work was already done when I got ready to throw all this together in the morning.

I placed the onions and peppers in the crockpot first. Wash and drain the beans and add them to the vegetables. Add the green chilies and 1/2 C verde salsa. (if you want to eliminate the spice/heat, leave this out and serve on the side to be added when you eat it). Sprinkle in 1 package of white chicken chili seasoning mix. In true Sandra Lee style, it would cost a bundle to get all these good flavors. McCormick has given you the gift of putting them all together – just go with it!

Normally, I would go with raw boneless, skinless chicken breasts or strips and cut into cubes or pan fry it and add to the crockpot, but I was being lazy and I wanted the smoky flavor that comes from fajita chicken strips. What I didn’t think about was the lack of control of the quality of chicken. I listed in the ingredients to go with the Tyson Southwest Flavor strips. I know they do better control on their chicken products so it should be better. Also, the strips are in the freezer section. And since I didn’t use the whole bag, I was putting it back in the freezer. I put the strips in the crockpot frozen and then had to dig them out and cut them while they were piping hot. So, I would suggest warming the strips and cutting into diced pieces before you add them to the soup.

Pour the box of chicken stock over all ingredients. Of course, a homemade broth would be much better, but I didn’t have any of that. SIDE NOTE: my mom always saves the juice she uses to cook the meat off the turkey bones at thanksgiving. This would be a yummy way to use that broth and the turkey leftovers.

I let mine sit in the crockpot all afternoon while I ran errands, but you could just put it all in a big stockpot and simmer for an hour. It’s a rainy day here and with football on the agenda for tonight, this will be perfect.

Variations: for those who have issues with any of these ingredients you could use shoepeg corn, mexi-corn, black beans, hominy, garbanzo beans, or zucchini (add right before you serve). If I were to pan-fry the chicken before I put it in the crockpot, I would probably add some seasoning and not add it to the crockpot until I was ready to eat.

I will serve this with fresh cilantro, fiesta blend cheese, and chips on the side. Yummy little cheese quesadillas would be a good alternative to cornbread (below).

Let me know what variations you add to this perfect game day or chilly Saturday comfort food.

I love crockpot meals and think you can never go wrong with one of these: