The best white chili with chicken from Serious Eats

  • garlic
  • limes
  • Show all ingredients...

  • EYB Comments

    Can substitute cannellini beans or Great Northern beans for navy beans, and Hatch chiles for Anaheim chiles.

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Notes about this recipe

  • Eat Your Books

    Can substitute cannellini beans or Great Northern beans for navy beans, and Hatch chiles for Anaheim chiles.

  • tmitra on January 27, 2026

    This had a nice warmth from the chiles, and I added a lot of extra lime juice, but somehow, it still didn't taste like much. It felt like the large volume of white beans (which I generally love) was dulling the flavor, and that didn't improve the next day. While I'm not a chili purist, I'll save the white beans for recipes that harmonize with them.

  • stockholm28 on September 13, 2021

    I really enjoyed this. A pound of Anaheim chilis in my CSA bag and a search on EYB led me to this recipe. I’ve only had white chicken chili a couple of times and I’ve previously found it really bland. This was really flavorful. The recipe calls for 2lbs of chicken breasts. I used half breasts and half boneless thighs which worked fine. I used Rancho Gordo Marcella beans (cannellini beans) which I soaked overnight. The recipe also calls for 1 lb of pepper jack; you stir half into the chili and use the other half as a topping. I only had 8 oz, so I stirred it all into the chili. The cheese makes the chili really rich and creamy; I didn’t feel that I needed more as a topping.

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