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I discovered white chicken chili when I was in college. I lived in an awesome apartment of 6 girls that were the best of friends. One semester, we decided to make a schedule & each of us make dinner for the apartment one night a week. It was awesome! We went from eating sandwiches and pasta for every meal to having full dinners with a main course, side dish, even a salad! It was great & I suggest that if you’re a college student & live with others that would enjoy cooking, try it out! It helped us save money since we weren’t cooking for ourselves every night, and we almost always had leftovers that we ate for lunch the next day! It was a great system!

Well one time it was my turn for dinner & I discovered a white chicken chili slow cooker recipe on Pinterest & tried it out. It was so good with the exception of being a tad too spicy for my liking & I had to add a ton of sour cream to it. But we all loved it! After several years & many tweaks later, this is what it has turned into! I am not the greatest at remembering to put things in a slow cooker in the morning, so I prefer to do it on the stove with precooked chicken. This is a great way to use a rotisserie chicken! I’ve also made it with smoked chicken and that’s probably my favorite! But I don’t always have that on hand. Whatever you want to use works great!

Most of the ingredients are probably in your pantry and fridge already! I like to have precooked & shredded chicken in my freezer to pull out for meals like this, but you can also use fresh chicken breasts!

The first step is to melt your butter & sauté your onions until they are soft, then add the garlic & let that cook for a little bit. Then you just throw everything else in! It doesn’t look too appetizing at first, but trust me, once that cream cheese melts & the flavors all meld together, it’s amazing!

It makes a big pot of chili that is great for potlucks or family dinners. Also, can someone please take this to a chili cook off?! I’m so curious how it would hold up to the traditional beef chilis, because I personally prefer this one!

You can also make it in the slow cooker or your Instant Pot! The directions are in the recipe card below, but with this method, you can use precooked chicken OR just throw in a couple raw chicken breasts & let them cook with it all day! This is a great way to keep it warm for kiddos or spouses who have different schedules than the rest of the family, but you still want to feed them a good warm meal!

I like serving it with a warm cornbread muffin or by frying some tortilla strips in a little oil for a couple minutes until golden and topping with those, some avocado, cilantro, sour cream & a squeeze of lime! The tortilla strips add the perfect crunch and the cornbread adds that hint of sweetness that compliments it so well!

This recipe was originally published February 2022 & was updated February 2024 with Instant Pot directions & some updated photos.

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xoxo Morgan