Easy Cheesy Chicken Chili

Welcome to the January 8, 2017 edition of Sunday Scratchups: Your weekly recipe from scratch around ingredients that are either on sale or generally affordable. Up this week: Easy Cheesy Chicken Chili! For this recipe you’ll just need a few pantry staples plus some cooked shredded chicken — I used leftover chicken I’d cooked up in the Instant Pot and shredded last weekend, but shredded rotisserie chicken or any other cooked chicken will do.

So here I was thinking about how we usually top our white chicken chili with shredded cheese, and decided to see how it would taste if I just mixed the cheese right on into the whole batch of chili instead. Pretty good, as it turns out! 🙂 (This big pot of chili fed our family of four for two nights, so I figure the eight ounces of cheese it contains work out to just one ounce per serving — not too bad…)

Easy Cheesy Chicken Chili

Ingredients

1 Tbsp olive oil
One medium onion, diced
5 large garlic cloves, minced (or 2 Tbsp minced garlic)
1 medium jalapeño, diced (omit or remove seeds for milder chili)
4 cups chicken broth
3 cups shredded cooked chicken
3 cans white beans, drained (I used two cannellini and one northern)
4 oz can mild diced green chiles
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp chipotle chili powder (can substitute regular if not available)
1 tsp oregano
1 Tbsp cumin
about 15 crushed tortilla chips (can substitute a little cornmeal & salt to thicken chili, if desired)
8 oz shredded cheddar jack cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
Juice of 1/2 a small lime

Directions

Saute onion in olive oil over medium heat in a large pot (I used my 7 quart nonstick Dutch oven) until softened and just starting to brown. Add garlic and jalapeño and cook another couple of minutes. Turn off heat and stir in broth, chicken, beans, chiles, and spices.

Simmer on low for at least an hour to let flavors combine. Stir in crushed chips, cheese, and sour cream until melted and well combined into the chili. Squeeze in lime juice, stir, and serve.

Easy-Peasy-Chicken-Cheesy!

That’s all you need for a hearty & comforting big pot of easy cheesy chicken chili! Cheesy chicken chili goes equally well with tortilla chips & diced avocado, or over a baked potato or rice — and, it’s naturally gluten free.

Easy Cheesy Chicken Chili, printable recipe

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Easy Cheesy Chicken Chili

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Cheesy chicken chili goes equally well with tortilla chips & diced avocado, or over a baked potato or rice — and, it’s naturally gluten free.

Course dinner

Total Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Rachel Singer

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• One medium onion diced
• 5 large garlic cloves minced (or 2 Tbsp minced garlic)
• 1 medium jalapeño diced (omit or remove seeds for milder chili)
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 3 cups shredded cooked chicken
• 3 cans white beans, drained (I used two cannellini and one northern)
• 4 oz can mild diced green chiles
• 2 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp chipotle chili powder (can substitute regular if not available)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• about 15 crushed tortilla chips (can substitute a little cornmeal & salt to thicken chili, if desired)
• 8 oz shredded cheddar jack cheese
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• Juice of 1/2 a small lime

Instructions

• Saute onion in olive oil over medium heat in a large pot (I used my 7 quart nonstick Dutch oven) until softened and just starting to brown.
• Add garlic and jalapeño and cook another couple of minutes.
• Turn off heat and stir in broth, chicken, beans, chiles, and spices.
• Simmer on low for at least an hour to let flavors combine.
• Stir in crushed chips, cheese, and sour cream until melted and well combined into the chili.
• Squeeze in lime juice, stir, and serve..

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