This healthy white chicken chili is a one pot dinner made with rotisserie chicken, green enchilada sauce, and a LOT of veggies… and it’s SO SO EASY. Everyone can add as much or as little of the less-skinny toppings as they like, HA! Which means even the kids are happy. So what if my three-year-old has equal parts Fritos and chili? It’s fine! And I get a giant bowl with KILLER macros. Everyone wins.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: One Pot Skinny White Chicken Chili
- Serves: 6 -8
- Calories: 240 cal
- Protein: 26g
- Fat: 5.2g
- Carbs: 20.8g
- Why You'll Love It: We LOVE a good white chicken chili over here, and making it extra light and healthy didn't change it for anyone! All of my kids even devour this. And skipping the beans just allows me to use the carbs where I value them more! Feel free to add them in if you love beans!
Growing up, my mom always made a tortilla soup with green enchilada sauce as the base. I LOVED it. As I got older, I was constantly disappointed when I ordered tortilla soup at restaurants and found my veggies and chicken swimming in a red or clear broth. Even at the authentic Mexican places. I don’t care. I LOVE THIS STUFF.
Green enchilada sauce is such a quick way to get a super flavorful chili without a million ingredients or hours of simmering. All of my kids devour this one, and it’s one of the favorites in my cookbook, ONE. If you’re a soup and chili person like me, my lighter Instant Pot chicken tortilla soup and low carb turkey cauliflower chili are good ones to try next.
Is White Chicken Chili Healthy?
It can be! A lot of white chicken chili recipes lean on heavy cream and piles of cheese. This one gets its creaminess from just ¼ cup of Greek yogurt cream cheese, uses lean rotisserie chicken breast, and is loaded with peppers, onions, and zucchini. One 400g bowl has 240 calories and 26g protein. And that’s a nice BIG bowl I’d eat for dinner, not a little cup like most soup portions.
Does White Chicken Chili Have Beans?
Most white chicken chili recipes use white beans like great northern or cannellini. I skip them so I can use my carbs where I value them more (hello, chips). Feel free to add them in if you love beans! Just know your macros won’t match the recipe card.
Important Ingredients and Substitutions
- Rotisserie chicken breast: I buy the big package of rotisserie chicken breast from Costco, but feel free to pick it off the bird or use whatever you’ve got. The macros for white meat are pretty similar across the board. Leftover Thanksgiving turkey works too!
- Green enchilada sauce: this is the flavor base. You’ll use about half of a huge can (400g). If you love green chile flavor, my creamy green chili chicken bake is another good one.
- Mild diced green chilis: two small cans (8 oz total). They add flavor without much heat, so the kids eat it too.
- Greek yogurt cream cheese: just ¼ cup makes the whole pot creamy with no heavy cream. Any reduced fat cream cheese works.
- Frozen roasted corn: I use the frozen roasted corn from Trader Joe’s. Regular frozen corn works too.
Before You Start Cooking
- Prep the chicken first. The hardest part of this recipe is picking through the rotisserie chicken to toss any gross parts you don’t want to eat, then chopping and shredding the rest into bite-size pieces. You’ll hate me for those five minutes. Just remember you didn’t even have to cook it! Then you’ll like me again.
- Grab a large pot. Everything cooks in one pot, and this makes 6 to 8 big servings.
- Plan on about 45 minutes. That’s 15 minutes of prep and 30 minutes on the stove.
- Keep the corn frozen. It goes in straight from the freezer at the very end.
- Tracking macros? Search “Lillie Eats and Tells Skinny Creamy White Chicken Chili” in MyFitnessPal and log however many grams you eat. Want to log your own version? Here’s how to create a recipe in MyFitnessPal. If you want a plan for the whole week, my macro-friendly meal plans send you a new menu and grocery list every Thursday, with the recipes already loaded into MyFitnessPal, Macros First, and Lose It.
How to Make Healthy White Chicken Chili
- Cook the veggies. Heat a large pot over medium-high heat and spray with cooking spray. Add the peppers, onions, and zucchini with a hefty pinch of kosher salt and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until soft.
- Add garlic and cumin. Stir them in and sauté for a few more minutes.
- Add the rest. Pour in the green chilis, green enchilada sauce, chicken stock, and chicken. Sprinkle a little kosher salt on the chicken.
- Simmer. Turn the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until you’re ready to eat.
- Make it creamy. Stir in the Greek yogurt cream cheese and corn and simmer for 5 more minutes, just until the corn is no longer frozen.
- Top and serve. Scoop into bowls and add your favorite toppings.
Oh my gosh and the best part is a CLEAN KITCHEN. Since it’s all in one pot, I get time to tidy while it simmers. Then it’s ready to serve to the whole family! SO much better than leaving out ten cutting boards for tacos or burgers or salads like we do all summer… I LOVE FALL.
Eating hot soup, while not sweating, in a clean kitchen. Pretty much heaven.
What to Serve with White Chicken Chili
Toppings first! We love cheese, avocado, sour cream (low or non-fat), cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and CHIPS. And we’re not afraid to buy Fritos. If you think you don’t like them and can only buy some fancy blue corn tortilla chip from Whole Foods, you’re lying to yourself. Ha! But fine, get whatever you like!
Since a bowl of this is a big portion, I usually just add a salad. My corn avocado salad, light Mexican Caesar salad, or Mexican chopped kale salad all go great with it. Parmesan smashed broccoli is an easy veggie side, and if you want something like cornbread, try my lighter cornbread waffles for dipping.
How to Freeze White Chicken Chili
This one freezes great! It’s on my list of macro-friendly freezer meals.
- Let the chili cool, then portion it into quart-size ziplock bags or small containers.
- Write the date and grams on the outside (one serving is 400g).
- Freeze the chili without toppings. Add your cheese, avocado, sour cream, and chips after reheating.
- Thaw overnight in the fridge, or reheat straight from frozen in a pot on low heat, stirring often.
- Keeps up to 3 months.
Stocking up on soup for the winter? My chicken minestrone soup, veggie chicken soup with butternut squash, lemony chicken soup, creamy chicken pot pie soup, and easy lasagna soup all freeze well too. For more Tex-Mex, try my chicken enchilada casserole or skinny creamy chicken enchiladas.
White Chicken Chili Calories and Macros
One 400g serving of this healthy white chicken chili has 240 calories, 26g protein, 5.2g fat, and 20.8g carbs. That’s before toppings, so I’ll let you log your own chips and cheese. Ha! The full nutrition is in the recipe card below.
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One Pot Skinny White Chicken Chili
Ingredients
- 3 medium bell peppers diced 380 g
- 2 medium onions diced 540 g
- 2 medium zucchini chopped 355 g
- 5 cloves minced garlic or frozen dorot cubes
- 1 tbs cumin
- 8 oz 2 small cans mild diced green chilis
- 400 g green enchilada sauce half a huge can
- 550 g rotisserie chicken breast about 1.25 lb shredded and/or chopped into bite sized pieces. (I buy the big package from Costco and pick any yucky stuff out.)
- 3 cups chicken stock I use the boxed cartons from Costco.
- 1/4 cup 44 g greek yogurt cream cheese
- 128 g corn I used the frozen roasted corn from Trader Joes
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat a large pot over medium, high heat, spray with cooking spray.
- Add peppers, onions, and zucchini, sprinkle with a hefty pinch of kosher salt and cook for 5-7 minutes till soft.
- Sir in garlic and cumin and sauté for a few more minutes, then add green chilis, green enchilada sauce, chicken stock and chicken. Sprinkle a little kosher salt on your chicken. Turn to low and simmer for about 15 minutes or until you’re ready to eat.
- Stir in greek yogurt cream cheese and corn and simmer for five more minutes just until corn is no longer frozen. All done!
- Top individual bowls with cheese, sour cream (we use low or non-fat), avocado, fresh cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and tortilla chips or fritos!
Notes
- I love to buy the big package of rotisserie chicken breast from Costco for soups in the winter. I’m not a huge fan of the texture for salads or much else, but as long as you take a minute to pick through it and remove any gross parts, then chop and shred the good stuff into manageable sized pieces, it’s PERFECT for soups! And makes it such a breeze.
- For macro-counters: Search “Lillie Eats and Tells Skinny Creamy White Chicken Chili” in My Fitness Pal to log however many grams of chili you want!
- Just reminding you this is a nice BIG portion! Not just a cup like most soup “portions”. This is actually a nice big bowl that I would eat for dinner. And the macros are so low, they leave room for toppings and a side salad if you’d like!
Nutrition
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Just made this for the first time and love it! So much flavor and super easy. We added a can of great northern beans because what’s a chili without beans!?? Topped ours with a little cheese, fresh lime juice and cilantro! Soooooo good.
I’m so glad it was a hit! And when I’ve got more carbs in my life, I’m WITH YOU! Yum
I just made this for the second time. So much flavor for the macros! Lillie- what did I do before you and your recipes came along?? Thank you for all the time you spend helping us all eat healthier while never sacrifice taste.
Soooo yummy – I had been avoiding one pot meals since starting macro tracking but finally learned the mfp tricks and now this meal is going to be on repeat. Thank you!!
I made this the other afternoon before a big “snow event” and it was SO GOOD and SO easy. My husband loves it to and for someone who doesn’t eat leftovers he eat it until it was all gone. Love a good soup that gets better after a night in the fridge too! This one is going in the regular rotation for sure!!!!
New favorite soup in our house – parents and 4 kids all loved it! I’m going to make it for a friend Christmas party next week!
I absolutely love this white chicken chili. My husband is not a tomato base lover, as is used with traditional chili, so this was a great alternative. Also the Macros were on point as they always are with Lillie’s recipes. We also had tons of leftovers for lunch throughout the week and it was just as good reheated.
This soup gets better and better as it sits in the fridge. I have it daily for lunch. It’s crazy delicious!
Obsessed!!!!
Delicious, Lillie! I shredded the zucchini (for some reason chunks of zucchini gross me out; I’m weird) and added red pepper for a little extra kick. Super yummy!
This is seriously the best! I’ve passed on the recipe to friends and family and they’ve all loved it too!!
I wish I could
Give this chili SIX stars. I have mad many LLM recipes and they are always tasty, but this bad boy was truly spectacular. I don’t know if it was the enchilada sauce I used or that I used one can of spicy chilis and one mild but it was super flavorful and spicy – but not too spicy. And I can’t believ how easy it was. I knew I didn’t have a ton of time so I just bought pre
Chopped onion and peppers and the only thing I had to cut was the zucchini.
I feel like I wasn’t living my best life before I made this 😂
THANK YOU LILLIE!
This is so good! Like so good my kids even ate it without thinking it was “diet” food.
This was the easiest (and tastiest) recipe ever!! My husband (very picky) loved it too! Can’t wait to make it again. Lillie is a Macro genius… all of her recipes are great!
After seeing so many people make this, I had to give it a try! I’m new to counting macros and this was the perfect recipe— ran into a few snags at the grocery store, so I ended up using ground turkey & my fiancé made me green enchilada sauce from scratch since we couldn’t find it in the store! This recipe is so flavorful and smooth too which was awesome! On repeat all this week for lunch with rice! Also forever going to be thanking Lillie for the Greek yogurt cream cheese. My life is forever changed!
Lillie is a genius. Many of her recipes are in my weeekly rotation and my entire family loves them. This white chicken chili is no exception. It’s full of flavor and low on calories!!