Instant Pot White Chicken Chili recipe is a fresh twist on an old classic. Easy to make in your pressure cooker. This quick dinner is delicious and full of chicken, corn, green chile, and beans.
The best easy Instant Pot white chicken chili recipe
Great year round - We love this white chicken chili recipe so much, we find ourselves wanting it year-round, even when it's hot outside!
Extra creamy - A lot of white chicken chili recipes are full of clear broth, but this one adds cream cheese to make it creamy and delicious. Pureeing some of the beans can add even more creaminess.
One-Pot Meal - fewer dishes and easier cleanup for everyone.
Weight Watcher point friendly - if you're looking for one that is low smart points, you've come to the right place!
Simple and easy - With just a few ingredients and your pressure cooker, you can have a comfort food meal on the table in 30 minutes. There's really only about 20 minutes of actual cooking time.
White Chicken Chili Ingredients
While traditional chili is made with tomatoes and ground beef, this is a little bit different. Feel free to use whatever white beans you personally prefer, we just happen to love cannellini beans in ours.
- Chicken Breast - You'll want to use boneless, skinless chicken breast for this recipe. I usually have chicken tenderloins on hand and have used those in this recipe also. They'll be seasoned and pressure-cooked to retain their flavor.
- Taco Seasoning - I like to make my own homemade, but store-bought works just fine.
- Chicken Broth - You can also use chicken stock. I prefer to use low sodium broth and add more salt to taste.
- Garlic - I use the pre-peeled, already minced for me kind that you can find at Costco. It's one of the main shortcuts I do in cooking!
- Onion Powder - You could always use the whole onion, but my family prefers onion powder.
- Cumin - I'm all about extra cumin. It adds a great depth of flavor.
- Oregano, Coriander, Salt & Pepper - All of the extra spices you'll need to really make the chili delicious.
- Roasted Green Chile - You can most definitely use canned for this. I have roasted green chile in my freezer from back home in New Mexico, but canned is great too!
- Neufchatel Cheese (light cream cheese) - You can use full-fat cream cheese, but to keep it point-friendly I use Neufchatel cheese. It's found right next to the regular cream cheese in the grocery store.
- Corn - Canned or frozen is fine, but I usually use frozen because I have a giant bag in the freezer at all times.
- Cannellini Beans - You can use whatever your favorite white bean is, ours just happens to be cannellini. I love the flavor. You could very easily substitute any white bean that you really love or have on hand. Just be sure to drain and rinse your beans first!
How to make White Chicken Chili
(full recipe instructions with measurements and printable card are at the end of this post)
- Place your chicken breast into the bottom of the Instant Pot and sprinkle with taco seasoning.
- Pour in 2 cups of chicken broth.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot and set the valve to SEALING.
- Cook on HIGH PRESSURE for 12 minutes.
- Press CANCEL.
- QUICK-RELEASE the pressure valve.
- Remove the lid and shred your chicken, reserving all of the broth.
- Press SAUTE.
- Add in your garlic, onion powder, cumin, oregano, coriander, salt & pepper, and green chiles. Stir to combine.
- Add in the remaining chicken broth.
- Add in the Neufchatel cheese, stirring occasionally until it has fully melted.
- Once the cheese has melted, add in the corn and cannellini beans.
- Allow the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If it begins to boil turn the saute function down on the Instant Pot.
- Serve up with your favorite toppings! Some of our favorite toppings are sour cream, tortilla chips, and lime juice.
how to make white chicken chili dairy free
This recipe is nearly dairy-free as is. The only substitution you'll need to make is cream cheese. You can leave it out completely, or substitute a dairy-free version.
Our Favorite Toppings
We all have our own favorite toppings! Here are some you can try on your Instant Pot White Chicken Chili:
- Tortilla Strips - You can buy the pre-made tortilla strips from the store, or you can make your own using corn tortillas.
- Shredded Cheese - we prefer Monterrey Jack because of how it tastes and melts, but really any shredded cheese works great.
- Avocado - it is great on so many things. The cool creamy avocado adds a great flavor and texture contrast to the chili.
- Cilantro - Are you a cilantro lover or a cilantro hater? We're a house divided. I love cilantro on mine.
- Lime Juice - A fresh squeeze of lime tastes wonderful.
- Sour Cream - This cool creamy topping goes really great with avocado on top.
Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes. I feel like it just gets better with time. It is one of those dishes that tastes better the next day after all of the flavors have had a chance to meld together.
Tips, tricks, and troubleshooting Instant Pot White Chicken Chili
Yes. Add the chicken with taco seasoning and 1 cup of broth to the slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 5 hours.
Shred the chicken and add it back to the slow cooker.
You can follow the remaining steps of the recipe, just allow the extra time for the cream cheese to melt. I would recommend adding the cream cheese about 1 hour before you plan to serve.
The cream cheese will thicken the chili a bit. If you want it even thicker, you can puree one of the cans of cannellini beans. Put them in the food processor before adding them in.
Yes! Omit the cream cheese from the recipe, cool, and freeze. Thaw in the refrigerator and when you go to reheat it and serve, add the cream cheese in and allow it to melt before serving.
You can. You could either opt to use rotisserie chicken to eliminate cooking the chicken altogether, or you could boil your chicken on the stove.
You'll want to cook your dry beans first. If you want to use only the Instant Pot, start by making the dry beans.
Then remove them and make the chicken. You can continue as normal for the remainder of the recipe.
While you can technically use frozen chicken breast, you'll have a better result using thawed. If you use frozen, you'll need to adjust your cooking time and they won't cook evenly.
The outside will be done long before the middle which will mean dry chicken. I'd stick with just using thawed.
You can. If you'd like to add a little extra spice in addition to the green chilis, feel free to add as much chili powder as you'd like.
More Mexican Inspired Soups
Instant Pot White Chicken Chili
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast or chicken tenderloins
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp coriander
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- ½ cup roasted green chile chopped
- 8 oz Neufchatel cheese light cream cheese
- 1 ½ cups corn
- 2 cans 1 ¾ cup Cannellini Beans
Instructions
- Place your chicken breast into bottom of the Instant Pot and sprinkle with taco seasoning.
- Pour in 2 cups of chicken broth.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot and set the valve to SEALING.
- Cook on HIGH PRESSURE for 12 minutes.
- Press CANCEL.
- QUICK-RELEASE the pressure valve.
- Remove the lid and shred your chicken, reserving all of the broth.
- Press SAUTE.
- Add in your garlic, onion powder, cumin, oregano, coriander, salt & pepper and green chiles. Stir to combine.
- Add in the remaining chicken broth.
- Add in the neufchatel cheese, stirring occasionally until it has fully melted.
- Once the cheese has melted, add in the corn and cannellini beans.
- Allow the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If it begins to boil turn the saute function down on the Instant Pot.
- Serve up with your favorite toppings!
Erin
How much taco seasoning do you add at the beginning with the chicken and broth? I feel like that part of the instructions isn’t very clear. Thanks!
kara
Hi Erin! I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize that I completely forgot to list it in the ingredients list of the recipe card. Thank you for letting me know! It’s 2 tablespoons which is equivalent to 1 packet if you buy it in the envelopes at the store.
Sherry
How would you do it in slow cooker mode? I'd think after you sear the chicken you'd dump and go, but I'd like your feedback. Thanks!
kara
Hi Sherry! That's what I would do, but omit the cream cheese and beans. I would add them in at the very end.