White Bean chicken Chili Instant Pot at home

Instant Pot White Chicken Chili Recipe is a fresh twist on an old classic. Straightforward to cook in your pressure cooker. This quick dinner is satisfying and full of chicken, corn, green chile, and beans.

A house favorite (Straightforward) White Chicken Chili Instant Pot 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 satisfying. 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!

Plain and straightforward – With a few ingredients and your pressure cooker, you can have a comfort food meal on the table in 30 minutes. There’s only about 20 minutes of actual cooking time.

White Chicken Chili Instant Pot 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 happen to love cannellini beans in ours.

• Chicken Breast – You’ll want to use boneless, skinless chicken breast for this recipe. We 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 – we like to make our own from-scratch, but store-bought works fine.
• Chicken Broth – You can also use chicken stock. We prefer to use low sodium or From-scratch chicken broth And add salt to taste.
• Garlic – we use the pre-peeled, already minced for us kind that you can find at Costco. It’s one of the main shortcuts we do in cooking!
• Onion Powder – You could always use the whole onion, but our family prefers onion powder.
• Cumin – we're all about extra cumin. It adds a great depth of flavor.
• Oregano, Coriander, Salt & Pepper – All of the extra spices you’ll need to make the chili satisfying.
• Roasted Green Chile – You can most definitely use canned for this. We have roasted green chile in our 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 we use Neufchatel cheese. It’s found right next to the regular cream cheese in the grocery store.
• Corn – Canned or frozen is fine, but we usually use frozen because we have a giant bag in the freezer at all times.
• Cannellini Beans – You can use whatever your favorite white bean is, ours happens to be cannellini. We love the flavor. You could easily substitute any white bean that you love or have on hand. Be sure to drain and rinse your beans first!

Can you make Instant Pot White Chicken Chili with Frozen Chicken Breasts?

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. We'd stick with using thawed.

What Beans Go In White Chicken Chili?

A house favorite beans for white chicken chili are cannellini or great northern beans.

How To Make Instant Pot 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 cook White Chicken Chili without Cream Cheese (Dairy Free)

The method 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.

How to make White Chicken Chili in a Crockpot or Slow Cooker

• 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, allow the extra time for the cream cheese to melt.
• We would recommend adding the cream cheese about 1 hour before you plan to serve.

How to make Stovetop White Bean Chicken Chili

You could either opt to use rotisserie chicken to eliminate cooking the chicken altogether, or you could boil your chicken on the stove.

Satisfying Toppings for Instant Pot Chicken Chili

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 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. We love cilantro on ours.
• Lime Juice – A fresh squeeze of lime tastes wonderful.
• Sour Cream – This cool creamy topping goes great with avocado on top.

Can Instant Pot Chicken Chili be Made Ahead of Time?

Yes. We feel like it 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.

How to keep & Reheat Instant Pot Chicken Chili

To freeze this recipe, 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.

FAQs and Tips for White Chicken Chili in the Instant Pot

What to Serve with Creamy White Chicken Chili?

A house favorite side dish for creamy white chicken chili is a good cornbread you can use to soak up all the extra flavor.