The Best White Chicken Chili - Cooks Illustrated

Published January 1, 2007.

This Southwestern-style chili often cooks up bland and watery, with chewy bits of rubbery chicken that make home cooks ask, "Where's the beef?"

The Problem

We found a lot of bad recipes for white chili—most bearing a closer resemblance to chicken and bean soup than actual chili.

The Goal

We wanted to create something worthy of the name "chili"—a rich, stew-like chili with moist, tender chicken, perfectly cooked beans, and a complex flavor profile.

The Solution

We found not one but three solutions. To fix bland, watery sauce we pureed some of our sautéed chile-onion mixture and beans with the broth to thicken the base—this approach had the added benefit of ensuring that chile flavor was present in every drop. To avoid floating bits of rubbery chicken, we browned, poached, and shredded bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, which gave our chicken pieces a hearty texture and full flavor. And to solve the problem of insufficient chile flavor, we used a trio of fresh chiles: jalapeño, poblano, and Anaheim.

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