This Award Winning White Bean Chili Recipe remains one of our favorite and cherished recipes. Combining chicken and Italian Sausage with lots of mouthwatering creamy ingredients, this is a crowd pleaser.
Update: Winning the Michigan State Chili Championship, this recipe comes from my friend Richard. It’s a delicious white bean chili recipe that wonderful for feeding a crowd. Since I posted this recipe, Richard has passed away. RIP.
What Makes This Chicken Chili Recipe So Darn Special?
If you win a Championship, I would feel comfortable calling this one of the best white bean chicken chili recipes around.
It’s a creamy white bean chicken chili (yes please) and it’s laced with Italian Sausage.
It brings some heat with jalapeno peppers and a hint of sweet due to the sweet corn.
And every time I’ve made it, people shower me with compliments. But before we get to the recipe.
Can I see a show of hands of how many of you watch “Giada At Home” on Food Network??? … Ok, good…a few.
A couple of weeks ago I unwittingly posted a White Bean Chicken Chili recipe that I watched Giada make on her program.
Delicious, so I quickly blogged, and confidently exclaimed that it was the best White Bean Chicken Chili EVER. Why? Because it’s a great recipe and it’s really really full of flavors that compliment each other.
Let The smack down begin
Soon after the post, I received an email from Buffalo Dick over at “Opinions and Rectums, We All Have One” saying that he had an Award Winning White Bean Chili recipe.
Well it appears that we had a White Bean Chili smack down on our hands. How could I resist a comparison.
I promptly began the begging process for his recipe, gained his permission to blog about it and here’s my opinion (see he’s right, we all have one) about his Chili.
This just might be the best White Bean Chili recipe EVER! Folks, my husband and I had a FIT over this recipe, right there at the dining room table – a FIT. I highly recommend you give this a try because it’s a white chicken chili with Alfredo Sauce.
In Conclusion
A great chili recipe for feeding a crowd, perfect for your Super Bowl party, or any excuse you have for gathering y0ur friends around your table.
There are some special nuances about this recipe.
- Toasting cumin seed, love that idea.
- A combination of orange (or red) sweet bell pepper and green bell pepper
- 3 – 6 jalapeno peppers – choose your heat level
- Jarred Alfredo Sauce makes this a creamy white chicken chili. Using jarred makes it easy.
- The addition of Salsa Verde. You can make your own Homemade Roasted Tomatillo Salsa, it easy. Or use your favorite jarred version.
- The soup includes both chicken and Italian sausage – love all of that heartiness.
- Black olives and Parmesan cheese for garnish. Unique and a nod to the Italian sausage.
- This can also be made in the crockpot – great for making ahead and serving when the hungry crowd arrives.
Award Winning White Bean Chili Recipe
I hope you give this recipe and try and if you do, please leave a comment about your experience. And, please give the recipe a star rating.
And thanks to “Buff” (Richard) for the inspiration to try another white chili recipe.
More Chili Recipes
And if you’re looking for more, don’t miss my Soup category. You’ll find a ton of slurp-worthy recipes. Including the most popular chili recipe on my site for Anthony Bourdain’s New Mexico Style Chili.
Award Winning White Bean Chili
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 pounds chicken thighs Boneless, skinless, seasoned with light salt and white pepper, cooked and cubed
- 1 large onion chopped
- 1 yellow bell pepper chopped
- 1 green bell pepper chopped
- 3-6 Jalapeno peppers seeded and fine chopped
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and chopped
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage crumbled and browned.
- 2 15-oz cans chicken broth low sodium
- 30 ounces Great Northern white beans canned, rinsed and drained
- 2 teaspoons white pepper
- 2 teaspoon Mexican Oregano
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds toasted
- 15 ounces sweet corn canned, drained
- 22 ounces Alfredo Sauce jarred. About a jar and a half
- 1 cup Salsa Verde your favorite brand, I prefer Jardines
- Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese for garnish
- Sliced black olives for garnish
Instructions
- Cut chicken thighs into bite sized pieces. Set aside. In a large Dutch oven, heat oil. When hot, add onion, and all peppers. Cook, stirring frequently until onion starts to look translucent. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant. Less than 1 minutes.
- Tear the Italian sausage into pieces and add to vegetable mixture. When fat starts to render, add pieces of chicken. Stir and cook until meat is just undercooked. Drain fat.
- At this point, if you want, add the ingredients to a slow cooker. Or you can continue with stove top cooking.
- Heat a small dry non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Add cumin seeds and cook just until fragrant. Add to soup.
- Add chicken broth, beans, spices, Alfredo sauce, salsa verde and corn. Heat through until meat is cooked and flavors are well blended. About 40 minutes on medium low. Stirring frequently.
- If you’re using a crockpot. After adding meat and vegetable mixture. Add the remaining ingredients to the slow cooker. Cook on low 3 – 4 hours.
- Garnish when served in bowls with grated Parmesan or Romano cheese, and sliced black olives. Drizzle with chile oil for some color and even more flavor.
Nutrition
Award Winning White Bean Chili Recipe … It’s What’s For Dinner
Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.
Hello. Can this chili be frozen?
Hi Tanyia, I’ve never frozen it, but I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t freeze well. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating. If there’s any separation due to the white sauce, just stir to re-combine before reheating.
Took this recipe to a chili competition. We POSTED that it was “based on the WINNING recipe from Michigan State Chili Championship.” Immediately people started lining up.
We had people 6-8 deep in line all nite waiting for seconds AND thirds! Offered cheese, onions, olives, Frank’s hot sauce, sour cream, etc as garnishes. Unlike others, we came home with empty pots. Not a DROP left. GONE!
We didn’t win, but that’s ok. It was enough just to see so many people coming for seconds/thirds. They loved this unique WHITE chili at the “all red” chili contest. I may enter with it again next year.
Thanks for such a great/fun/delicious recipe! I’m getting ready to make some right now!
Since the competition, I’ve used a short cut I thought I’d pass along if you want to speed this up a little.
Get the Tyson’s “Southwestern Style” Chicken strips. Defrost them and cut into chunks. If you can’t find those, the Fajita strips work, too. They’re already cooked so you throw the chunks in when you put in the Italian sausage, and follow the rest of the recipe from there.
I also enjoy a can of DRAINED (really, REALLY drained) petite diced tomatoes. The occasional bite of tomato is delicious!
Time to pack up my DOUBLE batch to give away!
Thanks so much! I like that Southwestern Chicken Strips tip. I’ll look for those.
Wow this looks so creamy and delicious! I’ve never had white bean in chili before, sounds great!
Yay, a new visitor to my blog. Thanks for stopping by!
OMG Lea Ann, that looks so yummy. I wish I had a bigger freezer so I could freeze fresh corn at the end of the summer too… maybe next year.
Nice Blog!
Thanks for stopping by Leah!
Thanks for this recipe! I am a huge chili fan and maker. Definitely try this one.
This is a great recipe! Thanks for stopping by my blog
ooh, this looks so good! I’ve made white chili before, but LOVE the addition of Alfredo!
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Thank you for all the comments while I was on vacation 🙂
Thanks for stopping by Olga. You’ve got to try this chili – mmmmm
I consider BD a cooking genious:) Your white chili of his looks fantastic.
I’m a BD fan too. He’s pretty no nonsense!
I vote for Buffalo Dick to have his own Food Network TV show! Fabulous chili recipe. I am saving this one.
Me too! And we could be his perfect friends that he serves. Do save this recipe, it’s a good one.
Love the smackdown!
Great post, I would never have thought to put alfredo in a chili – you guys are genius.
Thanks for stopping by Natashya!
What a perfect chili! Your photos are wonerfully instructive. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and thanks for stopping by!
I just made a white chili chicken! I’m posting it next week.
Oh good! Can’t wait to read about it. I’m lovin White Chili right now. Thanks for stopping by
Still laughing over the BD cleavage comment you slid in there. That’s hilarious.
Well good, I didn’t think anyone noticed. I actually LOL’d when I typed it. Thanks for stopping by Chris
I love the name of Buffalo’s website. Ms. Goofy watches Giada. All the camera angles and shots are pretty polished. How tall is Giada? She is very pretty.Soft core food porn, Yeah! think a smackdown is a great idea.
Thanks for stopping by Chilibrown. I really don’t know much about Giada except that her father was a director and her mother an actress in Italy. Hard to say how tall she is. I suppose we could google “How tall is Giada” 🙂
She’s about as big as a minute. I’ve seen her on other shows and she’s really short and I think she wears heals.
That’s what I figured. She looks like a tiny person. Thanks for stopping by Carol.
You did the recipe proud! Next time to preserve white color, use green Jalapeno salsa… Thanks for the compliments and the award! Please take no offense, but I don’t post awards (probably have received 10-12!) It’s my odd way of encouraging new bloggers, who should get them to boost their confidence in posting! Happy Thanksgiving!
That’s the only Jalapeno Salsa that Safeway had in stock. I’ll keep looking. Not taking offense at all about the award, I actually didn’t think you’d post it. Again, thanks for that recipe.
Okay, I’ve never even heard of garlic alfredo sauce in a jar – much less thought of putting it in chili! Having said that, I’ll bet this is really good. I love unexpected flavors that work together. I plan to do try this! Thanks BD and thanks LA for sending it my way!
It’s in the spaghetti sauce/pasta section. I was surprised to see several different brands of it. Thanks for stopping by
I had a white bean chili in St Louis for the first time and was in love! I think I also could eat a few bowls of this, because I love anything soupy!
Give it a try Elizabeth, it’s yummy. Thanks for stopping by
😉 love to see those cats floating around the internet
I love those cats and that award. Thanks for stopping by
And no one deserves it more… I am also in awe of all his chili posts