A recipe for slow cooker chicken chili that uses easy pantry staples like corn, tomatoes, chicken and beans for a Tex-Mex inspired dish the whole family will love.
Ready for an easy recipe that changes up regular old chili? Chicken chili made in a slow cooker is one of our family’s “tried-and-true” dinner favorites. It’s made with real, whole foods that are in most of our freezers and pantries, it requires about 10 minutes of prep (before cooking while you’re off doing something else!), and it’s a one-dish dinner that we like to serve with simple chips.
It’s filling, flavorful, and can be made as spicy as you want. As the cook in the family, I not only love this recipe for how easy it is, but also for the fact that I can use some of the produce I freeze from my garden, as well as the beans I cook and freeze. That’s one of my simple joys in life, to say “I grew the ____” at the dinner table.
Make Slow Cooker Chicken Chili
Oh and this is a “dump” recipe: dump everything in the crock and set it to cook- so easy. Simply place uncooked boneless chicken breasts or thighs in the crock of a slow cooker and the remaining ingredients.
Like I mentioned, this recipe is a great way to use up your store of frozen, chopped peppers, and frozen corn. Any canned tomatoes work for this, too, either home-canned or store-bought (sometimes I use these Rotel-type canned tomatoes). Whatever you use, all the ingredients are easy to find, pantry staples – another reason I love this flavorful recipe.
You will need to remove the chicken from the cooker and shred with two forks about an hour before serving. Don’t worry, though, it’s a 5-minute job.
Return the meat to the insert along with the cooked beans and let it cook for another hour.
We like this topped with shredded jack or pepper-jack cheese and served with tortilla chips (you can make it special with these 10-minute homemade chips) or warmed, buttered tortillas. Ta-da! Dinner done, and more importantly, everyone is happy.
Click the arrow for the full printable recipe + more slow cooker recipe ideas!
Hi Jami, love love love your site! Time savers are my fave. Keep up all your good work and thanks.
Oh, thank you so much, Patricia – that means a lot!
Jami, do you have fast easy recipe for peach jam?
Sorry, I don’t Patricia. But maybe I’ll have to get on that. 🙂
This must be my “cooking from Oregon Cottage” week. 🙂 I have this chili in my slow cooker now and it smells DELICIOUS. I’m having a quick lunch of oatmeal with chopped crystallized ginger, which I usually like, but after lifting the lid of the slow cooker to add the turkey and beans, my little lunch seems much less appealing! 😉
Heather- Yes, this uses cooked beans. It would take a lot longer with uncooked. I have a link in the first paragraph to the way that I precook and freeze dried beans so I have them ready for recipes and don’t need to buy cans. Try it- it’s easy and great to have them ready with a little defrosting!
Looks delicious! I’ve never done a red chili like this with chicken, though I have made a mean green chicken chili. I love my crock pot too, and this looks great. Thanks!
Do you cook the beans seperately? Remember, I’m not real skilled in the kitchen…hee hee hee:) I have a lot of dried beans that I’d like to use up…and I was just wondering if I should cook those FIRST and then do the chicken/other ingredients..THEN put them together? I like this recipe…”easy” and “dump it in the crockpot” 😉 🙂 🙂 Greetings from Southern Oregon, Heather 🙂
This recipe looks fantastic! I can’t wait to try it.
On a side note, my husband just bought me a Wonder-Mill! I am so excited! I used it to grind the flour for your whole wheat sandwich bread recipe and it turned out great!