This aromatic Chicken Chili Verde recipe features tender pulled chicken, sweet corn, roasted poblano peppers, and wholesome beans in a mildly spiced zesty green sauce. It’s a comforting and substantial stew, perfect for weeknight dinners or weekly meal prep.

Our family’s Chili con Carne recipe is one of my favourite comfort foods, especially when there’s a chill in the air. It’s packed with protein and earthy spices… and beans! A bowl of homemade Pozole Blanco can be just as comforting, like a hug from your Abuela.

Chicken Chile Verde is another great Mexican comfort food dish. It’s packed with protein from shredded chicken and beans, but somehow not as heavy as a bowl of meaty beef chili. All three of these dishes deliver on flavour and take less than an hour cooking time.

Chicken Chili Verde

This Chicken Chili Verde is one of those recipes you’ll crave over and over again. You can’t go wrong with tender pulled chicken, beans, and corn in a bright and bold Salsa Verde. Once the sauce is made, the whole dish comes together in minutes.

And boy is that green sauce is a banger! It features mildly spiced earthy chargrilled poblano peppers and the unique tangy flavour of tomatillos, with some extra heat from jalapeno peppers, cayenne powder, and ancho chili powder. Overall, I’d say it’s a zesty green sauce with a just the right amount of heat.

Enjoy a bowl of this piquant stew on its own, over rice, or use it as a filling for burritos and quesadillas. Pro tip: Make a double batch of the Salsa Verde, then freeze it for future stews and other things like chicken enchiladas, or just plain chips and salsa!

What is Chili Verde?

Authentic Mexican Chili Verde is made with pork shoulder. It’s a low and slow cooked pork stew with a mouthwatering green sauce, or Salsa Verde. The long cooking time of Pork Chile Verde results in fork tender pork and extra flavourful sauce. It’s the perfect dish to have bubbling away in a slow cooker. 

This Chicken Chili Verde is the easy version, especially if you use a store-bought rotisserie chicken. If you prefer, you can easily poach your own chicken just like I did in this Chicken Pozole recipe. It has just as much flavour as the pork version but takes much less time and all you need is a stove top.

Recipe Ingredients

Don’t let this seemingly long list of ingredients deter you from making this tasty dish. I promise, it is worth it!

• Chicken
• Great Northern Beans
• Salt
• Bay Leaves
• Olive Oil
• Poblano Peppers
• Onion
• Garlic
• Jalapeno Pepper
• Cayenne Powder
• Cumin
• Ancho Chili Powder
• Mexican Oregano
• Cilantro
• Tomatillos
• Chicken Stock
• Corn
• To Serve: Sour cream, Lime wedges, chopped fresh cilantro, and Avocado slices.

For the sake of simplicity, this Chili Verde recipe features a store-bought rotisserie chicken. As the size of a rotisserie chicken varies, the amount of usable chicken will differ from bird to bird. You do not need to have a precise measurement for this ingredient, though somewhere between 3-4 cups of shredded chicken is ideal.

To save time and effort, use a can of Great Northern Beans instead of dried beans. If you do, please omit the bay leaves and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Great Northern Beans have a slightly nutty flavour and keep their shape during cooking, making them perfect for soups, stews, and ragouts. These small white beans take on the flavours of the foods they’re cooked with, making them the ideal choice for this Chili Verde. Cannellini beans and even Pinto Beans will also work in this recipe.

All the flavour for this recipe comes from the Salsa Verde. Don’t be afraid to char the poblano peppers and fresh tomatillos (if using). Other Salsa Verde ingredients include diced onion, minced garlic, finely diced Jalapeno pepper, Cayenne Powder, ground Cumin, Ancho Chili Powder, Mexican oregano, and Cilantro stems and roots.

Feel free to garnish the final dish with any or all of these toppings: Sour cream, Lime wedges, chopped fresh cilantro, and Avocado slices.

How to Make Chicken Chili Verde

There are a few steps to this Chicken Chili Verde recipe, however each step adds another level of flavour to the final dish.

Let’s start by cooking the beans (omit this next part if using canned beans) in an Instant Pot. Place 1 cup dried Great Northern beans in the Instant Pot insert. Cover the beans with 4 cups water, 1/2 teaspoons salt, and add two bay leaves.

Place the lid on the Instant Pot and close the seal. Pressure cook on high setting for 25 minutes (no need to soak beans first), then allow them to depressurize naturally. Drain beans and set aside. Discard bay leaves.

Next, let’s make the Salsa Verde or green chile sauce. Begin by roasting the Poblano chiles (and fresh tomatillos, if using) on a grill or on a baking sheet in the oven until they are charred. Remove peppers from heat and immediately place in a glass bowl. Cover the bowl and allow the peppers to cool.

Once the peppers are cool enough to work with, remove the stems, take out the seeds, and peel as much of the skin off as you can. Place half of the peppers in a high-speed blender and slice the other half. Set the sliced poblano peppers aside in a small bowl.

Next, let’s cook the onions (the sliced onion and diced onion are cooked separately). Add olive oil to a large saucepan or Dutch oven and sauté the sliced onion until it becomes translucent. Remove from saucepan and add them to the bowl of sliced poblanos.

Sauté the diced onion in olive oil until it becomes soft and translucent, then add the finely diced jalapeno, garlic, cayenne powder, ground cumin, and Ancho chili powder. Sauté for another minute or two. Add the oregano and the tomatillos with any liquid that has accumulated.

Next, pour 2 cups chicken stock in the pot and cover. Simmer for 10 minutes then carefully pour the tomatillo mixture into the blender. Add approximately half of the cooked beans and cilantro stems/roots. Process until smooth.

Putting It All Together

Now that the Chile Verde sauce is ready, it’s time to put it all together. Add the shredded chicken, reserved slivered onions and sliced roasted poblanos, corn, and the other half of the beans to the Salsa Verde. Taste and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper as needed. 

At this point, we love to eat this green chile as tacos on corn tortillas or flour tortillas. We’ve even made it into burritos with Mexi-rice, cotija cheese, Pico de Gallo, and sliced avocado.

For a thinner chili best eaten from a bowl, pour in another two cups of chicken stock (add more or less to achieve your preferred consistency) and stir well. Gently heat the Chicken Chili Verde until it reaches a gentle simmer and is heated through, stirring often.

Serve with sour cream, chopped fresh cilantro, a squirt of fresh lime juice and avocado.

Hi! I’m Bernice Hill and am the sole recipe developer, photographer, and writer at Dish ‘n’ the Kitchen. It is my pleasure to share easy to follow recipes that are delicious, nutritious, and approachable for the whole family.

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