Ground Chicken Chili
This Ground Chicken Chili recipe is flavorful, satisfying, and quick and easy to make using everyday pantry staples. Perfect for busy weeknight dinners and your weekly meal prep.
Suitable for gluten free diets. Low Carb option and Weight Watchers Points included.

Recently I posted a White Chicken Chili recipe, so naturally today I must post a ground chicken chili recipe because the more chili, the better, right??
I made this along with Cornbread Casserole, on the same snowy day as the White Chicken Chili and my helpful kitchen mini chefs declared each recipe ‘very very good.’
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‘Very very good’ is the mini chef’s version of a Michelin 3-star rating, so you know this is a gooood chili recipe.
While I love a good Beef Chili Recipe, I admit my favorites are those made with chicken (or turkey, which you can sub in this recipe).
I love the light, fresh flavor of chicken chili. It has all the good flavors of a beef-based chili but feels a bit lighter on the stomach.
And if you love chicken recipes as much as I do, then you’ll want to check out Instant Pot Chicken Fajitas, and this easy guide on How Long To Boil A Whole Chicken.

Why You’ll ♡ This
- Quick and easy. This is a one-pot meal that cooks in just 30 minutes.
- It uses common store cupboard staples. No hard-to-find ingredients in this chili, nope.
- Versatile. You can adapt the flavors to suit your taste, and even easily adapt to a mak it a low carb chili (see the how to section below).
- It is ZERO WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS. Yeap, that fact deserves capital letters. If you use a calorie-controlled cooking spray instead of oil, this contains 0 Weight Watchers Blue Plan SmartPoints.
Ingredients Notes
- Ground Chicken – Feel free to use ground chicken breast, a mix of ground dark and white meat, or swap in ground turkey instead of chicken.
- Chicken Stock – You can use vegetable broth or even water instead of the chicken stock.
- Balsamic Vinegar – A must-have! This adds complexity and great depth of flavor to this dish.
- Chopped Tomatoes – This recipe calls for plain canned chopped tomatoes. To add even more flavor, you can use canned diced tomatoes with green chilis. Or if you happen to have fresh tomatoes on hand, feel free to use those instead.
Handy Tip: Use Good Kitchen Tools!
For the best tools to help make your recipe even easier and more successful, check out my collection of the Best Kitchen Tools on Amazon.
How To Make Ground Chicken Chili
Get the complete ingredients list and instructions from the recipe card below.
- Heat oil in a pot over medium heat, add the onion and pepper and sauté for 5 minutes until softened.
- Stir in the garlic, followed by the ground chicken, making sure to break it up.
- Once chicken is browned, add in the beans, spices, chopped tomatoes, chicken stock, balsamic vinegar, and salt, stirring to combine.
- Cover the pot (leaving slightly ajar) and simmer for 25 minutes until slightly thicker and liquid has reduced.
- Add toppings of your choice and serve.

Recipe Tips
- You can substitute the kidney beans with black-eyed beans, Borlotti beans (cranberry beans), pinto beans, etc.
- Like it hot? Add cayenne pepper, diced jalapeño, or a dash of hot sauce.
- Here are some of my favorite things to use to make this recipe. How many of these do you have already?
Flavor Variations
Try some, or all, of these tasty topping ideas:
- Crispy Tortilla chips.
- Pumpkin seeds
- Sour cream
- Grated cheese
- Chopped green onions
- Black olives
- Avocado slices

Meal Prep and Prep Ahead
- Prep Ahead – This ground chicken chili recipe is so easy to make. And you can prep and store the ingredients, ready to dump and start in the refrigerator until you’re ready to bake them.
- Store – Store in an airtight container inside the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Freeze – Allow to cool down completely then transfer into Ziploc Freezer bags. Squeeze out all the extra air and seal the bags. Label the bags and then lay them flat in the freezer. Store in the freezer for 3 months.
- Reheat – Add to a saucepan and reheat on the stove for 10-12 minutes, or until warmed through.
- Meal Prep – Easily double or triple this recipe to feed a crowd, or as part of your weekly meal prep.
FAQs
To make a chicken chili slow cooker version, follow the recipe until the end of step 2. Then transfer everything to your slow cooker and cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. Soooo easy!
To make low carb chicken chili, substitute the high-carb beans with a low carb vegetable, such as cauliflower or zucchini. Use 2 cups (215g) of chopped vegetables instead of the beans.
You can also replace the beans in the recipe with black soy beans which are naturally low in carbs.
Serving Suggestions
- Instant Pot Brown Rice.
- Instant Pot Pumpkin Cornbread (folks, this recipe is sooooo good!)
- Instant Pot Baked Sweet Potato.
- Easy Polenta Fries.
- Jalapeno strawberry margaritas.

More Chicken Recipes
- Smothered Chicken.
- Easy Chili Chicken. (a different take on chicken and chili)
- Instant Pot Chicken and Potatoes.
- Delicious Boiled Chicken Tenders.
- Chicken Broccoli Casserole.
- Or you can try this veggie 3 Bean Chili Recipe.
Weight Watchers Points
There are 0 Blue Plan SmartPoints in a serving of this if you replace the oil with a calorie-controlled cooking spray.
Thank you for reading my ground chicken chili recipe post. And please come visit again as I continue to slice, dice and dream up affordable Air Fryer recipes, Instant Pot Recipes, Southern Recipes and more. Thanks for supporting Recipes from a Pantry, food blog.
Originally published Feb 2018.
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Ground Chicken Chili
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 onion finely diced
- 1 red bell pepper deseeded and finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 pound (453g) ground chicken
- 15 ounces 1 can (260g) kidney beans rinsed and drained
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander optional (but adds great flavor!)
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 14 ½ ounces 1 can (250g) chopped tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat oil in pan over medium heat, add the onion and pepper and sauté for 5 minutes until softened.
- Stir in the garlic followed by the ground chicken, making sure to break it up.
- Once chicken has browned, add in the beans, spices, chopped tomatoes, chicken stock, balsamic vinegar, and salt, mixing well.
- Cover the pot (leaving slightly ajar) and simmer for 25 minutes until slightly thicker and the liquid has reduced.
- Serve with toppings of your choice.
Notes
Recipe Tips
- Feel free to swap in ground turkey for the ground chicken.
- You can also substitute the kidney beans with black-eyed beans, Borlotti beans (cranberry beans), pinto beans, etc.
- Like it hot? Add cayenne pepper, diced jalapeño, or a dash of hot sauce.
Flavor Variations
Try some, or all, of these tasty topping ideas:- Tortilla chips
- Pumpkin seeds
- Sour cream
- Grated cheese
- Chopped green onions
- Black olives
- Avocado slices
Weight Watchers Points
There are 0 Blue Plan SmartPoints in a serving of this if you replace the oil with a calorie-controlled cooking spray.Serving Suggestions
- Instant Pot Brown Rice
- Spring Onion and Bacon Cornbread (folks, this recipe is sooooo good)
- Instant Pot Sweet Potato
- Polenta Chips
I thought this soup was just excellent and so easy to make!! I added a small can of diced green chilis!!
followed to a tee and was very watery. used 28 oz diced tomatoes with 2 lbs ground chicken. yuck. terrible+
Bintu
This is a fantastic recipe for an easy dinner. I like how you have offered details and the extra notes for every step.. Lovely click.
looks great!
https://trexrun.co
The food you make is very good. Very nice decoration. This is a great dish for every meal.
Thank you so much dear! have a nice daycustom essay writing
I love a slow cooker meal, and this chili looks so good!
This looks so flavorful!
This looks so cozy and delicious! My kind of meal!
LOVE chili! Awesome that you have IP instruction on here too, I am in love with my IP and this is the perfect recipe for it! I also love the background you use here for your photos – did you make it or buy it?
I bought the background, I am not creative with backgrounds ๐
I made this chicken chili and it was delicious. I did top with sliced avocado and greek yogurt in lieu of sour creamโฆmmm mmmm good! Thank you.
No such thing as too much chili! ๐ Love that it’s such a versatile recipe, too.
Love how versatile this is and can be cooked using different methods! I’m loving my Instant Pot right now!
I made this chicken chili and it was delicious. I did top with sliced avocado and greek yogurt in lieu of sour cream…mmm mmmm good! Thank you.