Honey Ghee and Me

Slow Cooker Quinoa Chicken Chili

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This is a hearty, healthy, fool-proof chili (or is it a soup? a chili soup?) packed with protein.  Like majorly packed with protein… chicken, black beans, and quinoa make every spoonful a little protein explosion!  This isn’t a chili in the sense that it’s spicy or chili-flavored (you know, that beany meaty kind…), but it’s stocked with beans, corn, peppers, onion, garlic, chicken, and quinoa, so call it what you want… I’d say chili-ish in nature 🙂  The beauty of the recipe is it’s ease.  You can take the time to use fresh ingredients, but if you’re headed out to work or have a busy day planned, getting some help from the store is no prob with this…

A couple important notes: first, as with all of my slow cooker meals, I steer clear from too much salt.  The beauty of a slow cooker is, well the slow cooking- the tender meat, steeped flavors, and ease.  The risky part is that you can’t taste along the way as you can with stove-top meals.  Can’t you imagine what a bummer it’d be to throw together a slow-cooker meal, be excited alllll day while you wait for it to cook, come home ready and anxious to eat, and then find that it’s horribly salty or over-spiced?  Blah.  No good.  So instead, I’d rather error on the under-salted side if anything, and then add more at the end if needed.  Plus, everyone has different preferences when it comes to salt and pepper and such, so I opted to play it on the safer side and let you make it more salty at the end if you want 🙂

The other note is more specific to this recipe in particular.  Often times with slow-cooker soups, you add everything at the beginning and then when it’s done it’s done.  This is mostly true for this one, but there’s one difference… the quinoa soaks up a bunch of liquid.  So at the end you’ll add a wee more chicken broth to get the exact consistency you want- just a heads up so when you open the lid to your slow-cooker and see your soup is crazy thick, you’ll know this is normal/part of the process 🙂

The soup is great right out of the pot or…. you can top it with melted cheesy goodness for an extra comforting bowl of goodness.

INGREDIENTS

2 chicken breasts, boneless/skinless

2 cups whole black beans (1 can)

2 cups diced fire-roasted tomatoes (1 can)

2 cups corn kernels (1 can)

1 1/2 cups chopped onion

1/2 cup bell pepper (I used red)

3 cloves garlic (about 2 tbsp)

1 tbsp diced Serrano pepper (seeds removed, unless you like heat)

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth (homemade is best, but a good quality store-bought will do the trick)

1/8 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp ground chili chipotle

1/2 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

3/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 bay leaf

3/4 – 1 cup quinoa (uncooked- the more you add, the thicker the soup will be)

extra chicken broth (to thin after cooking), about 2 cups

extra salt and pepper, to taste

for garnish: cheese, avocado, and chopped green onion

*This meal was made to be easy and simple… if you’d like to use fresh ingredients, by all means please do!  Soaked beans, roasted garden tomatoes, and corn right off the cob would be delicious and clearly preferred if you have the time!!

DIRECTIONS

Pour beans, corn, and tomatoes in Crock Pot

Roughly chop onion and garlic

Add to pot

Dice bell pepper

And Serrano…

(they are typically green, fyi… I picked this guy a little late from my garden)

Remove seeds (unless you want it extra spicy!) and then dice

Add to pot

Add chicken broth and stir it all up!

Add all spices/herbs and bay leaf

Add quinoa and stir

Place chicken breasts in soup- immerse completely in liquid

Cover and cook on high for about 4 hours or on low for about 7-8

Keep in mind the quinoa will soak up a lot of the liquid- pretty much all of it, so if you open your

pot and see it’s thick, don’t worry!  This is why extra broth is written into the ingredients list…

You’ll notice when you stir it, the chicken will be so tender it’ll

fall apart right there in the pot- just what we want!

Remove bay leaf

Add chicken broth- about 2 cups, until you have a consistency you like

Now you’ll have something like this… much better!

(The pot will heat up the broth so it’s all well-mixed and evenly warm)

Taste the soup and adjust seasonings as you want- as I mentioned in the intro, I play it on the

safe side when using my slow cooker- I’d rather have to add salt and pepper

later rather than have a meal that’s too salty!!

Add whatever you need to make it to your liking!

Serve up in bowls…

Optional- top with grated cheese (who doesn’t love melted cheese on their chili!?)

Top with chopped green onions and avocado

Enjoy!!

(Leftovers will keep well for a few days in fridge)
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Comments

  1. This recipe looks great! And, since I work at Trader Joe’s, should find almost all the ingredients very easily! 🙂

    • Hello there! That’s a great question. I have only made it in the Crock Pot, but if you do not have one, I would recommend coking the quinoa and chicken separately and then adding them into the chili mix/soup. Quinoa usually only takes about ten minutes (cook according to directions on box) and you can cook the chicken either on the stove-top or in the oven and then shred it and add it in. I hope that helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions… I will certainly try to answer them the best that I can!! 🙂

  5. Will try this the next time I make white bean chili–just made it a couple of days ago and wish I had seen this before–not “doing” tomatoes and peppers right now to see if it relieves some arthritis discomfort, but love quinoa.

    • Mmm white beans with this would be delish! So sorry to hear of your discomfort… you could substitute other veggies that you like in place of them, Maybe veggies that go well with white beans such as kale or butternut squash? Just a thought… makes me want to try it now haha 🙂

  6. So I followed this gluten free recipe, however, it does not state to buy GLUTEN FREE CHICKEN BROTH… guess I’ll be the only one eating this 🙁

    • So sorry to hear your frustration. I’m not sure which chicken broth you bought, but a good quality broth should not have gluten in it. It’s always a good idea to read the ingredients list though if you have a dietary concern… do you mind if I ask what brand broth you used?

      • College Inn low sodium. I am actually eating it right now and it is delicious! The recipe was exactly right with adding the broth at the end and I couldn’t believe how easily the chicken shredded. My boyfriend is recently GF and this is my first fail-oops!

        • I’m so sorry about that… I suppose I should emphasize the need to make sure, I had just never personally bought a broth that had gluten in it so it didn’t come to mind. I did some research and found this page- http://naturalandfree.blogspot.com/p/allergy-friendly-bullionsstocksbroths.html… it shows all of the brands of chicken broths, bouillon, etc without gluten and which to avoid. Hopefully it helps in the future! Unfortunately, College Inn is one of the few on the avoid list… I have never seen that brand, so had no idea to tell people to avoid it! 🙁 Now I know!! I am happy to hear you enjoyed the dish though 🙂 (And thanks for the chicken broth brand education!)

  8. instructions say to remove bay leaves, but they are not listed in the ingredients…. not sure if I should add them?

    • Oh my, you are right! I’m surprised no one else has caught that yet… including myself! So sorry!! I went ahead and corrected it. Thank you so much for pointing that out! 🙂

  12. Hi! I’m wondering if you drained your beans, corn and tomatoes? Typically I would, but the photo of the step looks pretty juicy 🙂 It seems like that could really change the flavor if I got it wrong.

    • Great question! You are right, I left the juices in with everything 🙂 If you don’t, no biggie though since you will be adding in more broth at the end. Thanks for asking!!

  13. I made this last night (no corn since it’s not a favorite around my house), and it is really really good. I wasn’t expecting the quinoa to blend in so well, but it has a really good traditional chili consistency. I just made sure there was enough broth at the beginning to let the chicken disappear underneath. Extra broth didn’t hurt it because the spice and herb blend was still perfect. Just added a bit of salt and more broth after it was cooked, and done! Love it! Definitely a keeper!

  14. Is there any nutritional information? I find it helpful when I track that stuff so I’m wondering if there is any way to find it. Thank you!

    • Hi Kim,
      I don’t have nutritional info… my focus is to use real food ingredients to create healthy recipes, but I do not track the calories, fat, etc. So sorry! Hope you’ll still enjoy a few dishes!! 🙂

  15. DO you have the nutritionla information on this dish. Feeding a diabetic/ celiac and this information is crucial. Thanks!

    • Hi Alexis,
      I do not have the exacts on nutritional info… my focus is to use real food ingredients that are healthy in nature, but I do not track grams of fat, protein, calories, etc… so sorry! I can tell you that it is gluten-free and a very protein-packed meal. If you use all fresh ingredients, it’s optimal for nutrition, of course! 🙂

  16. Hey Natalie, I’m excited to make this. Thanks for such nice recipes. I have a large slow cooker and usually have to check that recipes will work for it (it has to be at least 1/2 way full). Do you have a small or large slow cooker?
    Thanks!

    • Hi Catherine,
      Great question! I have a 4-quart Crock Pot.
      I don’t always have things half way up and they’re always fine… in case that helps. 🙂
      Thanks for popping by and hope you enjoy!!

  19. This looks so good!! When you say “a can of…”, are you referring to a 398ml can, a 796ml or one in between? I put the smaller one in but every time I make a recipe I wonder the same thing lol…. thought I would seek out an answer! Thanks for posting such delicious recipes!

    • Hi Kim! Great question- 15 oz (398 ml) or 2 cups. Of course if you want, you can always add more if you feel it’s needed, but you were correct in thinking the smaller one! 🙂 Thanks for asking. And thanks for the sweet words!!

  20. We have made and loved this recipe for years! Just wondering if you’ve ever adapted it for InstantPot?

    Thanks,
    Angela