4 Bean Chicken Chili – A 15 Minute Pantry Meal
What could be faster than fast food?
A pantry meal!
This pantry meal idea is so simple your ten year old could make dinner.
I often get asked what I do with all the food I can all summer. This recipe is just one answer. Home canned food is the epitome of fast food. Since the ingredients are already cooked, a meal made from pantry staples often just needs to be heated through before it’s on the table.
Two quick points of note:
1 – I often can ingredients, not meals. That means I can meat, beans, tomatoes, etc… I don’t can chili, soup, or other dishes. This leaves me more flexible. I can combine my meat and beans and tomatoes to make chili. Or I can use my meat with pasta. Or I can make a seasoned bean dish with my beans. See what I mean? Canning ingredients gives me more flexibility with my finished products.
2- You don’t have to be a home canner to make this meal, or any other pantry meal. I personally love to grow my own food and have built my life and goals around being able to do that. But a lot of people don’t love that life, or it isn’t currently possible for them. You can make any pantry meal with store bought products you get from the grocery store. Just because you don’t garden or can doesn’t mean you can’t have a stocked pantry! And don’t get me started on all the reasons to have a stocked pantry.
So what makes this pantry meal so fast and magical?
It’s dump and heat. Literally. Since all the ingredients are cooked, you just combine them in a soup pot and heat them through. When they’re warm enough to eat your dinner is ready.
Additional magic lies in the fact that it doesn’t require babysitting. You should stir it occasionally while it’s heating through, but other than that you can be getting optional toppings ready, getting drinks ready, switching the laundry….you get the drift.
If you like posts like this one, you might be interested in my list of many ways I like to use beans!
| Prep Time | 5 minutes |
| Cook Time | 10 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 1 10-15 oz can chicken
- 1 15 oz can black beans
- 1 15 oz can pinto beans
- 1 15 oz can white beans navy, cannellini, great northern, any white bean will do
- 2 15 oz cans mexican-style tomatos such as rotel
- 1 11 oz can mexican-style corn
- 1/2 cup dried onion flakes OR 1 cup fresh onion chopped fine
- 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons salt I can without salt so if you're using store bought cans with salt in them you might want to wait until you taste it to salt.
- optional toppings in the south we like corn chips, shredded cheddar, green onion, sour cream, and hot sauce
Ingredients
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- Add everything straight into a large pot (except the toppings of course). No need to drain. Break up the chicken if necessary. Heat on medium high, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Dish out and top as desired!
This is a great recipe to rotate through canned goods too! I have lots of beans, corn, & tomatoes stocked up that I’ve bought at the store over the years. This will be a great way to work through them!
Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by!
This looks delicious! I love the picture of homemade canned beans. I’ve never seen one before so I was curious. I cook and freeze a lot of beans but have never canned them. And I use them a lot! So I agree, it’s awesome to have a stocked pantry and they’re so fast and so healthy. I’ll be checking out your other posts with beans. Thanks!
Thanks for stopping by the blog! I used to freeze a lot of beans too! They’re easy to can though and I like having them shelf stable in case the power goes out.
This looks like a convenient and mouthwatering go-to. I love Mexican and anything that I can make from my pantry is an automatic win. Pinned to my dinner board and excited to give this a shot!
Awesome! And since you like Mexican food you might want to add chili powder too!
This looks so delicious. we love chili in our house. I can’t wait to try it.