Quick Chicken Chili

This Quick Chicken Chili is an easy weeknight meal. It's quick to make last minute, but it gets bonus points for being easy to make ahead and easy to freeze too! 

We survived the first week back to school! All of my girls are attending a new school this year, so we had some anxiety about the school year at a new school. But the verdict is in: it's all good. Big sigh of relief from this mama!

The thing I am loving most about school this year is that we can walk. After five years of driving all the way across town to school, it's so wonderful to be able to walk to and from school with the kids everyday. Not only does it save us time, but it's so good to have a reason to get everyone outdoors and moving twice a day.

But even without our commute across town, back to school means back to business. With three kids in school and a toddler at home, there's just no way around it - the weekdays during the school year are so busy! It's time to pull out all of my time saving dinners so that after school, and violin, and piano, and tennis, and swimming, we still get to eat family dinner.

One of my simplest time saving tricks is to always have some Libby's in the pantry. Canned beans, vegetables, and fruits mean I can always come up with something for dinner, even if it's last minute. Relying on Libby's canned fruits and vegetables, means I know that it will be wholesome and taste good too.

We've been enjoying Libby's Vegetable Cups for over a year now in our lunchboxes, but I recently realized they are nice to have on hand for easy dinner shortcuts too. The single-serve, easy-to-open packaging makes them perfect for weeknight meals in a pinch and on-the-go. This Quick Chicken Chili is even faster to make with the addition of Libby's easy to open vegetable cups and it's no exaggeration to say this is one meal that is going to be on our weekly menu indefinitely!  

Esme is in fifth grade this year! This means she's old enough to join the elementary school orchestra, volunteer in the library, and most definitely help me with dinner. I've had my kids helping me in the kitchen for as long as they can remember, but she's finally reached the point where I can give her tasks that she can carry out mostly unsupervised. She can make scrambled eggs, smoothies, rice, pasta, and her signature tomato soup entirely on her own. It's fantastic!

When we make chicken chili, I still help with cutting and cooking the meat. But now, she can do the rest! It's really simple, of course, to open a few cans of beans and pull the tops of the vegetable cups, but she's also able to taste a recipe and adjust the salt and spices now.

She's proud and I'm even prouder. I'm also just so happy to have such a useful kitchen helper. The only thing better than a quick and easy dinner recipe is a kid who wants to make it for you!

This Quick Chicken Chili really comes together in a snap. It's a dinner for those nights when you have less than an hour to make it all happen, which is almost every night during the school year at our house. Best of all, you can even make this ahead of time and you can freeze it!

Serve it with the toppings of your choice - shredded cheese, sour cream, plain yogurt, avocado chunks, tortilla chips. I don't make it spicy, because kids, but you can. This Chicken Chili is lighter than its red meat cousin, and you can feel good about serving a wholesome family meal even if it only took you 30 minutes to make it! That's my kind of family dinner.

Yield: 4 to 6

Quick Chicken Chili

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Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 medium red bell pepper, chopped (optional)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into ½ inch cubes
• ¼ cup water
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 2 (15 oz) cans Black Beans
• 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 to 4 Libby's (4oz) Vegetable Cups Whole Kernel Sweet Corn

Instructions

1. In a Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, and bell pepper if using, and saute for 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Raise the heat to medium high and add the chicken cubes. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes, or until the chicken has lost all of its pink color. Stir in the water and spices, then add the tomatoes. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Stir in the beans and corn. Cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Serve warm and garnish with toppings (avocado, cheese, sour cream, cilantro, tortilla chips) as desired.

Visit Libby's at http://www.getbacktothetable.com/ for more recipes, products, and coupons too! You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.

A few more of our favorite dinner recipes from Libby's:

El Paso Polenta Pie 

Rob's Favorite Casserole 

Mediterranean Meatloaf