Leftover Chicken Chili

August 6, 2025 /

Faced with leftover chicken in my fridge, and looking to have something besides chicken and green salad, I went in search of a recipe for chili that used cooked chicken. I found this recipe, and decided to give it a try. I had some Penzey’s fajita seasoning in my cupboard that I hadn’t tried yet, so I used that rather than the spice blend she details. I did not sauté my onions with salt, as there was already salt in the seasoning. I doubled the recipe, and used 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes, and 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes with green chilis. I made a separate batch for Maya, a single batch with fake chicken, and for that one I used a can of seasoned black beans, and unsalted fire roasted tomatoes (since the fake chicken is salty, and the black beans were seasoned). I topped it with a bit of cheese. It was a hit, both Ted and Maya said it was delicious. The recipe below is as written, I just copied and pasted here. Sorry for the blah photo.

Leftover Chicken Chili

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large onion
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • ¾ teaspoon chili powder
  • ¾ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ¾ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon onion powder
  • ½ teaspoon oregano
  • pinch cinnamon
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 1 can black beans drained and rinsed
  • Approx 8oz leftover chicken around half a rotisserie chicken, roughly chopped.

Directions

  • Heat oil in a pan and fry onion and salt over a low heat until soft, around 10 minutes.
  • Add garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.
  • Add spices and cook for a further 2 minutes
  • Add tomatoes and stock. Bring to the boil and let it bubble for around 15 minutes.
  • Add beans and chicken to the pan and continue to simmer for a further 15 minutes to allow the flavors to combine and you have a rich thick sauce.

Note: I used 1 Tblsp of Penzey’s Fajita blend instead of the salt and spices listed. Since I doubled the recipe, I used 2 Tblsp.

13 Comments