Change Android CheckBox box's color programmatically (support library)?

I'm trying to change the checkbox box's color programmatically to a different color than the theme's default. The problem is I was doing something like this:

checkbox.setSupportButtonTintList(ColorStateList);

It works but it seems, according its class documentation, this method has been restricted to be used only by classes from the same package (com.android.support). This is the warning I got from Android Studio:

AppCompatCheckBox.setSupportButtonTintList can only be called from within the same library group (groupId=com.android.support)

Is there a standard/correct way of doing this for all API levels?