So it’s Monday. I’ve been glued to the couch or playing with my niece and nephews all day long. I know there is something I want for dinner tonight, something filling, soul-warming, but not too heavy because I ate a lot on Sunday night. Time to break out some delicious turkey chili recipe!
Full disclosure, I never used to make chili with turkey instead of ground beef. That was sacrilege, something that those weird neighbors down the street did. Then I got older. And the food didn’t dissolve off my body quite as easily. And that doctor keeps on talking about high levels and low levels of some strange thing in my body called cholesterol.
So one day, I asked myself if we could try using ground turkey instead of ground beef and make a Delicious Turkey Chili. Sure, why not? That’s what these recipes are all about, changing, experimenting, trying something new (or sometimes just plain old screwing up and praying for a good outcome).
So, the ad-lib part of this recipe I personally blame on the worker at our local grocery store. I was trying to get the stewed tomatoes at the same time he was stocking the tomatoes. And for some reason, this guy just wouldn’t move. So I reached around his cart, found that stewed tomatoes were on sale 2 for 1, and quickly grabbed up a few cans. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized while the first two were, in fact, regular old stewed tomatoes, the other 3 cans were stewed ITALIAN style tomatoes (almost the same thing but in a basil/thyme/oregano sauce). Well, let’s see how this works out! Delicious Turkey Chili recipe below….
Let’s Make Some Delicious Turkey Chili
Ingredients
- 1 large white onion - chopped
- 5 cloves garlic - chopped
- 1 large green pepper (green capsicum) - chopped
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 70 ounce stewed tomatoes - in whatever can size variation you can muster
- 30 ounce red kidney beans - drained (once again, whatever can size suits)
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- ¾ cup chicken stock (chicken broth or chicken bouillon)
- 3 tablespoons chili powder (chilli powder in British English) - 4 tablespoons if you like it really hot
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1-1.5 pounds ground turkey (minced turkey) - cooked
Optional for garnish
- 1 cup cheddar cheese
- ¼ cup green onions (scallions or green shallots)
- 1 medium avocado - wedge
- 1 cup sour cream
Instructions
- Grab a large pot, turn your stove to medium-high heat and coat the inside with olive oil.
- Cook the onion and green pepper until golden, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, and red pepper, stir together and cook for about a minute.
- Add the stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken stock, kidney beans, oregano, salt, pepper, and finally, the good ole’ COOKED turkey meat. Yes, please do not place raw turkey meat into this chili. We want all the food to stay in our stomachs.
- Bring the entire mixture to a simmer, reduce heat to low, and simmer uncovered for about an hour. Open your windows, and let the whole neighborhood bask in the wafting smells of your cooking glory. Simmer’in away again in ChiliVille
- Add more salt to taste, your favorite ladle, and spoon nice heaping mounds of Delicious Turkey Chili into a bowl. Add garnishes if desired.