Oh Turkey Chili… today would be a perfect day for you! If only I had pulled out some ground turkey to thaw. Hmph…
Well, anyway… here’s how you make it. You’ll need the following items: ground turkey, kidney beans, chili beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, diced green chiles, chicken stock, a yellow onion, garlic, worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper, chili powder, salt, pepper and cumin. (amounts listed below in actual recipe)
Also, we put a cooling topping that include fat free greek yogurt (Fage), green onions, salt/pepper. And of course you’ll want some cheese to top it all off… right?
So, let’s do this… first off, let’s cut and saute the onion. Here’s my tip on cutting onions. Cut the onion in half and peel the skin off. Leave the onion attached to the root end (which keeps the slices from sliding all over the board) and cut thin slices of the onion. It’ll fan out, like below.
Then cut the slices in the opposite direction, and the cuts will all be about the same size. And you’ve not cut through the root end more than you had to, which is the potent part of the onion (which is typically what makes us cry). Noting, there are many other things that make us cry… but I”m just talking about the task of cutting onions.
(wink, wink)
See? The dice is all rather uniform, for the most part.
Heat up some oil in a large sauce pot (i use a homemade garlic-infused olive oil for almost all my cooking), and add the onion, seasoning the onion with a little bit of kosher salt and cracked black pepper. Saute over medium heat until transluscent.
Add the ground turkey and break it up with a large wooden spoon.
While the turkey is cooking, dice up the garlic cloves … I’ve learned over time that adding the garlic in with the onions might result in burned garlic. Typically I do not add the garlic until there are other items in the pot (which lowers the temps, which prevents the burning of garlic).
Once the meat is just about done, then add the garlic. The small pieces of garlic will have plenty of time to “cook”…
Then the spices go in… I added about a teaspoon of ground cumin, a tablespoon of chili powder, one to two shakes of cayenne pepper, kosher salt and cracked black pepper. (Then I realized I wanted some more ground cumin and added another shake or two.)
Once I got the meat seasoned about how I like it then I added the drained kidney beans, the small can of diced green chiles…
And then the chili beans… gotta love those chili beans! Such great flavor in this sauce!
Time for the tomatoes … one whole can of diced tomatoes.
And then the chicken stock…
And about half of the can of tomato sauce…
Oh yes, my flavor weapon for this dish… W sauce. (Don’t ask me to verbally name this for you… I can’t do it.)
Adding a touch of the W Sauce gives this the depth of flavor that you’re used to with a red meat chili…
Then stir it all up and let it simmer for at least a half hour. If you’ve planned it all out in decent form then you can let it set on the stove top for a few hours before rewarming it for dinner. In my opinion, chili (and most soups for that matter) are typically better after cooling down and reheating again (and an overnight “hang out session” in the refrigerator is even better in most cases).
Right before we heat it back up and enjoy I make a quick topping for the chili… it consists of fat-free greek yogurt, green onions and salt/pepper. This is our new form of sour cream…
Add a bit of kosher salt/cracked black pepper and stir it into the yogurt with some of the green onions.
Top the chili with the yogurt mix and some cheese… and there ya have it! The best darn (Turkey) Chili this side of the Rockies… if you don’t mind me saying so myself!
Turkey Chili
Ingredients
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 5 garlic cloves, diced
- 20 ounces ground turkey
- 1 can kidney beans (drained)
- 1 can pinto beans (drained)
- 1 can chili beans
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 can tomato sauce
- 7 ounces diced green chiles
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- pinch of cayenne (or more/to your desired heat level)
- kosher salt
- cracked black pepper
Instructions
Diced onion and saute in large sauce pot. Once the onions are softened, add the ground turkey and mix until cooked through. Add garlic and dried spices and stir/cook for a few more minutes. Add drained kidney beans, UNdrained chili beans, chicken stock, diced green chiles, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce; bring to a slow boil and stir. Cover pot and reduce heat tolow and allow mix to simmer for at least 30 minutes.
You can serve immediately. But if you’re allowing the chili to “cowboy up”, you can let it sit on the stove top (no heat)until it’s time for dinner and then rewarm before serving.
Sooooo very worth it!
Lori J. Tisdale 