Turkey Chili

Turkey Chili

I'll start out by saying that a turkey chili recipe is not something that I would have chosen to make on my own. However, a request came home from Grace's school for people to sign up for various food items to bring to school for a teacher appreciation week lunch. One of the main course items on the list was turkey chili. We'd never made one before, but had time on Sunday to do this, so that's what we did.

We routinely make a Texas Red chili (no beans of course) and a White Chicken Chili, but didn't have a handy recipe for a turkey chili. A little quick Googling allowed us to synthesize the following recipe by blending a few different simple recipes together. We made it, tasted it (it was really good!) and sent it off to school. No leftovers came home, but the kids, having tasted it while I was making it, asked that we make it again for ourselves at home. So we did, and had it for dinner tonight.

Ingredients:

• A few glugs of olive oil
• 2 pounds of ground turkey (I used 1 lb each of ground breast and ground thigh for a mix of light and dark meat)
• 2 medium onions, medium dice
• 2.5-3 cups chicken broth (or a 32 oz package if you've gone heavy-handed on the other ingredients)
• 1 large (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 regular (14 oz) cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed (white beans or kidneys would be fine)
• 1-2 Anaheim or other mild/medium heat green chili pepper, fine dice
• 3 cloves garlic, minced

Spice Mix:

• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1-2 TB chili powder (I used half chipotle and half store bought generic "chili powder"...in deference to the kids we do this on the lighter end and season again for ourselves at the end)
• 1 tsp smoked paprika (the chipotle and the smoked paprika combine to give a very nice smoky flavor)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp ground cumin, plus a little more
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• a dash of dried mustard
• a dash of ground coriander

Steps:

1. Heat some olive oil in a dutch oven or other heavy large pot over high heat. When shimmering, add the turkey, breaking it up, stirring and cooking it until it is mostly cooked (5 or 6 minutes).
2. Add the onion, minced garlic and green chili pepper and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Add the spice mix and stir to distribute. Cook for a minute or two.
4. Add the remaining ingredients (broth, tomatoes and beans). Bring to a boil. Partly cover, reduce to a low simmer and cook for an hour.
5. Check periodically while the dish simmers and add a little more chicken broth if needed (I didn't). You want a good chili consistency, not too thick and not too soupy.

...and a beverage

Some recipes of this type call for the beans to be mashed before adding them, which will serve to thicken the sauce, but I have found that a longer cooking time combined with a routine stirring will cause the beans to begin to break down, giving much the same effect with a slight bit less trouble.

This ended up being a surprisingly good recipe. I would make it (significantly) hotter if it was just for me, but in deference to the kids the above is a manageable amount of heat. This could also prove to be a versatile recipe, as there are a number of other variations on this that come to mind (more fresh peppers, a few nuggets of a spicy sausage, etc).

I would give this high marks for combination of little effort (we made it again on a week night), minimal cleanup, low cost and good flavor. Making this amount for a family of four will also do 2-3 meals, so this is a good recipe to make on a weekend and then have for an easy dinner or two during the following week.