Hearty, Delicious Turkey Chili

Hey, I’m John Cannell, and today I’m here. We’re making a hearty, delicious turkey chili. So let’s get started.

Why You’ll Love This

This is one of the recipes that I make every single week. It’s currently in my weekly rotation. I love having turkey chili. It’s a really easy recipe to scale up and just have like a big batch hanging in the fridge. It lasts for at least four days.

Ingredients

• about two tablespoons of olive oil
• an onion
• at least four cloves of garlic
• one bell pepper
• a pound of ground turkey
• a little bit of sliced celery (two or three stocks)
• two 14 ounce cans of diced tomatoes
• One tablespoon of brown sugar
• about three cups red kidney beans (around two cans)
• half a cup of chicken broth (up to one and a half cups)
• two to three tablespoons of cornstarch (optional, for thickening)

For the Spices

• three tablespoons of chili powder
• One tablespoon of cumin
• teaspoon of oregano, dried
• a quarter teaspoon of cayenne
• one teaspoon of salt
• about a quarter teaspoon of cracked black pepper
• a tablespoon of cocoa powder (optional, for depth of flavor)

For the Garnish

• jalapeno
• avocado
• a little bit of cheese
• sour cream

Instructions

1. First off, grab a big pot. I’m using a Dutch oven today and we’re going to add about two tablespoons of olive oil and place it over medium heat until it’s dancing in the pan.
2. While that oil’s heating up, grab an onion and we’re going to give it a nice dice.
3. Grab at least four cloves of garlic. Give your garlic a smash, and we’re going to remove the skin and mince it up.
4. Pop the onion in.
5. Stir this occasionally just so it browns and doesn’t burn.
6. Finish mince in your garlic.
7. Add the minced garlic in as well.
8. Chop one bell pepper.
9. Cook these until the bell pepper is like a crisp tender.
10. Get your spices together. Into the small bowl, I’m going to add three tablespoons of chili powder, one tablespoon of cumin, a teaspoon of dried oregano, a quarter teaspoon of cayenne, one teaspoon of salt, and about a quarter teaspoon of cracked black pepper.
11. My veggies are nicely softened. It’s time to add in a pound of ground turkey.
12. Quickly use the back of your spoon to break this into chunks.
13. Add our spice mixture in. Sprinkle and mix that in.
14. While this starts to brown, add in a little bit of sliced celery.
15. Once you don’t see the pink anymore, it’s time to add in two 14 ounce cans of diced tomatoes.
16. Sprinkle in one tablespoon of brown sugar.
17. Add in about three cups of red kidney beans. Mix those in.
18. I’m going to add in like half a cup of chicken broth right now.
19. Reduce heat to medium low and let this simmer away uncovered for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Cooking Tips

If you do all your prep work ahead of time, good for you. You can just dump in all the veggies right now. Either way, it’s going to work. It’s not a finicky recipe in any way. This is actually one of those things where you can really play around with your ingredients and your spices. I always like to change one thing out just to display with it and have fun. Whenever I make this recipe, it’s never, to be honest, it’s never like this, because I always double or triple it. I’ll even make a quadruple batch sometimes if I know like, you know, I have people over or I just want to like yield planet out. It’s a really easy recipe to scale up and just have like a big batch hanging in the fridge. It lasts for at least four days.

You should know the powder you’re using because sometimes there’s like different heats. So if you have a brand you enjoy, you keep using that brand and if you switch it up, I would add in half the powder and just, you know, add more spice later. If I’m making chili for my family, I always add in a tablespoon of cocoa powder too. But I’m going to admit it today because it’s not for everyone. But I find it really gives you a depth of flavor and just FYI, it’s not sweetened in any way. It’s just the cocoa powder. So it really gives you that like nice deep flavor that I love.

You should always use the darker fatty or ground turkey, not ground turkey breast. I’m sorry if you have to eat it, it’s nonsense. It’s like very low fat and rubbery, so it doesn’t cook well. Okay, it cooks fine. It just doesn’t taste good. That’s the difference. Sometimes, if I’m really in a hurry, I’ll actually like chop my onions and the garlic and everything else. Just put it in a ziploc bag or a glass container, and then come back to it the next day and cook it. So if you’re busy, you can stage the prep work out. You want a little bit of sweetness to kind of balance out all the spices that you have here. If you want a little extra cake, you can add a minced jalapeno or two. Any kind of chili, it’ll be great in here. Some people like a soupier chili. Some people like a more hearty chili. This is how I like mine. Usually, I might add just a little bit of liquid and let it kind of like cook down and thicken up, but you can add in up to one and a half cups of chicken broth. It’s really up to you. If you have someone in the household like I do who does not like anything too soupy, you can add two to three tablespoons of cornstarch to sprinkle it in and bring it to like a full boil for a minute while you stir and it’ll get a really velvety consistency as opposed to being soupy. That’s up to you too.

Serving Suggestions

I’ll serve it with like a ton of like really creamy avocado, little cheese, maybe some fresh salsa, and that’s like what I enjoy. In this recipe, we’re just going to use that as a garnish because it looks really beautiful on top, and you still get all the spice. For me, this has to have jalapeno, avocado, a little bit of cheese and sour cream. It’s very important too. It’s very important. Normally, I just dice the avocado and scoop it out, but today we’ll do things a nicer way. Peel the avocado and give it a slice.

And just like that, you’re ready to enjoy. That is pure flavor. It’s so good and so easy. I hope you had a chance to make this recipe.