Once the cold weather hits I am all about chili. I don’t really have a favorite – I like all kinds and always looking for new recipes to try. So far I have tried a black bean meatless, chunky beef and beans, and chunky black bean and pork. This time around I wanted to try a turkey chili.
I chose a classic turkey recipe from my trusty America’s Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook – I have not made a bad recipe from here yet.
One key tip that I have learned from this cookbook and transfered to other recipes is to add a milk and bread paste to ground turkey or beef to keep it from drying out. I highly recommend not skipping this step. It really does work to keep the meat nice and moist.
The recipe takes a little prep work up front so it is not a dump in the crock and turn on type of recipe. However, what I have learned about slow cooking is sometimes to get the best tasting recipe you have to do a little prep ahead of time. This is fine with me because if the meal doesn’t taste good then the convenience does not really matter.
This turkey chili recipe includes canned chipotle chilis in adobo sauce. If you have little kids be careful using these because it can make a recipe really spicy. The seeds are where all the heat is so I always remove the seeds before I put them into the dish. More than likely, you will have some chilis left over – just stick them in a freezer bag or container and freeze for a later use.
Like many chili recipes this turkey chili freezes great. Good thing because it makes a ton and I actually got 3 dinners out of it.
- 2 slices wheat bread
- ¼ cup 1% milk
- 2 lbs ground turkey
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 medium onions, chopped
- ¼ cup chili powder
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 6 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 2 (15 ounce) cans dark red kidney beans
- 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1½ cups chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 3 chipotle chilis in adobo sauce, seeds removed and minced
- hot sauce optional
- In a large bowl, combine bread and milk into a paste. Mix in turkey, salt, and pepper.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add onions, chili powder, tomato paste, garlic, cumin, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Cook until vegetables are softened, about 5-7 minutes.
- Stir in half the turkey mixture cook for about 5 minutes. Add in the the rest of the turkey and cook until no longer pink. Stir in the tomato sauce and scrape up any brown bits in the pan. Transfer to the slow cooker.
- Stir rest of the ingredients into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours. Mine cooked 6 hours and was on warm for another hour or so and turned out great.
- Serve hot in bowls and add hot sauce to taste if you like.
This chili can be made completely ahead of time and frozen into individual portions and/or batches.To reheat, thaw overnight in the refrigerator then heat on stove or in microwave.
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