Healthy/Hearty Turkey Chilli

A take on my mom’s turkey chilli (also spelt chili or chile) with added inspiration from Kenji over at Serious Eats.

One day when I was young, my mom started using ground turkey instead of ground beef because ~health~ and no one in the family could tell any difference. Use beef if you want though.

I agree with Kenji that making your own chilli paste from scratch makes a substantial difference.

We can pick this up after the recipe, but let me preempt something from the start: I use beans in my chilli because we’re making chili and not soup.

Healthy/Hearty Ground Turkey Chili

jake @ saltandchill.com

A healthy take on the classic American beef chilli (with beans), ideally made with your own chili paste and not chili powder.

The ingredients list is long, but don't let that intimidate you. This is an easy dish!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 2 hours hrs 45 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American, Mexican

Servings 4

Equipment

• Dutch oven or another large pot
• Wooden spoon
• Chef's Knife
• Immersion blender or traditional blender

Ingredients

  

For the Chili Paste

• 4 Dried Dark and Mild Chiles (e.g., Mulato or Ancho) Seeded and cut into small pieces
• 4 Dried Red and Spicy Chiles (e.g., Arbol, Cascabel) Seeded and cut into small pieces
• 2 cups Chicken stock (a whole cube of chicken stock for UK cooks)

For the Chili

• 1 kg Ground Turkey meat
• 1 tbsp Vegetable or olive oil
• 3 cloves Garlic minced
• 1 Medium Yellow Onion finely diced
• 1 Bell Pepper (any colour) chopped
• 2 Jalepeños seeded and finely chopped
• 1 400g can Red Kidney Beans drained and washed
• 1 400g can Black beans drained and washed
• 2 400g can Chopped Tomatoes
• 1 tsp Dried Oregano
• 1/2 cup Chile Paste (or 4 tbsp of chili powder)
• 2 Canned Chipotle Chiles in Adobo sauce finely chopped
• 2 Anchovy filets from a can mashed into a paste
• 1 tbsp Ground cumin
• 1/2 cup tomato paste
• 1 cup Chicken stock (half a cube for UK cooks)
• 1 splash Whiskey
• 1 splash Vinegar-based hot sauce (e.g., Daves, Franks, Texas Pete, Tobasco, etc.)
• Salt as needed

Garnish Options (ranked in order of my peronsal preference)

• Vinegar-based hot sauce
• Cilantro/Corriander
• Fresh Squeezed Lime
• Sliced Jalepeños
• Sliced Avacado
• Chedder and/or Monteray Jack
• Sour Cream
• Diced Yellow or White Onion
• Sourdough bread (reminds me of Atlanta Bread Company's chili served out of bread bowls)
• Tortilla Chips/Crisps

Instructions

 

For the Home Made Chile Paste (borrowed from Kenji)

• After you've deseeded and dismembered your dried chiles, you need to toast them.

  In a dry pan over medium heat, place your chiles in it. Let them roast for 3-5 mins until browned. Stir them around to ensure they are evenly roasted and roast for another 2-4 mins. It should smell quite fragrant.
• Add the chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and let cook for 8 mins until chiles are nice and soft.
• If using an immersion blender to blend, transfer to a bowl and puree the mixture with the wand. Don't worry about getting it completely liquified.

  If using a traditional blender, you'll probably need to let the mixture cool before you add it to avoid any mess. When cool, blend for a while.

  As long as most of the chilis are blended up, you'll be good to go. It will be a liquidy, highly fragrant mix.
• Portion out half a cup and freeze the rest by spooning the mixture into an ice tray. You should be able to get 3-4 tbsp per slot. Next time you want chili, use two cubes.

  Thanks Kenji!

For the Chili

• Put yr cooking oil in yr dutch oven over medium heat. Once hot, add the onions and cook until quite fragrant and golden, but not brown, stirring frequently (4 mins or so).
• Add the chopped bell pepper and jalepeños and continue to stir for another 4 mins.
• Add garlic and dried oregano and stir for 1 min.
• Add the chipotle chiles, anchovies, chile paste, and cumin. Cook for 1 min.
• Add tomato paste and stir in so that everything is well combined. 1 more min of cooking.
• Add ground turkey and break it up using your wooden spoon. Let it cook for 5 mins, stirring occasionally.
• Now add the canned tomatoes, kidney and black beans, and chicken stock. Stir it up so that the ingredients can get to know one another. Bring it to a boil before reducing heat to a simmer.

  Check on your chili every 15 mins or so to stir it. You can take it off and serve after 30 mins, but I'd recommend cooking it for another hour (or more) to ensure maximum flavour.
• Right before serving, add a splash of whisky and hot sauce. Stir it in.

Garnishes

• Add as many different combinations of garnishes as you'd like.

Notes

You can add and subtract ingredients as needed. More beans? Sure. Prefer a milder, less spicy chili, add another bell pepper instead of the jalapeños. 

I’ll also add that the anchovies (another Kenji recommendation), aren’t absolutely essential, but they do add a bit of oompf and body to the chili. If you don’t have any lying around your house, you could sub some soy sauce and a bit oyster and/or fish sauce (around 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and ½ tablespoon of oyster and fish sauce if using both or 1 tablespoon if only using one and not the other). 

 

 

Keyword American Recipes, Traditional American Recipes, Winter Recipes

Post Dinner Drinks

To Bean or Not to Bean

Did you know that there is a protracted ideological war ongoing in the USA as to what properly constitutes chilli? The belligerents are those who (rightly) believe that chillis should contain beans and those who (wrongly) believe it is all about the meat.

To me, without beans, this “chilli” is really just a glorified soup, but apparently these secret leguminophobes believe that you should be using top-grade short-ribs in your chili and beans inexplicably get in the way. Is it any surprise this camp is mostly composed of Texans?

At any rate, you may very well be forced to serve a Texan your chilli. If telling him to leave your house isn’t an option, you can split the dish in two parts right before you add the beans. Just get another pot and apportion to the best of your abilities half the dish.

As a side note, Valeria hates beans in general, which has me wondering if she’s a secret Texan.

On Meat

If you’re not afraid of fat, ground beef can be subbed for this turkey chilli.

I’ve also used brisket, which is great but a slightly different dish (you might say it’s a bit beefier). If you want to use brisket (or short ribs), brown the whole cut of beef on all sides at high heat in the dutch oven and remove it before you start adding onions, etc. Cut the beef into bite-sized chunks when it’s cooled and then add them back in after you’ve added the chicken stock and chili paste.

Citations

We believe in giving credit where credit is due. This dish is a mashup of my ma’s classique turkey chilli dish and some very helpful ideas from Mr. J Kenji Lopez-Alt’s (The Food Lab, New York: WW Norton & Company, 2015). The Food Lab is responsible for teaching me the power of anchovies and whiskey in a dish like chili and why you should make your own chili paste from scratch (as well as how to store it).