Spicy Turkey Chili is the ultimate dish to serve at your game day gatherings, especially now that the weather is turning cooler. What’s even better is that this chili recipe can be made ahead of time and reheated right before the big game. Also, any leftovers can be frozen.
Spicy Turkey Chili is thick, robust, and full of flavor. This easy chili recipe brings together healthy ground turkey with spicy tomatoes, onions, garlic, and black beans with a perfect blend of seasonings.
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Serve this Spicy Turkey Chili topped with shredded cheese and sour cream alongside cornbread or tortilla chips for a quintessential one-dish meal. Alternatively, top your nachos with this chili or use this chili for a delicious taco salad.
If you’d prefer a beef-based chili, you can substitute ground beef for ground turkey. For a vegetarian chili, substitute red lentils for the meat. I prefer black beans in my chili, but you could also use kidney beans or omit the beans altogether.
Whatever the variation, this chili recipe is sure to become a favorite like it is for me.
Game Day Spicy Turkey Chili
Serves 6
Ingredients
1 ¼ pounds lean ground turkey
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped (about 1 ½ cups)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
Freshly ground black pepper to taste (about ¼ teaspoon)
20 ounces (2 10-ounce cans) Rotel Original Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies
16 ounces (2 8-ounce cans) tomato sauce
16-ounce can of black beans, drained and rinsed well
Shredded Colby jack or cheddar cheese
Sour Cream for garnish, if desired
Chopped green onions or chives for garnish if desired
Tortilla chips to serve on the side
Directions
Cook and crumble ground turkey in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until browned. Pour into a colander and rinse with hot water until the water runs clean. Take handfuls and rub between hands to crumble into fine pieces. Rinse again.
Heat olive oil in the same Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions; sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add minced garlic; sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add browned turkey, flour, chili powder, cumin, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and oregano. Stir to mix well. Add Rotel Tomatoes and tomato sauce; mix well. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 1 hour. Add black beans; cover and simmer for an additional 30 minutes.
Serve chili in bowls topped with shredded cheese, sour cream, and chopped green onion tops. Serve Fritos scoops or tortilla chips on the side.
Yield: 6 servings.
Chula’s Tips
- I used 93% lean ground turkey. You may think it odd to rinse the cooked turkey. However, the rinsing removes any residual grease, and the real taste of this chili comes from the other ingredients. Also, the reason that I rub the cooked turkey between my hands is that I like the meat in my chili crumbled into fine pieces.
- You may also use ground beef in place of turkey. For a vegetarian chili, substitute ¾ cup of dry red lentils for the ground turkey and add a 15-ounce can of well-drained corn.
- This chili recipe can also be made in a slow cooker. To make it in a slow cooker simply follow the recipe up to and including the step where you add the Rotel tomatoes and tomato sauce. Once that step is complete, transfer everything over to a slow cooker and cook, covered on low for about five hours. Then add the black beans and cook for an additional hour.
- For a variation, serve warm chili on a bed of shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes to make a taco salad. Garnish with chopped onions, crushed tortilla chips, and shredded cheese. For another variation, top your nachos with this delicious chili.
- One of my favorite things to serve with this chili is cornbread. You could also serve breadsticks, quesadillas, grilled cheese sandwiches, salad, coleslaw, or hot dogs.
- Leftovers, if any can be refrigerated for several days and reheated. Leftovers can also be frozen for later use.
Chula King is the blogger behind PudgeFactor.com.
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