How does a comforting bowl of chili that you can make in 35 minutes or less sound?
A good chili recipe is something I feel like everyone needs in their culinary arsenal. As I mentioned in my White Turkey Chili with Mushrooms post, I always associate chili with Halloween because my mom always makes chili on Halloween every year.
When I lived in Seattle, I lived above a grocery store that was sort of like a smaller, local Whole Foods. When we first were moving in, we had most of our meals there while our belongings were still in boxes. One of my favorite things to get from there was their chili. I decided to be “that girl” and ask if I could have the recipe because it was that tasty. The chef was super nice and scratched it out for me on a piece of scrap paper, warning me that it was scaled for mass production so it might not be perfect. I did have to play around with it to get it just right, but it’s become my go-to.
It keeps well, tastes better the next day, and even freezes well. For a while after I moved to Durango from Seattle, I was shipping frozen bags of it on dry ice to a client I used to prepare meals for back in Seattle.
Yesterday I whipped up a batch for a friend here in town who’s having a little ankle surgery tomorrow. She’ll be down-for-the-count so I wanted to leave her with something easy she could easily heat up and cozy up to since she won’t be on her feet much, let alone cooking for the rest of the week.
Unfortunately, it hardly seems fitting since it’s a balmy 70 degrees here in Durango today. I’m not complaining!!!
- 2 pounds ground turkey (I usually use 90% - 99% lean)
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon chipotle chili pepper powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
- 28 oz. can tomato sauce
- 28 oz. water
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 green bell peppers, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- Greek yogurt (or sour cream)
- green onion, sliced
- shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add the ground turkey to the pan, breaking it up with a spoon. (If using 99% lean, add a little oil/fat to the pan before adding the turkey to prevent sticking.)
- Optional: once the turkey is cooked, if a lot of liquid remains, drain it off before proceeding.
- To the cooked turkey, add the chili powder through black pepper and cook about one minute.
- Add the crushed tomatoes through the red bell peppers. Bring to a slow boil and cook about 15 minutes, until pepper and onions softened.
- (If you're using beans, add them and cook until heated through.)
- Serve with your favorite toppings. I like greek yogurt, green onion, and sharp cheddar!
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