Liza's Award-Winning Turkey Chili

I love a good chili on a cold day!  I call this my award-winning chili because it has now won two Best Chili Awards at two different churches I've attended!  This hearty dish tastes a lot like a traditional ground beef chili, but it's healthier because I use ground turkey.  When I first started making it, my husband thought I had gotten his mother's recipe and was surprised to learn I hadn't and that it wasn't made with beef!

Not only has this chili gotten the approval of the judges, but my guys give this savory treat all 9's on the Melnarik rating scale.  I originally got the recipe for turkey chili from my friend, Joyce Giese.   I've made a few changes, over the years, to that original recipe in the amounts of some of the ingredients to make it my own.

I begin by placing the ground turkey and chopped onions into a Dutch oven, cooking them over medium-high heat until the meat is no longer pink and the onions are tender.  I stir this mixture often, breaking up the meat as it cooks.

As I've mentioned before, my first cooking teacher in Jr. High taught that when several dry ingredients are to be added to a dish, it's best to combine them in a small bowl first.  That way it's easier to get them  evenly distributed in the dish.  I always do was I was taught!  Here I combined the chili powder, dried oregano, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and pepper.

Once combined, I add the seasoning mixture to the turkey and onions.  As you can see, ground turkey never browns, it remains pale but no longer pink once it's cooked thoroughly.  

By adding the seasonings directly to the meat, it gets seared to it in the hot pan.  In this case, it also gives it a color that closely resembles cooked ground beef.   That's one of the reasons this chili fools people into thinking it's made with ground beef.

Next, I add the cans of diced tomatoes, stirring to incorporate.

Then I add the kidney beans and stir again.

The chili beans go in next and I stir them into the mixture.  The chili beans I like to use are the S&W brand chili beans in zesty sauce.

Then, I add the diced green chilies and stir to combine.

The last ingredient I add is the stewed tomatoes.  These tomatoes are in bigger pieces than the diced tomatoes I added earlier, so I cut these down to be about the same size as the diced tomatoes.  I guess I just want them to be more uniform in size.

The picture above shows what the chili looks like when all of the ingredients have been assembled and it's ready to cook for a while.  The next step is to bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer it for about 1 1/4 hours.

This next picture shows the chili after it's simmered for 1 1/4 hours.  It's now thicker and richer and if you compare it with the last picture, you can see how much it has reduced in that amount of time.  It's now perfect and ready to serve.  I usually top each bowl with some shredded cheddar cheese and either serve it with piping hot cornbread or Ritz crackers.  When transporting this chili, I take it in a crock pot.    Hint:  When filling a crock pot, always put hot food in a preheated crock pot and cold food in a cold crock pot so the ingredients can heat up with the pot.  This chili can be simmered in the crock pot instead of the stove top, but the lid needs to be off to let it reduce properly.  Enjoy!

Liza’s Award-Winning Chili

20 oz. ground turkey

2 large onions, chopped

2 (15 ½ oz.) cans kidney beans

2 (15 ½ oz.) cans chili beans

1 (28 oz.) can Italian tomatoes, cut up

1 (14 ½ oz.) can stewed tomatoes

2 (4 oz.) cans diced green chili peppers

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper

¼ teaspoon pepper

In a Dutch oven, cook the ground turkey and onion until meat is no longer pink and onion is tender; drain.  Stir in the undrained beans, tomatoes and green chilies.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; simmer uncovered about 1 ¼ hours or until desired consistency.