Let's face it. Everyone loves a heaping bowl of chili, but it's a comfort food usually reserved for cold days and nights as it warms our bellies and souls. Well, I have a treat for all you chili lovers out there with today's recipe, Indian Summer Turkey Chili! Lighter than beef chili, this turkey chili satisfies your comfort food cravings during the heat of normal summer and even during those warm Fall and Winter days commonly referred to as Indian Summer. One might even go as far to say it's a somewhat healthier alternative to traditional beef chili and is a great way to incorporate turkey into your diet outside of holiday meals and Thanksgiving feasts! When it is all said and done, few will even notice the meat swap as this Indian Summer Turkey Chili is packed full of flavor and is sure to satiate even the hungriest of chili fiends. Take a few minutes while I walk you through this simple recipe, but be prepared to mop up the drool off your face before heading to the store for ingredients......Let's get cooking!
There is actually not much difference between this Indian Summer Turkey Chili and a standard beef chili, but we are going to be aiming for a somewhat lighter soup-like texture as opposed to a thick and hearty stew. Like any recipe, we will begin by knocking out all the prep work on the veggies and other ingredients to make the cooking process go smoother. Go ahead and dice the onion and bell pepper into similar sized small, bite-sized pieces, but finely dice the serrano peppers. These can be set aside for now as we start this light and healthy chili recipe.
Heat a bit of cooking oil in a large pot and brown the ground turkey over medium to medium-high heat. Once the ground turkey starts to break apart into crumbles and is semi-browned, season with chili powder, seasoning salt, cumin, Worcestershire, and hot sauce. We want these flavors to not just be present in the dish itself, but cooked into turkey meat for those layers and depth of flavor. It is not going to look very pretty at this point, but we have a ways to go and this is just the first real step to taking this turkey chili on a ride to Flavortown!
Alright, now that I have knocked out my obligatory Food Network terminology, it is time to start adding the veggies. The turkey should have been cooking for about 9-10 minutes at this point so go ahead and add the diced bell pepper. Stir in the bell pepper and let things keep cooking for 3 minutes.
You will notice that some of the excess liquids will begin to cook out around this time. The whole mixture should begin to thicken up somewhat. After the bell peppers have had their 3 minutes of fame in the pot, add the diced onion and give it a well deserved 2 minutes in the spotlight!
Your kitchen should be smelling pretty damn good about now! After the onion has had its swirl in the turkey chili hot tub of flavor, add the finely minced serrano chilies, or any hot pepper, and stir to get them incorporated throughout. They really only need a minute or so so grab that cold beer from the fridge for the next step. At this point, there should be minimal liquid left in your pot.
While the chilies get their turn to flavor the pot, pop open a nice dark lager and deglaze the pot. Since we are talking about Indian Summer for this recipe, nothing works better than a good Oktoberfest lager, but your favorite brewski will do the trick as well. Be sure to use a flat spatula and really scrape up the fond off the bottom of the pot. After all, that's good flavor we worked for and want in our final product!
After you add the beer and deglaze the pot, turn the heat down to medium-low. We want to let things simmer and come together from this point on so no need to overcook the living flavor and nutrients out of anything. Get those cans open and add the remaining ingredients....tomato sauce, Rotel or any canned tomato, minced garlic, and cayenne pepper for a final kick of heat. Give the pot a good stir and crack open a second beer for the chef to enjoy at this point. We are going to let this simmer for about an hour to let all the flavors come together.
You can pretty much sit back, relax, and enjoy your beer while the turkey chili simmers for an hour. Don't completely ignore the pot, though, and give it a stir every 15 minutes or so to keep anything from sticking or burning on the bottom of the pot. You can definitely let the chili cook longer, but be sure to give it at least an hour. If you do decide to cook it longer, just be sure to keep watch of the liquids and add more beer or water as time passes. Like I said in the beginning, this Indian Summer Turkey Chili is lighter and should have a bit thinner final soupy texture compared to a normal thick beef chili, but that is totally up to you as the chef.
And just like that, after at least an hour, your Indian Summer Turkey Chili is ready to devour! Since we added ingredients in stages and built all those layers of flavor and color, you can't even really tell that ground turkey replaced beef in this recipe. Now when you taste it you will probably notice a slight difference, but you could probably fool most people and they would be none-the-wiser! It's still warm and hearty and satisfies those cold weather comfort food cravings, but goes down easier on a warm day. Obviously, there are numerous variations that can be done to this base recipe. Water or chicken stock can be substituted for the beer, hot chilis can be doubled or left out, and the seasoning overall is totally a personal preference, but this should give you a good starting point. You could even use up leftover Thanksgiving Turkey rather than ground turkey. Give it a try and let me know what you and your family thought of this Indian Summer Turkey Chili.....Just keep cooking!
INDIAN SUMMER TURKEY CHILI
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