Dishy Goodness Home-Cooked Turkey Chili

So I have these dishes that I've cooked and documented, just sitting on my portable drive. . . and I thought it was high time I got around to posting one. So here you are! My recipe for turkey chili with two kinds of kidney beans (yes, two!). I think I can *just* sneak it in before the weather gets too hot to think about chili (at least here in the desert!).

I usually don't stick to a recipe religiously. I like to see what I have in the fridge and pantry and then go from there. I'm sure many of you do the same. I usually have a lot of canned tomatoes and canned beans in my cupboard and ground turkey in the freezer.

On this day, I decided to use red and white kidney beans. I also had some "Kangaroo Cheddar" from Costco -- a nutty cheddar from Australia. We bought the cheese mainly because the logo is a boxing kangaroo, and it was too cute to resist. :) Fortunately, it's also a tasty cheese!

The base of the chili was the classic mirepoix - onions, celery and carrots. You can throw in some bell pepper if you like. If you have red bell pepper on hand, a tasty addition is roasted red pepper puree. It adds a great depth of flavor to your chili (or soup!), and it's so easy to do (please leave a comment or email me at donna [at] dishygoodness [dot] com if you want specific directions on how to make the roasted pepper puree).

After softening the onions, celery and carrots, I browned the ground turkey. The mirepoix was then combined with the meat. Sometimes turkey is a little "gamey" for me, so to cut that undesired flavor, I add liberal dashes of Worcestershire sauce.

I like to add soy sauce, Maggi sauce and red wine vinegar to further create savoriness with a little bit of acidity. Of course, chili powder and a little cayenne provide spice and heat. Use to your desired spiciness. Or if you have jalapenos or serrano or other chiles, feel free to substitute as you like. I added a fine mince of serrano as a garnish on my chili. Add the canned tomatoes with their juice and simmer for twenty minutes.

That's pretty much it! Taste for seasoning and enjoy with your favorite garnishes. It's really a dish that you can improvise with what you have on hand. I like to make a big batch so I have meals prepared for most of the week. It tastes great over rice, too!

P.S. Here's the turkey chili recipe I used as the foundation for my dish. I left out the cumin. (Link opens in a new window.)