Turkey Chili
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Published Oct 23, 2020, Updated Apr 26, 2023
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This healthy turkey chili is made with kidney and black beans, corn, tomatoes and a blend of spices. It’s the perfect meal to serve for game day or as an easy dinner!
I don’t know about you, but the second cool weather hits, I crave chili! I love all types of soups and stews, but I think chili takes the cake. I love how hearty and filling it is. Comfort food in a bowl! It doesn’t hurt that it’s super easy to throw together and packed with healthy ingredients.
I love making chili because it feels like you just dump a bunch of ingredients into a pot and let them cook. The end result is so flavorful and only minimal effort was made!
Few things are better than one-pot meals, am I right?
Healthy Turkey Chili Ingredients
- ground turkey – traditionally ground beef is used for chili, but we’re keeping things on the lighter side with ground turkey for this version.
- vegetables – yellow onion, garlic, frozen sweet corn
- chicken broth or vegetable stock
- diced or crushed tomatoes
- beans – I like to keep things easy and used canned beans (drained and rinsed), but you can certainly cook your own beans from scratch if you have the time. I used a blend of red kidney beans and black beans, but you can use different beans if needed.
- olive oil
- seasonings and spices – chili powder, paprika, cumin, dried oregano, cayenne pepper, sea salt and pepper
- optional toppings – avocado, sour cream (or Greek yogurt), shredded cheese, cilantro, jalapeño, etc.
How to Make Turkey Chili
As I mentioned above, making a flavorful chili is so easy. Here’s how:
Sauté – Start by heating the oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add in the onion and garlic and sauté, stirring frequently until the mixture is fragrant and the onion is translucent. Add in the ground turkey, salt and pepper and cook until the turkey is browned evenly and cooked through.
Add ingredients and simmer – Add the stock, tomatoes, beans, corn, and spices. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Serve – Serve the chili warm with toppings of choice. I love serving mine with avocado, sour cream and cornbread.
How to Serve Chili
Chili is a hearty enough recipe to be a meal in one! Having said that, I love eating it with my pumpkin cornbread muffins or vegan cornbread. It’s also delicious served with bread, crackers (I love my almond crackers) or even tortilla chips. It can also be served with a salad… I have a ton of salad recipes to choose from, but something light and fresh like this garlicky kale salad would be perfect.
How to Store Leftovers
Let the chili cool slightly before transferring to an airtight container. Store in your refrigerator for up to 5 days. If you need to store it longer, let the chili cool completely in the fridge and then transfer it to the freezer for up to 3 months.
More Chili Recipes to Try
- Healthy White Bean Chicken Chili
- Easy Vegetarian Chili
- Butternut Squash and Turkey Chili
- Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili
- No-Bean Chili (Beef Chili)
- Vegetarian Green Chili
- Chicken Tortilla Soup
Be sure to check out all of my soup recipes and all of my ground turkey recipes here on EBF!
Turkey Chili
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 Tablespoons minced garlic, minced
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth or vegetable stock
- 1 (28 oz) can diced or crushed tomatoes
- 1 (15 oz) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 ½ cups frozen sweet corn
- 2 ½ Tablespoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ -½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Toppings of choice: avocado, sour cream (or yogurt), shredded cheese, cilantro, etc.
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Once oil is hot add onion and garlic to the pot and cook, stirring frequently until mixture is fragrant and onion is a bit translucent. Add turkey, salt and pepper to the pot and cook, breaking apart meat with a spatula until evenly brown and cooked through.
- Add stock to the pot. Mix in tomatoes, kidney beans, black beans, corn, chili powder, paprika, cumin, oregano and cayenne pepper. Bring chili to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Serve chili warm with toppings of choice. Some ideas include avocado, sour cream, shredded cheese, cilantro, etc.
Video
Notes
- Add oil to Instant Pot and put on sauté setting. Add onion and garlic and sauté for about 5 minutes, until fragrant. Add turkey, salt and pepper to the pot and cook, breaking apart meat with a spatula until evenly brown and cooked through.
- Press cancel on the Instant Pot and add stock, tomatoes, kidney beans, black beans, corn, chili powder, paprika, cumin, oregano and cayenne pepper. Place the lid on the pressure cooker, lock lid and make sure the pressure release valve is closed.
- Then press the soup/stew button or “pressure cook” and set time to 15 minutes.
- Once the timer reaches 0, the cooker will switch to keep warm. Carefully switch the pressure release valve to open to manually release the pressure. (I use tongs for this).
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tastes wonderful! First time making chili with a tomato base and loved it.
Oh yay!! So glad you loved it, Jennifer. Thanks for the review. I so appreciate it. 🙂
This is SO good. Made it for the second time tonight and was just as happy as the first time. I do wish it was a little thicker because it’s almost like a soup, but still delicious. I’m planning to try it with ground beef next time instead of turkey.
So glad this chili was a hit!! Thanks for coming back to leave a review. I so appreciate it!
Is that calorie count correct??? I can’t believe a bowl of this is under 500. So incredibly filling and tasty!
Yes it is. 🙂
Another tasty recipe! Followed exactly, but no beans and used Garbanzo instead! Also added some diced fresh jalapeños. Yum!
This turkey chili is delicious! My husband loved it and requested I make it again. Very filling and great flavors!
Woo!! So happy to hear this turkey chili was a hit, Madeleine! Thanks so much for trying it out and coming back to leave a review and star rating. I really appreciate it!
I’ve made this twice in the past month because the weather is getting colder, and WOW is it yummy! Its so delicious on a cold night and very filling. I add a little shredded cheese and greek yogurt on top to finish it off- so tasty!
This spice combo for this chili recipe is perfect. Made it last night but I used ground chicken and added vegetables (yellow, orange, and red peppers, carrots, and parsnips, no corn). My thinking was veggie chili meets chicken chili. I like my chili thicker so since this is the second time making this recipe I was going to cut down on the broth until I realized I had no broth. Filled the diced tomatoes can up with some water to add some liquid. It was delicious. Garnished with cilantro, fresh pico de gallo, and shredded cheese.
Woo!! Happy to hear you enjoyed this chili, Mary. Thanks so much for trying it out and coming back to leave a review. It means so much to me!
Very tasty! I used venison instead of turkey. Perfect amount of spices.
Yay!! So happy to hear you enjoyed this chili, Lisa. Thanks for trying it out. I really appreciate the review!
So delicious and flavorful! We left the cayenne pepper out for our little one, but there were so many other flavors working together, it was still so good! Will be making this often!
Woo! So pumped to hear that you loved this chili, Kristen. Thanks for making it and for the review. I so appreciate it!
is there any way to get the nutrition profile for potassium content in this recipe? it looks amazing but I am on a low potassium diet for health reasons. Thanks!