Saturday, April 28, 2012

turkey chili with white beans

I've been behind in blogging. I blame school. The good news is that the quarter is almost over! Only 2 weeks left of classes and a week of finals. It's so crazy, I don't think I will ever get used to the quarter system. Things just happen too fast. I feel like I just got back from California and here we are, almost done with the year.

I'm posting this chili recipe to procrastinate on homework. I am supposed to be writing a research paper, but I really have no idea what I am doing. My paper is a hot mess. Anyways, this recipe originally appeared in Bon Appetit (Feb 1997). It's been my go-to chili recipe for awhile now. And you know it's good because I asked my friend, Ranwei, what her chili recipe was and she sent me the exact same one!

My favorite part about making chili is that you can easily substitute ingredients and add whatever extra stuff you have lying around in your kitchen. In my case, it was carrots and sweet potatoes (a little weird, but I made it work). I've copied the original recipe and then put in parenthesis what I added/changed the day I made it (based on what I had).

Turkey Chili with White Beans
Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/2 pounds lean ground turkey
1/4 cup chili powder (I actually added 1/2 a cup to give it a kick. Otherwise, it's not spicy at all. Next time I plan on also adding some hot peppers. If you can't tell, I'm trying to eat spicier foods)
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt (obviously I did not measure this, I just dumped salt in to taste)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 28 ounce can whole tomatoes (I only had a 16 ounce can of diced tomatoes, but it seemed to work fine)
3 cups beef stock (I used veggie stock that I was trying to get rid of)
1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce (I used tomato paste)
3 15 ounce cans small white beans, rinsed, drained

(+ I added some diced carrots and a diced sweet potato)


Directions:
Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onions (+ carrots and sweet potato). Sauté until light brown and tender, about 10 minutes.

Add oregano and cumin. Stir 1 minute.

Increase heat to medium high. Add turkey, stir until no longer pink, breaking up with back of spoon. Stir in chili powder, bay leaves, cocoa powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add tomatoes with their juices, breaking up with back of spoon. Mix in stock and tomato sauce.

Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.


Add beans to chili and simmer until flavors blend, about 10 minutes longer. Discard bay leaves.

Eat with sour cream (or greek yogurt). If you're asian like me, you'll probably eat it over rice too.


1 comment:

  1. I think I'm going to try this recipe for my party this weekend!

    ReplyDelete