Turkey Chili – The Weekday Chef

We had Thanksgiving a week early to celebrate my son’s birthday. So here is a leftover turkey recipe that my family likes. Turkey chili is also a good low calorie meal, filled with lots of healthy veggies.

Turkey Chili…great for leftovers….

My husband got me some “skinny” cookbooks at the DI the other day. He’s been on a kick recording big cassette tape sets on his computer. He’s got everything from “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” to “Earl Nightingale”. It’s fun to be able to surf the net while listening to an excellent talk tape. Anyway, I looked up veggie chili in all 3 of these books. I still like mine better.

Weight Loss Cookbooks….do you think just buying them will help? hmmm……

Ingredients for Turkey Chili

1 can navy beans
1 can garbanzo beans
3 cups chicken stock (or make your own with a few cubes of chicken bouillon)
2 tablespoons butter (to saute and caramelize the onions)
3/4 cup diced onion
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup diced carrots
1 small can diced green chills
2 cups of leftover turkey, diced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 tablespoons lemon pepper
1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoons red pepper flakes
a shake of garlic salt
1/2 to 1 teaspoon Lawry’s or Johnny’s Season Salt
If you don’t like certain seasonings, substitute for ones you like (oregano, chili powder, parsley etc.)

A great base for Turkey Chili…..Chicken bouillon cubes…..

Directions

I start with the onion and butter for any stew or soup I make, saute it for 7 minutes or so turning constantly. Then I chop up all the veggies; carrots, celery, and then the turkey, dicing it nicely.

I only had 1/2 a white onion, so I added a little purple also…it will add more color to my veggie stock! .

I LOVE my new cutting board…cute “Give Thanks” motto….

Then I pour in water and 2 bouillon cubes for the chicken stock. You could add cans of Swanson chicken stock instead. Add the veggies and let them boil for 10 minutes. Then add the turkey cubes and start spicing it with pepper and spices.

Here are the Bouillon cubes….they are easy to make a flavorful stock…

Here is the turkey leftovers from my son’s birthday, turkey dinner...

I chopped the turkey for my Turkey Chili into small cubes….well…..sorta…I’m a messy chopper!

I add everything and then taste it. Sometimes I will actually add a few teaspoons of sugar. Sometimes it just evens out all that salty taste. I will usually add a few more shakes of Lemon Pepper and Lawry’s at the end. Then lastly add the beans. If you add them too soon they will turn to mush. My turkey chili is very dense with veggies, not a lot of broth.

I added a little bit of all of these spices…shake and taste…that’s my style….

I didn’t have garbanzo beans on hand…these are canned white beans…..I coulda used another can of beans…

I happened to have leftover mashed potatoes so I added a big dollop of those to add to the broth. And I had leftover gravy so I added a big tablespoon of that also.

My great photog skills…! Here’s the mashed potato leftovers…add them to soup stock to thicken it a bit and add some texture…..and flavor!

And here those leftover potatoes…..they are making a much richer stock for me and my Turkey Chili!

Little dollop of turkey gravy adds to the flavor too…but not necessary….

It doesn’t need it but I wanted to use them up. I do that lots of times to make a richer sauce. Use what you have on hand as leftovers to spice up your next dish. So here was the recipes from the “skinny” cookbooks. They seem to be slim on ingredients but heavy on spices. What do you think? I’d much rather have a variety of yummy veggies!

cookbook chillis

Turkey Chili….yummy

Turkey Chili is GREAT with some nutty or chewy breads or rolls….

It’s snowing outside…but we are all warm and toasty here…

Great Harvest Bread….My Favorite!

We had some white rolls and some Great Harvest 12 grain bread so I made some buttered toast and toasted a bread roll to go with my turkey chili. I love that GREAT HARVEST! The nuttier the bread, the better I like it!
Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!