Earlier this week, I made turkey chili. This, in itself, is not particularly strange. Using ground turkey in place of ground beef is something I’ve been doing for a quite a while now.
What was a bit unusual is the fact that I decided to use beer as the base for this chili.
When I mentioned that I was having leftover turkey and beer chili for lunch on Twitter, MeghanDarker asked me for the recipe. Having just sort of thrown things together, I told her I’d try to jot down something resembling what I had done.
It’s not 100%, but this is as accurate a recipe I can remember, given that I was pretty much making it up as I went when I was actually cooking the chili.
Turkey and Pepper Beer Chili
Ingredients
1 package of ground turkey (approx. 1 kg)
1 can Old Style Pilsner
1 bottle of Route des épices (beer)
1 can diced tomatoes (unsalted, if possible)
1 can mixed beans (rinse off “bean juice” before using)
3 green onions
1 or 2 handfuls of fresh spinach
Chili powder
Cayenne pepper
Cooking Instructions
- In a large frying pan/skillet, brown the turkey. When the meat begins to brown, add diced green onions and 1 can of Pilsner. Add chili powder to taste and cover. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until meat is cooked through. Most of the beer should evaporate during this process.
- Transfer turkey and green onions into a large stock pot. Add tomatoes and beans. Cook on medium heat.
- While the main pot is warming up, fry spinach with olive oil in a frying pan (I used the same pan that the meat was cooked in, to capture some of that flavour in the spinach). Once spinach is wilted and a dark green colour, add it to the pot with the other ingredients.
- Stir everything up and slowly pour in 1 bottle of Route des épices (pepper beer).
- Add chili powder and cayenne pepper to taste.
- Stir everything together and cover pot.
- Reduce heat and let simmer for 20-30 minutes.
- Serve with cheddar cheese shredded on top.
If I were to make this dish again, I think I would probably add a bit of tomato sauce. This recipe wasn’t quite as tomato-y as I’d have liked. On the other hand, I’m not sure how much of the beer flavour would come through if I added tomato sauce.
Perhaps I’ll try it with added tomato sauce in the future and update this post if it turns out well.
This sounds great, Adam. I have to admit that I don’t cook turkey all that often. Not that I have anything against turkey, it just tends to slip my mind during the weekly grocery shop. Maybe you can make some of it for Adam (my Adam, of course) and I!
I never really thought of it until about a year and a half ago when I started trying to make a point of eating healthier (not sure how well I’ve been doing at that), so I often use ground turkey in place of ground beef. Not always, though. There are sometimes when it just has to be red meat.