The Best Healthy Turkey Chili

One hundred weeks. I just counted. This is my hundredth week of writing on RecipeSpinoff, which means I have been doing this for almost two years, which means I have written about chili approximately forty times, which sounds excessive and is actually restrained, because I could write about chili every week and not run out of things to say. Chili is infinite. Chili is a philosophy. Chili is a lifestyle. I will not apologize.

In one hundred weeks I have written about truck cooking, budget meals, Nebraska weather, my kids, my husband, my mother, my father, my sister who is gone, and the chocolate sheet cake that holds this family together like edible cement. I have gotten messages from truckers, moms, dads, teenagers, and a woman in Japan who found my blog through a search for slow cooker recipes and who has made my chili three times and says it is the best chili she has ever had, which means my chili has gone international, and Gayle would be proud if she understood what the internet was.

For the hundredth-week anniversary, I made the first recipe I ever posted: slow cooker chili. The recipe that started everything. Ground beef, kidney beans, diced tomatoes, onion, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and the brown sugar. Always the brown sugar. I cooked it in the truck on a run to Lincoln, the way I cooked it two years ago, and I ate it at a rest stop, the way I ate it two years ago, and it tasted exactly the same and completely different, because I am different. Two years of writing has changed me in ways I did not expect. I am more confident. I am more generous with my words. I am more willing to say the hard things, about grief and love and the way a meal can hold a family together when nothing else can.

Thank you. I do not say this enough, but thank you to anyone reading this. Thank you for cooking my recipes. Thank you for feeding your people. Thank you for believing that dinner matters, even on the hardest days, even when you are tired, even when the road is long and the dark is everywhere. Dinner matters. The table matters. You matter. The chili is in the cooker. The road goes on. Here we still are.

This is the one. Week one hundred calls for the recipe that started week one — slow cooker chili, made low and slow while the miles roll by and the world does whatever it does outside the windshield. I’ve made a lean turkey version this time, because two years of cooking on the road has taught me a few things about keeping it a little lighter without losing any of that deep, brown-sugar warmth that makes this chili taste like home. Fill the cooker, set it, and let it do its quiet work — just like writing, just like grief, just like love.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 6–8 hours (low) | Total Time: 6 hrs 15 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 lbs lean ground turkey
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans (15 oz each) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes, with juices
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

Brown the turkey. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground turkey and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until no pink remains, about 6–8 minutes. Drain any excess liquid and transfer the turkey to your slow cooker.
Soften the aromatics. In the same skillet over medium heat, cook the diced onion for 3–4 minutes until softened. Add the minced garlic and cook 1 minute more. Transfer to the slow cooker.
Build the base. Add the kidney beans, black beans, diced tomatoes (with juices), tomato sauce, and chicken broth to the slow cooker. Stir to combine with the turkey and onion mixture.
Season. Add the chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, smoked paprika, onion powder, oregano, cayenne, brown sugar, salt, and black pepper. Stir everything together until the spices are fully incorporated.
Cook low and slow. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 6–8 hours or on HIGH for 3–4 hours. The chili will thicken and the flavors will deepen as it cooks.
Taste and adjust. In the last 30 minutes, taste and adjust seasoning — more brown sugar for sweetness, more chili powder for heat, or a pinch of salt to bring everything together.
Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with shredded cheese, sour cream, sliced green onions, or tortilla chips as desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

The Best Healthy Turkey Chili — One Hundred Weeks, One Perfect Bowl