Turkey Chili with a Mole Twist

Meal Monday

I can never relate to all those goody two shoes happy homemaker articles that exhort readers to "prepare for the week by cooking ahead" and "spend Sunday afternoon baking ahead." Really?

I consider it a major victory to get dinner on the table every night. Cooking ahead is definitely not a house specialty over here.

So it is purely serendipitous that I now have a freezer stocked with handy dandy glass food storage containers filled with one of our family favorites: turkey chili.

This provisioning is not, admittedly, due to any great foresight on my part. Quite the contrary. In an uncharacteristic burst of spontaneity, I invited a three-person family to join us for dinner Sunday evening. We already had one family joining us, and I decided the more the merrier. However, my friend's email was down and I did not hear back from her for several hours (the things we expect these days...).

Hence, when I decided to make chili for dinner, I had no idea how many people I needed to serve. I doubled my recipe and learned later that we didn't actually need it all. So now I can join the ranks of the smugly well-prepared, at least for a few minutes, and enjoy pulling this chili out of the freezer at least three more times over the next couple of months.

I'm including the regular recipe, modified slightly from The Bon Appetit Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild. I have doubled the cocoa powder because it enriches the taste and channels mole. I've also dropped the raw onions and added cheese. And, trust me, this recipe doubles and freezes beautifully.

Turkey Chili with White Beans

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 medium onions, chopped

1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 1/2 lbs lean ground turkey

1/4 cup chili powder

2 bay leaves

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 28-oz can whole tomatoes in juice

3 cups beef broth

1 8-oz can tomato sauce

3 15-oz cans small white beans, rinsed and drained

 

shredded cheese 

chopped fresh cilantro

plain low-fat yogurt

 

Heat oil in havey large pot over medium heat. Add onions and saute 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. MIx in broth and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add beans to chili and simmer until flavors blend, about 10 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Serve hot with cheese, cilantro and yogurt on the side.

Comments

[How Long to Cook a Turkey]

Not just healthy, spicy as well, imagine how perfect it is for us, besides on being warming both interior and exterior body it can aclso help us to prevent colds and etc. well we all know how oregano helpful in terms of medical issue, eating this is like eating a meaty spicy dish + medicine.