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This award winning Turkey Chili is thick and hearty and bursting with flavor. This healthier chili recipe is loaded with tender beans, lean ground turkey, and the perfect blend of spice.
All about this healthy Turkey Chili
This is my all time favorite recipe when it comes to chili. I love the ease of my Ground Beef Chili with no beans, but I think I love the combination of flavors and textures in this chili even more.
This is the same base that I use in my Easy Chili Recipe, except in here we’re using some lean ground turkey.
Ingredients Needed
Let’s Make Turkey Chili
- Add the lean ground turkey, and onion to a medium size skillet. Cook over medium heat until the onion is soft and the turkey is completely cooked. Add the garlic and cook an additional 30 seconds. Remove this from the heat and add the cooked turkey to the crockpot.
- Add in all the other ingredients including the tomatoes, beans, green chiles, and spices. Stir to combine. Cook over low heat for 4-6 hours.
The recipe card below also includes stovetop instructions!
Recipe Tips
- Cut the sugar: You can leave out the brown sugar if desired, to cut out sugars of course. I do like adding the sugar because it helps cut the acidity of the tomatoes. Another option would be to use honey instead, or substitute with a coconut sugar.
- Sneak in some Vegetables: add in some additional veggies if you want! Some great options are corn, peppers, diced zucchini, diced sweet potato, or butternut squash. If adding in fresh veggies, add them in the last 30 minutes of cooking in the slow cooker, that way they don’t get too mushy.
Favorite topping ideas
One of the best parts about any chili recipe is being able to customize with your favorite toppings! When serving a large pot of chili for dinner for the family, or if you’re expecting company, creating a topping bar is a great idea. This way everyone can top their bowl with what they enjoy. Some ideas are:
- Cheese: of course, shredded cheese is a must when having chili! Some mild cheddar, sharp cheddar, pepperjack, or Monterey Jack are all great options.
- Sour Cream/Greek Yogurt: the cold creamy tang of either of these options contrasts with the warm heat of the chili and is typically welcomed!
- Onions: chop up some white onion or slice some green onion to go on top for a fresh flavor.
- Cilantro: always a win with Tex Mex lovers.
- Chips: some fresh homemade tortilla chips, or Fritos pair perfectly with this thick chili.
- Tortillas: I personally love having a fresh stack of flour tortillas with my chili.
- Avocado: another creamy option that helps take off some of the heat of the chili
- Hot sauce: for those that need even more heat!
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Award Winning Turkey Chili
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground turkey
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup yellow onion diced
- 1 (15 ounce can) tomato sauce
- 1 (14.5 ounce can) diced tomato
- 1 (7 ounce can) diced green chiles
- 1 (15 ounce can) kidney beans drained, rinsed
- 1 (15 ounce can) black beans drained, rinsed
- 1-2 tbsp chili powder
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp brown sugar
Toppings
- sour cream
- cheese shredded
- green onion sliced
Instructions
Slow Cooker
- Add the lean ground turkey, and onion to a medium size skillet. Cook over medium heat until the onion is soft and the turkey is completely cooked. Add the garlic and cook an additional 30 seconds.
- Remove from heat and add to the crockpot.
- Add in all the other ingredients, stir to combine. Cook over low heat for 4-6 hours.
Stovetop
- Add the meat to a large pot or dutch oven. As the turkey is cooking, add the chopped onion to cook and soften.
- Once the meat is cooked and the onion is softened, drain any excess moisture. Add the garlic and allow it to cook for an additional 30 seconds.
- Add all the other ingredients. Bring the chili to a simmer and allow to cook for about 10-15 minutes. Serve and top with all your favorite toppings!
Video
Equipment
Notes
- Chili Powder: Start with 1 tbsp and add more to taste.
- Ground Turkey: this can be substituted for ground chicken or beef if needed.
- Green chiles: these add a very mild flavor. If you would prefer more heat in your chili you can use a jalapeno instead.
- Black beans & kidney beans: canned beans work great in this recipe. You can always swap out the beans for another kind if you would prefer.
- How to Freeze this turkey chili: let the chili cool to room temperature. Add to a freezer safe container. Store in the freezer for 3-4 months. To reheat, thaw the chili in the refrigerator overnight, pour into a large pot and heat over medium heat for 20 minutes, until warmed through.
- Store leftovers in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Serve this chili with:
- Tortillas: I personally love having a fresh stack of flour tortillas with my chili.
- Cornbread
- Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread Muffins
FAQ’s
Yes, absolutely. You can substitute the turkey for a ground beef, pork, or chicken.
Yes! In this case the meat would already be cooked, so you would just need to sauté the onion and start from there. Add the shredded or cubed meat in with all the other remaining ingredients and cook until heated through.
More Chili and Soup Recipes
Recipe first posted November 21, 2014. Updated on February 27 with new photos and video. Recipe is unchanged, but instructions for stovetop were added.
Too spicy. I halved all the “spiced” ingredients and this recipe was still hot. Husband and I were able to tolerate with cheese and sour cream but the children couldn’t eat it.
Be sure you are using a mild chili powder and not another type of chili powder when making this recipe.
I’ve probably made this a dozen times, it’s truly awesome. Perfect as is, no adjustments needed. Family favorite! Thank you!
Great chili. I have seen a few people saying too spicy and others saying not at all. First of all, some love spice, others don’t, but I learned from other chili recipes that not all Chili powder is the same. You need to buy McCormick chili powder if you don’t want it to be too spicy. McCormick tends to have the least heat and anytime I have used any other brand, my children say too spicy.
This is so true!! All of my recipes are tested using Gebhardt’s chili powder. I think it’s fairly comparable to McCormicks in regards to heat level.
This recipe was great! Lots of flavor and the perfect consistency. I wanted more veggies, so I added some zucchini, bell pepper, and sweet potato as well as canned corn. However, I only used black beans (we don’t like kidney beans). I also threw in a beef bouillon cube before simmering to add extra salt/flavor. So good! Next time I’ll add some chili flakes for extra heat!
This was PERFECT 🙂 Making this again next week!
Excellent recipe! I used dried beans and soaked them the night prior in salted water. I then modified the recipe to simmer for about 90 minutes to ensure the beans were thoroughly cooked. It turned out great!
This chili was wonderful! The only thing I added was 2c. of broth (we like to sop with corn bread). Both of my young children loved this, not a single complaint!
So yummy! I tripled the recipe, added extra can of tribeans, added extra tomato sauce, used cumin, garlic salt, chili powder, and pepper. I also used whole head of garlic in this recipe.
Heard it was best chili my friend ever tasted!!
I used McCormick taco seasoning as it contains all of the chili spices, used Rao’s pizza sauce instead of tomato sauce and added cayenne pepper. I will see how it’s cooking as I doubt it needs the full time. I will also add some broth if it looks too thick.
Thank you for this great recipe, my family loved it. It has just the right balance of ingredients- some chili is overpowering with beans or tomatoes, but this was perfect. My hungry family of boys didn’t even mind that I used turkey! Definitely saving this recipe.