Instant Pot Sambal Turkey Chili Fusion Recipe

As I am writing this it is getting chili outside so I am thinking of making turkey chili with Thai spices again.  I’ve done it several times but I have to explain every time that this is a fusion dish, combining Thai spices with typical American dishes. This is how new dishes have been born historically and as a mixed family my Thai wife and I are in a perfect position to invent!

Sambal Turkey Chili Fusion Recipe

We like to stop at our local supermarket and go to the clearance section to see what is a steal that day.   Last night it was 3 pounds of ground turkey and a packet of chili seasoning so boom, now you are reading about a new fusion recipe lol.

American chili recipes usually use some kind of stewed tomatoes or a tomato purée and we didn’t have that.  Rather, we had sambal Thai chili sauce.  Sambal is a typical seasoning put in recipes or served with them like we use Tabasco here.  If you’ve ever eaten at Pei Wei, you’ve seen it in their condiment area.    At the store it looks like this but without the garlic.  Either one works well really and obviously give it a stronger flavor profile than just a tomato purée would.

Sambal, Chili Garlic Sauce

So, hopefully you get where this recipe is going.  That’s the main southeast Asian component.  Here is the recipe so I don’t ramble on too much.   Let me know what you think in the comments section below.  We really like it and want to enter one of our recipes in a chili cook off eventually.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds lean ground turkey meat
• 1 8 oz bottle of sambal
• 1 1.5 oz packet of chili seasoning mix
• 2 cups chopped mild chilis like hatch green chili or whatever you like, don’t use that amount of Thai chilis unless you want to die lol
• 1 yellow onion chopped into dime sized pieces
• 1 8 oz package of chopped squash or other vegetable of your choice
• 1 cup halved cherry or grape tomatoes
• 8 oz water
• 2 tablespoon canola or olive oil
• Thai chilis, lower calorie/fat cheese, if you please, and cilantro to garnish (optional)

Instructions:

1. In the inner pot of the instant pot, sauté the turkey until browned on the sauté setting.
2. Once the turkey is brown, mix in everything else and stir together thoroughly.
3. Hit cancel to change from sauté setting to chili seasoning.
4. Close the vent valve and let it cook.
5. It will do it’s thing and then switch to keep warm and start counting how long it’s been on keep warm.
6. We love to set this up and get home to a great smelling place
7. Garnish as desired and serve hot!

Printable recipe below