Turkey Chili with Thai Chili's for When The Weather is, well.....  Chili

Turkey Chili with Thai Chili's

We just had a cold front come into Houston and it was a dramatic change.  When I was a kiddo, child, little bike riding street urchin,  my grandpa used to cook a huge pot of chili and have it hot and ready all day.  There is nothing more comforting when the wind is blowing across the windows with that eerie sound it makes.  Especially after exploring the wilderness around Pop's home and working up an appetite.  Nothing could have been more comforting or welcome.  Having a slow cooker with warm chili in it helps you warm up from the inside.

We always have Thai chili peppers in the fridge and in dried ones and chili paste in the pantry so I wanted to see what kind of flavor I could add with some Thai peppers.  You can leave it at that for a simple and way to reinvigorate a family favorite recipe.   Thai food is one of those things that's trendy and which everyone has heard of but not everyone has tried.  We have had so many occasions where we had guests who said they have always been around Thai food and friends enjoying the cuisine but who have themselves never tried it.  Just this weekend we got to enjoy introducing the flavors to some friends.  Try it with your friends.  You can go one further by saying it's been optimized for healthier ingredients.  🙂

Optimizing the ingredients to be a bit healthier

Rather than use the typical corn and beans of Texas, Southern style chili I used whole grain wild rice.  I also went for a lower sodium, free range chicken broth.  You could go a step further and make it vegetable broth and soy meat if you were trying to go vegetarian.    As always, if you have dietary concerns play it safe on any ingredients that are iffy.  Pesco-vegetarians are the healthiest people according to a recent study I read and this is not that type of recipe so there is obviously always room to grow.  Our goal on this blog is sharing how we improve what we like.   This is a fusion, test kitchen style recipe so go crazy and let us know what you come up with to make it healthier and tastier.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound extra lean browned turkey
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• ½ cup of dried wild or brown, whole grain rice
• 1 cup of low sodium chicken broth
• 1 can of southwestern style Rotel diced tomatoes
• 1 4 ounce can of leang curry paste (optional to give it more Thai flavor)
• 1 package of McCormick chili powder
• 1 teaspoon of Thai chili paste
• 3 cups water
• Optional Topping Ingredients
  • Shredded cheese
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • basil leaves
  • cilantro
  • Dried Thai peppers

Directions:

1. Brown the turkey in a skillet with the olive oil on medium high.  You can add the cup of chopped onions at this point if you don't want to have them raw as a topping.  Or you can do both and you'll just need another cup of chopped onions for the topping.
2. Once the turkey has browned throw all the other ingredients into the pot, skillet whatever your using.
3.  Stir together and then you can put it all in a rice cooker set to brown rice as I did in the video below or just cook in the pan until the rice explodes open adding water as needed to keep it from boiling dry.  (The cool thing about a rice cooker is that it knows exactly how long to cook.)
4. Serve with the toppings listed above if so desired.

For the typical Texas style toppings add onions and cheese and a bit of basil may make it interesting

Thai styled chili with onions cheese and basil leaves

Thai Chili Chili topped with Cilantro and Thai Chili's :p

If you liked this recipe you may also like one of these.

Green Curry Turkey Burger (เบอร์เกอร์พริกแกงเขียวหวานเนื้อไก่งวง)

Green Curry Turkey Burger (เบอร์เกอร์พริกแกงเขียวหวานเนื้อไก่งวง)

Turkey Fried Rice (ข้าวผัดไก่งวง)

Thai Herb Turkey

Spicy Brussel Sprouts With Turkey Bacon Bites

Here's the printable recipe below.  Enjoy!!!

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