Healthy Turkey Chili
This easy-to-make Healthy Turkey Chili is perfect for a big gathering, football Sunday festivities, or for weekly meal prep option since there are tons of leftovers! With ground turkey, beans and tomatoes, it is hearty comfort food. It’s made easily in the slow cooker or Instant Pot and easily customizable by adding on all your favorite toppings. It’s gluten-free, dairy-free and Paleo friendly.
Healthy Turkey Chili Recipe
This is my classic go-to healthy turkey chili recipe all fall and winter long. I think I could make this recipe with my eyes closed at this point because I truly make it weekly! It is always a huge hit and it’s one of my top rated recipes for years now. We’ve given the photos an update so more of you can find this amazing recipe. It’s perfect for game day eats or even meal prep. The best part of the chili is you can customize to your liking, some days I’ll add more vegetables based on what’s in season! For a beanless turkey chili, and to make this Whole30 compliant and Paleo, simply omit the beans! And of course you get to choose the toppings to customize your dietary needs.
Ingredients Needed
- Ground Turkey or Beef
- Bell Peppers
- Celery
- Carrots
- Onion
- Garlic
- Sweet Potatoes (optional)
- Beans (optional)
- Broth
- Spices
- Tomato Sauce and Paste
- Diced Tomatoes
How to Make It
We’ve got options for making this for both the stove top and the pressure cooker.
Making it in the Instant Pot is great because it builds flavor quickly without much hands on time. The chili is under pressure for 15 minutes, with a quick pressure release. However, don’t forget to account for the prep time (gathering up your ingredients and dicing some up), the saute of the veggies and the time it takes to come up to pressure. It will take at most about an hour to cook this in the Instant Pot. But it’s mostly hands-off cooking time and it adds a ton of flavor.
When I cook this on the stove top I simmer it for a long time, close to 2 hours, so it’s perfect to cook on a slow Sunday afternoon. Make sure to check back in on it, stirring occasionally and adding in more water if needed.
Chili Toppings
- Scallions
- Avocado Slices
- Cheese
- Cilantro
- Diced or Marinated Onions
- Cilantro
- Diced Tomatoes
- Guacamole
- Tortilla Chips
- Shredded Lettuce
- Sour Cream
Cornbread with Chili?
OH yeah, if it’s your thing! Cornbread is super popular served with chili. Here is our easy recipe for cornbread and it’s a winner for sure.
Watch the video here:
If you love chili, check out these other recipes:
For more soup recipes, check out these:
Turkey Chili
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 medium onions, diced
- 2 bell peppers (any color), chopped
- 2 large carrots, chopped
- 2 celery ribs, chopped
- Optional: 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed
- 2 pounds ground turkey or grass-fed beef
- 2 cups water, more as needed
- 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, more to taste
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, more to taste
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons celery seed
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, more to taste
- Red pepper flakes, to taste
- Optional: 1 (15-ounce) can black beans
- Optional: 1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans
- Optional: 1 small jalapeño pepper, finely chopped
Directions
- In a soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat and sauté the garlic, onions, peppers, carrots, celery, and sweet potato, if using, for 5 to 7 minutes, until soft.
- Add the meat to the pot and cook until browned, stirring often to break up the meat.
- Once the meat is browned, add the water, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and paste, salt, and all of the spices. Mix well to combine. If you are adding the beans and jalapeño, do so here.
- Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and let simmer, uncovered, until the chili is nice and thick, about 3 hours. Add additional water during this time if you want your chili more souplike. Towards the end of the cooking time, taste and adjust spices as desired. Add additional cayenne for an extra kick, and more salt and pepper as needed.
- Serve garnished with your favorite chili toppings, if desired. Mine are listed above.
- Store in refrigerator for 1 week or store in the freezer.
Recipe Notes
- *Omit beans to make this Whole30 compliant and paleo-friendly
- How to Make Chili in the Instant Pot
- Using the sauté function, sauté the veggies until soft.
- Add meat and cook until brown.
- Add in the spices, tomatoes, and water (reduce water to 1 cup)
- Lock the lid and cook under manual -> high pressure for 15 minutes.
- Turn the knob to venting and release the pressure manually or let the pressure naturally come down.
- Open and taste the chili! Add beans here if adding. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.
- Notes:
- If you added too much water, use the sauté function for a few minutes to reduce the water down!
Nutrition
Healthy Turkey Chili
This Thanksgiving Leftover Breakfast Hash is the perfect post holiday meal! It uses a mix of sweet and savory leftovers and will be a huge hit. It’s so delicious and is simple to put together, for a great day-after-thanksgiving breakfast.
Thanksgiving Leftover Breakfast Hash
We love non-recipe recipe’s over here, and this is the perfect one. While this Thanksgiving Leftover Breakfast Hash certainly is a recipe, it leaves a lot of room for creativity based off of what you served at your Thanksgiving meal. Using both sweet and savory elements, this hash uses brussels sprouts, potatoes, turkey and cranberry sauce to make the ultimate post holiday meal. Plus, we include some other options to use, just in case you don’t have all the leftovers you need to make it!
Top it with a fried egg, or eat it as is. Either way, it’ll be delicious and dare we say it, maybe even better than the actual Thanksgiving dinner?
Ingredients for Thanksgiving Leftover Breakfast Hash
Here is what we included in our leftover hash. We went ahead and offered alternatives for each ingredient, just in case you don’t have all of the suggested ingredients.
- Bacon: Start with fresh bacon here!
- Onion: Also, fresh. Using some fresh elements gives this a “new” feel to the hash.
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts: If you didn’t have roasted brussels, either use fresh (they’ll cook at the same time) or substitute in another hearty vegetable. Or alternatively you could use something like leftover green beans, though you’d want to wait to add those until the end.
- Roasted Potatoes or Sweet Potatoes: If you didn’t have these, go ahead and use fresh potatoes. You must par-boil them first. To do so, boil them until they are just barely tender. Then, finishing cooking them for a few more minutes in the actual skillet with the other leftovers.
- Leftover Turkey Meat: If there is one thing you likely have leftovers of, it’s this! If you didn’t you could substitute in cooked chicken.
- Cranberry Sauce: This sweetness really brings the dish all together! If you didn’t have any leftover cranberry sauce, use a fresh apple. Add it to the skillet along with the brussels sprouts so it can cook all the way through.
- Salt and Pepper: Depending on how well seasoned your original food is will dictate how much seasoning you may need to add. Don’t add any until the end.
If you like this breakfast recipe, try these others:
- Sheet Pan Classic Breakfast Bake
- Freezer-Friendly Breakfast Burritos
- Potato Pesto Breakfast Skillet
- 3 Ingredient Breakfast Skillet
If you like this leftover Thanksgiving breakfast idea, check out these others:
Brussels Sprout Breakfast Hash
Ingredients
- 2 lb. brussels sprouts, cleaned, outer layer removed, and chopped somewhat fine
- 6 strips nitrate-free bacon
- 2 chicken sausages, chopped
- 1 large orange sweet potato, cubed
- 1 large white sweet potato (or red potatoes), cubed
- 1 apple, cut into cubes
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp grass-fed butter or oil of choice
- Himalayan sea salt, to taste
