I woke up this morning thinking about cold weather. What does cold weather meant to you? To me, cold weather means getting out some of my favorite pieces of clothing. It means North Face & Patagonia down jackets, Ugg boots, wool hats, wool sweaters, warm down comforters, and so much more. I just love fall and I really do like winter – although I love winter when I can stay home and drink hot chocolate, know what I mean?? 🙂

Another thing cold weather means to me is turkey chili. I make turkey chili all fall and winter long. I love it.

On Halloween I made one of my BEST turkey chili recipes EVER. I wish I had written it down that moment – but between chopping, sautéing and answering the door for trick or treaters, I just could not jot it down. But here is the recipe from what I remember:

Ingredients:

1 medium sized onion, chopped

5 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced

3/4 pound of lean ground turkey

2 cans of low sodium black beans. I rinsed one can and one can I just put right into the pot, juice and all. (Because the flavor is SO good)

1 jar of fire roasted red peppers from Trader Joe’s, chopped

1/2 a can of Tomato Paste (it was a 12 or 14 ounce can – the medium size, not the small size, if you have a small can – just use the whole thing)

1 can (14 ounces) of crushed tomatoes

About 8 ounces of water

6 ounces of beer (I used Harpoon IPA) You can add more or less of the beer

Olive oil

Chili powder

Paprika

Cumin

Cayenne pepper

Salt

Pepper

Garnishes:

Scallions, chopped

Guacamole

0% plain greek yogurt

Cheddar cheese

Instructions:

Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil in dutch oven or chili pot. Add turkey and cook until browned, breaking up pieces as you cook. Once turkey is cooked and browned, remove from pot – place on a plate lined with paper towel. Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in the dutch oven or chili pot. When oil is hot, add chopped onions and a teaspoon (or less) of kosher salt – this helps the onion cook and sweat.

Sauté the onion for 5-8 minutes, until onions begin to turn translucent. After onions have cooked to this point, add the garlic. Once you add the garlic you have to stir a lot because you don’t want your garlic to burn. Cook for one minute. Add chopped red peppers. Continue to cook everything, stirring constantly.

Add the tomato paste and spices (except for the salt), stir the mixture all together until there are no lumps of tomato paste. Add crushed tomatoes and water. Stir the chili every couple of minutes and make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot. Add the beer to the pot. Stir gently, the beer will bubble – it’s pretty cool! Bring the concoction until it gently boils. Then turn down to low and let cook for about 30 minutes, stirring every so often.

While this is cooking, I always put a little chili in a tiny bowl just to see how things are going. That way I can taste what is going on and adjust spices if need be.

Get all of your toppings ready to go while things are cooking on low. The garnishes really make the turkey chili awesome. Scallions are a must in my book and I just love the yogurt, cheese and guac too.

Happy cold weather, everyone. Quick! Get a pot of turkey chili going in your kitchen too. Here’s what I’m enjoying right now while I watch the Patriots: