slow-cooked turkey chili

source: cook's country
serves 8 to 10

you can use any ground turkey except 99 percent lean (also labeled “fat-free”) in this recipe. serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, and lime wedges. cook's country recommends hunt's diced tomatoes.

1/4 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 slices hearty white sandwich bread , torn into pieces
1/4 cup soy sauce

6 garlic cloves , minced 

salt and pepper
2 pounds ground turkey
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 onions , chopped fine 

1 bell pepper , seeded and chopped 

1/4 cup tomato paste
2 (16-ounce) cans kidney beans , drained and rinsed
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes , drained
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chiles in adobo

1. Heat chili powder, cumin, and oregano in large nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Set aside.


2. Using potato masher, mash bread, soy sauce, 1 tablespoon toasted spices, half of garlic, and ½ teaspoon pepper in large bowl until smooth. Add ground turkey and gently knead until well combined.


3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in now-empty skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Cook turkey mixture, breaking up meat into 1-inch pieces with wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Transfer to slow-cooker insert. Add onion, bell pepper, and remaining oil to now-empty skillet and cook until softened, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in remaining toasted spices, tomato paste, and remaining garlic and cook until paste begins to darken, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to slow cooker.


4. Stir beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, broth, brown sugar, and chipotle into slow cooker. Cover and cook on low until turkey is tender, 4 to 6 hours. Season with salt and pepper. Serve. (Chili can be refrigerated in airtight container for 3 days.)

Notes from the test kitchen:

Substituting turkey for beef in chili recipes may make for a healthier meal, but this payoff does not make up for the loss of flavor and texture. We wanted the same hearty, well-seasoned bites of meat that we expect from ground beef chili, along with plenty of beans and a thick, gently spicy sauce. Here’s what we discovered:

Test Kitchen Discoveries
Without ground beef, the chili needed depth of flavor. Adding chicken broth and soy sauce provided “meatiness,” while canned chipotle chiles added a complex smoky taste.
As an extra flavor boost, we toasted the spices in a dry skillet.
Because the chicken broth thinned the chili, we thickened the stew back up by draining the diced tomatoes and stirring in tomato paste.

Mixing a panade (a paste of bread and milk) into the turkey kept it from drying out. But we swapped the milk for soy sauce, resulting in tender pieces with a “beefy” kick.