See I told you I can make healthy food! 
Let me first start off by saying that I am not a huge chili person. Don’t get me wrong, I like chili but I love a good bowl of hearty and flavorful chili like this Turkey Chili I made. My mother is the blame for my “iffy” attitude towards chili. Let me share with you my experience of chili growing up in my household. First of all my mom is no cook. I mean we ate, but her food was made from a box or some weird recipe she came across in magazine that none of us really liked. However, she had her meals. One of her best meals, that I remember, was chicken dumplings. I remember walking through the kitchen to see her actually cutting real carrots and celery. I remember this so vividly because I actually stared for what might have been 10 seconds, but it seems like I stared for 10 minutes. I was amazed that she knew what real vegetables looked like let alone how to use them. 
Another one of her many meals she made for us was chili. I can say this now without fear of being smacked upside the head, but my mothers chili was horrible. Do you know someone who takes so much pride in creating something and loves sharing it with people and just because they love it they automatically think that everyone else loves it too? That is how my mom was about her chili. When she couldn’t figure out anything else to make or buy for us to eat she would say, “Well, I guess I’ll make a pot of chili”. I mean, it could be 98 Degrees outside and this woman would be so proud to make her chili. What made her chili so bad was that there was no love in it. It was tomato sauce, meat, kidney beans (which we hated), and chili seasoning. That’s it! No diced onion…oh wait! She did use the diced dried minced onions. But there was no peppers, sausage,…just no love. When she served her chili it looked like tomato soup with stuff at the bottom. Wendy’s chili is better than hers. AND I haven’t mentioned the worse thing…she put sugar in it. GROSS! Now I know some people like it like that. Heck here in Cincinnati they put cinnamon and chocolate in their chili. I just prefer a hearty and savory Turkey Chili like this recipe! 
If you are familiar with ground turkey, then you know it has absolutely no flavor. NONE! But wait little grasshoppers, if you use ground turkey and Italian ground turkey also it makes this chili million times better. If you notice there really isn’t that much seasoning for the turkey because the Italian sausage really adds so much flavor along with the spices. I am not going to lie to you, I ate this entire pot by myself. Not in one day but over the course of a week. It was seriously that good. I didn’t have to add any salt and pepper. The natural ingredients did it all by themselves. I highly recommend this chili if you are looking for a healthy alternative to beef.
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Turkey Chilli
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1lb. ground turkey
- 1lb. italian ground turkey sausage
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 orange bell pepper, diced
- 2 tbsp. garlic cloves, minced
- 2–1 lb. cans tomato sauce
- 1–14 oz. can diced tomatoes
- 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 15 oz. can chick peas, rinsed and drained
- 1.25 oz. packet chilli seasoning
- 1 tbsp. chilli powder
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1/2 tbsp. red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp. paprika
- 2 tsp. oregano flakes
- 2 tsp. parsley
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil on medium heat and place the ground turkey and ground Italian turkey sausage in the pot (if the turkey sausage comes in links that is okay just cut off the casing). Allow to cook while periodically stirring to make sure the meat is cooked evenly.
- Meanwhile, in a separate saute pan heat the other 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add the onions and pepper and allow to cook for 5-7 minutes until soft and slightly translucent. Once the onions and peppers are finished cooking, transfer to the pot with the ground turkey and mix well together. Now add the garlic and allow to cook for about 5 minutes together.
- Pour in both cans of the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Stir for even distribution. Now add the beans (make sure you throughly rinse them under cold water and they are drained). Stir once again. Now add the chili seasoning, powder, bay leaves, pepper flakes, paprika oregano, and parsley. Stir once again and allow to simmer for 1 hour on medium heat. Make sure you stir periodically. Serve with crackers or alone. Garnish as desired.
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