Chicken & Turkey Chili

This all started out as a friendly competition between my boyfriend and I, who could make a better chili? Surely I could? I sell all the ingredients to make it, sell all the tools to make it, how could I lose? I set out to find the best recipe I could find as a solid base recipe to alter to my tastes in order to win. The first site I obviously turned to was Allrecipes - a personal favourite of mine. The thing was, not only did I want to win (no question) but I wanted to make my chili a bit healthier. I decided on the fusion chili recipe below as a good base but I added a lot and changed alot.

Now the recipe calls for 6 pounds of meat. There was no way that was happening. I used 3 pounds and it was more than enough (unless you're cooking for 20, I got a solid 12 portions out of this). Instead of the meats listed I figured this was my chance to make it healthier (ish). I used 1.5 pounds of the Johnsonville Turkey Hot Italian Sausages - All turkey and spice. These are great on their own too. And 1 pound of lean ground chicken thigh. Thats the dark meat. It has more flavour and pretty much the same in the way of calories/fat. Not to mention its about half the cost. If you can't find (or don't want to spend) the Italian Turkey Sausages you can use plain old ground turkey - just make sure to adjust the seasoning.

Chicken and Turkey Chili
Slightly Adapted from Here

Ingredients:
1 Can Chipoltes in Adobo Sauce
1.5 pounds hot Italian Turkey sausage, casings
removed
1 pound ground Chicken
1 red onion, diced
1 sweet onion, diced
1 cup diced celery
10 cloves garlic, grated
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 (5.5 ounce) can tomato paste
1 cup dry red wine or espresso
3 (14 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup hot sauce ( I Used Franks thick)
1 tablespoon Chipolte chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 cup honey
30-36 Ounces Beans, I used Eden Organic Kidney Beans
2 Ears of Corn or about 1 Cup

Directions:

1. In a small food processor add contents of Chipolte Peppers in Adobo Can and puree until smooth.

2. Place turkey sausage (if using the sausages, cut the casings and squeeze out the meat) and ground chicken in a large, dutch oven, I used a 5 QT. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Remove meat from pan, and set aside. In the same pot, Heat meat drippings over medium heat, you may need to add a touch of oil depending on amount of drippings. Saute onions, celery and garlic until onions are soft and translucent. Season with salt and black pepper. Stir in tomato paste, and allow to caramelize. Pour in wine or espresso to deglaze the pot, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom.

3. Stir in cooked meat, tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce and hot pepper sauce. Season with chili powder and cumin. Bring to a boil, then stir in blended chili mixture and honey. Add as much or as little of the chili mixture as you would like. I Added about 3/4 of it. Carefully mix in kidney beans pinto beans without breaking them. Cover, and simmer for 3 hours. Stir and scrape the bottom every hour or so

4. Just before you're about to serve, either broil the corn or roast it on the BBQ and stir in the cooked kernels.

As you can see it makes a pretty full pot. 

Serve with No Fat Greek Yogurt, Cheese and Chips or some Dinner Rolls.

I won the Chili Cook Off.