So I have been looking at different food blogs for a while and finally decided to try out some recipes! On Tuesday I made Turkey Chili. I have never had anything but beef chili and was hoping for something a little lighter. I thought it was good, but the recipe still needs some work before it's wonderful. Definitely worth trying though! The cornbread was so so so good!
chili:
4 slices thick-cut bacon, diced small
2 medium yellow onions, diced small
1 large red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and diced small
1 and 1/2 pounds ground turkey
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
2 cans (15.5 ounces each) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1) Chop the bacon fairly small and it's easy to cook. I love ANYTHING with bacon. YUM.
1) In a heavy pot (I used a big lobster pot- at least that's what I call it!) cook bacon over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until bacon is crisp- about 8 minutes.
2) Add chopped onions and red bell pepper, then cook stirring occasionally until vegetables are soft, about 3 minutes.
My chopped garlic.
3) Add ground turkey, chili powder, cumin, garlic and oregano, then cook breaking the turkey up with a wooden spoon until cooked through and lightly brown, about 6-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
4) Add tomatoes with their juice, pinto beans and 2 cups of water. (I think you could use 1 3/4 cups water). Bring to a boil. Reduce to a rapid simmer (no idea what this means, I just put it on low), partially cover the chili (no idea what this means either...I covered the pot and took the lid off to stir occasionally). Stir occasionally until the sauce thickens, about 20 mins.
Here's a shot with everything in it. A few notes on the chili:
1) I added more chili powder and oregano and just a bit of sugar (duh!).
2) I would use a little bit less water- it's pretty soupy.
3) If you don't want to use less water but think it's too soupy you can always add flour to thicken the sauce.
4) I also added a can of whole kernel corn (drained), I just felt like it needed a little something more.
5) Today is the 2nd day I have had this chili for lunch, and it just gets better and better! So if you don't love it the first night you might LOVE it after it sits for a bit.
6) I left the chili on low on the stove for like 4 hours.
7) I topped with some cheddar cheese and it was great!
Now for the cornbread:
Apparently everyone makes their cornbread from scratch but I have always been a Jiffy kind of girl...until now. I thought this cornbread was pretty darn good! Maybe it was the honey butter I drowned it in??
cornbread:
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1) Preheat oven to 375*. Grease an 8-inch square pan. Melt butter in a large skillet.
2) Remove from heat and stir in sugar.
3) Quickly add eggs and beat until well blended. (I went a little too quickly then had to spend time picking egg shells out--oops!)
4) Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir mixture into pan. As you can tell for me it didn't blend very well and then I forgot to take pictures of the next steps!
5) Stir in cornmeal, flour and salt until well blended and few lumps remain. (This helped soak up the buttermilk!)
6) Pour batter into pan and bake 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean.
You can see where I was "testing" the top...
The blog said I needed butter and honey, so I decided I needed honey butter....Not really sure how to make it but I stirred honey and butter together and it was DELISH! Definitely a MUST.
The finished product! We liked it!
