So I've been wanting to try ground turkey for a while and I had a half can of diced tomatoes so I decided to try making chilli. Yesterday I got Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook. It contains a bunch of chili recipes, which I used to get an idea of proportions of the spices and cooking times. Most of the amounts for ingredients varied by a factor of two and so did the cooking times, so I decided to wing it.
1 lb ground turkey
2 cans kidney beans
1/2 a 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 medium sweet onion
1 large clove garlic
2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
dash paprika
1. Brown ground turkey, then drain. Chop onion. Dice garlic.
2. Combine all ingredients including liquid from cans in slow cooker (2 quart). Stir gently.
3. Cook on low for 7 hours.
While the recipes in the book mostly don't contain cumin or paprika, several online recipes I looked at did and I liked the idea. I also tasted the chili powder to see how spicy it was. It has fairly good flavor (its the local store brand) and not much heat so I went with the high side of amounts. I almost forgot garlic and didn't want to fuss with pealing it, which is why I only used one clove. In addition, when adding ingredients my slow cooker was mostly full before I added the second can of kidney beans, but I wanted a larger proportion of beans than one can could provide.
Kidney beans contain a toxin that requires they be brought to a full boil in the cooking process. They can be used in a slow cooker, but they need to be boiled for ten minutes first, so I decided it would be simpler to go with cans. This also means that everything but the onions and garlic was already cooked which gives a lot of leniency in the cook time. However, if adjusting the cook time, keep in mind that vegetables do take a long time to cook in the slow cooker. On the other hand, my slow cooker was filled more than 3/4 of the way full (2/3 full is recommended) which increases the cook time, so I was already went with the longer side. I also lifted the lid a few times to stir the chili and make sure the onions were mixed through. Lifting the lid is supposed to increase the cooking time by about 30 minutes per time when cooking on low, so its something else to keep in mind.
I had some of the chili with some shredded cheese on top. It decent, but not particularly flavorful. There goes my theory about intensifying the flavors too much. And this time I did mix things fairly well, so that most of the spice was in the liquid. Since I took from the top to eat, it's possible that there will be more flavor in later bowls. As it was, most of what I could taste was the cheese. Not that I really object to the taste of cheese, but if the future bowls are similar, I will probably double the amount of spices when I make this again.
Edit: This has been much better in subsequent bowls. The turkey is still kinda bland, but the spices are a lot more reasonable. I will still likely increase the amount in the future, but not by as much as I originally thought. I will also almost certainly use hamburger instead of ground turkey.
1 lb ground turkey
2 cans kidney beans
1/2 a 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 medium sweet onion
1 large clove garlic
2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
dash paprika
1. Brown ground turkey, then drain. Chop onion. Dice garlic.
2. Combine all ingredients including liquid from cans in slow cooker (2 quart). Stir gently.
3. Cook on low for 7 hours.
While the recipes in the book mostly don't contain cumin or paprika, several online recipes I looked at did and I liked the idea. I also tasted the chili powder to see how spicy it was. It has fairly good flavor (its the local store brand) and not much heat so I went with the high side of amounts. I almost forgot garlic and didn't want to fuss with pealing it, which is why I only used one clove. In addition, when adding ingredients my slow cooker was mostly full before I added the second can of kidney beans, but I wanted a larger proportion of beans than one can could provide.
Kidney beans contain a toxin that requires they be brought to a full boil in the cooking process. They can be used in a slow cooker, but they need to be boiled for ten minutes first, so I decided it would be simpler to go with cans. This also means that everything but the onions and garlic was already cooked which gives a lot of leniency in the cook time. However, if adjusting the cook time, keep in mind that vegetables do take a long time to cook in the slow cooker. On the other hand, my slow cooker was filled more than 3/4 of the way full (2/3 full is recommended) which increases the cook time, so I was already went with the longer side. I also lifted the lid a few times to stir the chili and make sure the onions were mixed through. Lifting the lid is supposed to increase the cooking time by about 30 minutes per time when cooking on low, so its something else to keep in mind.
I had some of the chili with some shredded cheese on top. It decent, but not particularly flavorful. There goes my theory about intensifying the flavors too much. And this time I did mix things fairly well, so that most of the spice was in the liquid. Since I took from the top to eat, it's possible that there will be more flavor in later bowls. As it was, most of what I could taste was the cheese. Not that I really object to the taste of cheese, but if the future bowls are similar, I will probably double the amount of spices when I make this again.
Edit: This has been much better in subsequent bowls. The turkey is still kinda bland, but the spices are a lot more reasonable. I will still likely increase the amount in the future, but not by as much as I originally thought. I will also almost certainly use hamburger instead of ground turkey.
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