Roll with it: ground turkey chili

Now, ragazzi, you may be thinking:  yes, her titles are cute but obscure.  THIS ONE?  Roll with it? HUH?  

Well, read on curious ones, and you will see that this is a tale of making changes before, and during the cooking process, and how one needs to be flexible.

Annalena has come to love the Wednesday New York Times recipe section, as it provides fewer recipes, but the ones it DOES provide, are almost always ones she likes.  In the past week, there was a long article on chili.  The title for the recipe on which this one was based was "just good chili," and with good reason. Chili purists will blanch at the fact that (i) there are beans in it and (ii) there is turkey, rather than beef in it.

If you are one of those purists, please feel free to call it spicy turkey and bean ragout, or whatever else you like.  Until Annalena is released from her "lower your cholesterol" curse, so it goes.   (Please note, however, ragazzi, that you should ALWAYS check the amount of cholesterol in your foods.  Do not make assumptions.  The amount of cholesterol in turkey will surprise you).

The recipe looked wonderful, and completely doable,  but it called for steps and ingredients that just required revision in Annalena's view.   She will explain these as we go through.  And, as the mess cooked, it became clear that further changes would be necessary.  The result is a very tasty chili.  Probably not the flavor the recipe writer got, but that's cooking for you.  So, let's get to work.

Basic ingredients from the recipe were a pound of either ground bison, or dark meat turkey.  Now, Annalena could find ground dark meat turkey; however, it was not organic.  So, she went for a mix, and it was fine.  Just don't use all ground breast meat here.  It's way too dry.  The recipe also called for a can of white beans, and 2 cans of kidney beans.

Really?  Annalena's readers will know that using a can of beans, is not going to happen in Annalena's kitchen.  And two kinds of beans?  Why?  There was no explanation for that.  So, Annalena reached into  her store room, and got a bound of tepary beans, which are small white ones.    Use a pound of whatever beans you like.  Let them soak and cook, as per normal.  You'll get just about the same amount you would get from three cans.   And you can do this before you get your chili ready.

When it's time to cook, finely chop a couple of medium onions.  Annalena always uses two, smaller ones when a recipe calls for one, LARGE onion, because she has no idea what a large onion is.  You are also going to need two bottles of beer.  The recipe did not specify what type.  Annalena and the Guyman do not drink wine, but they had some Corona Light from a party and used that.  The recipe, by the way, calls for one bottle, but please heed below.

Put the bottle of beer together with a 14 ounce can of tomatoes with their juice.  The recipe calls for diced, but Annalena used whole and mashed them while cooking.  Add a half cup of leftover coffee to this.    Finally, stir in a tablespoon of tomato paste.    Put this liquid aside.

Let's get our spices together.  You should mix a quarter cup of brown sugar (Annalena used dark), with a tablespoon of cocoa, and a tablespoon of hot sauce.  Sricha was what Annalena had, and used.  The recipe also called for half of a chopped chili, of the hot variety (serrano was recommended).  Annalena suggests you use this only if you are a real heat freak, because this chili is going to get very spicy, because...

You now add a tablespoon and a half of coriander, ground and a tablespoon and a half of cumin, ground, and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper to the sugar, etc.  Also add your first teaspoon of salt.

Now, we're ready to go.  Put two tablespoons of olive oil in a big pot, and get that oil to the point where it looks like it's rippling.  Add the ground turkey, and cook it until the pink is gone.  Use a slotted spoon and move the meat aside for a few minutes, while you add the onion, and cook for a minute, followed by adding the beer mixture, and the spice mixture.   Stir everything together, and add 2/3 of the beans and the turkey.  Lower the heat, cover the pot, but leave it slightly ajar, and cook for an hour.

During the cooking time, you will be assaulted with the smell of the chili for a bit, and it  may aggravate your eyes, so be careful.  After that hour, that will stop.  Check your chili.  Is it dry?  It probably is, and thus you should add a second bottle of beer, with the rest of the beans.  If it's not dry, don't add more liquid.  Taste this, and add more salt.  Lower the heat further, re-cover the pot, the same way, and cook for another hour , or longer, if you like.

The combination of the cocoa and other spices truly makes the turkey look like ground beef.  You will not have that "fatty" taste, however,  and the beans, of course, make this a pretty healthy type of dish.  You've used a whole two tablespoons of added fat, and you have a good two quarts of chili.  According to the recipe, this serves 4-6.  Annalena wonders who's being served, because this will easily serve 8 people with some rice.

This sounds complicated, and it sounds like it takes a lot of time, but ultimately, you are only working for about fifteen minutes in total.  And it freezes well. So, get your act together, get some turkey, and make a meal.  And then, you'll have a second one, too.

Next time around, ragazzi, we're gonna make some wonderful, mustard chicken legs