| Prep | 15 minutes |
| Cook | about 2 hours (almost entirely unattended) |
| Total | about 2 hours 15 minutes |
| Serves | 8 |
| Equipment | 6-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot with a lid, wooden spoon, colander, can opener |
One pot, three cans of beans, and roughly two hours in which the stove does all the work. That is the entire shape of this chili. Nothing is browned in batches, no sauce is built separately, and there is no searing step that needs watching. The turkey goes in, everything else follows a few minutes later, and then the lid stays on.
What comes out is thick enough that a spoon stands up in it, lean enough that no grease pools on the surface, and generous enough to feed eight with leftovers. It also freezes better than almost anything else in a weeknight rotation, which is the real argument for giving it a slow afternoon.
Ingredients
The turkey and tomato base
- 2 pounds (900 g) ground turkey, 93% lean — lean enough that there is little fat to pour off, but not so lean that the meat turns to sawdust over a long simmer. Anything labelled 99% fat free will go dry.
- One 28-ounce (800 g) can crushed tomatoes — the body of the chili. Unseasoned is best, since the spice blend below is doing that job.
- One 15-ounce (425 g) can tomato sauce — thinner than the crushed tomatoes, and it is what lets everything simmer down slowly instead of catching on the bottom.
- ½ cup diced yellow onion — goes in raw. Over two hours it melts into the sauce completely, so there is no reason to sweat it first.
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic — jarred is fine here; the long cook flattens the difference.
- ¼ cup red wine — a mid-bodied red adds depth that tomatoes alone do not have. Beef or chicken broth works if you would rather skip the wine.
The three beans
- One 15-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed and drained — the firmest of the three. They hold their shape through the whole simmer and give the chili its bite.
- One 15-ounce can pinto beans, rinsed and drained — softer, slightly mealy, and they break down just enough at the edges to thicken the sauce.
- One 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained — the darkest flavour of the three and the one that keeps the pot from tasting flat.
Rinsing matters more than it looks. Canned bean liquid is starchy and salty, and tipping all three cans in unrinsed is the quickest way to end up with a chili you cannot season properly.
The spice blend
- 2 tablespoons chili powder — the backbone. This is a blend, not pure ground chile, so the quantity looks larger than it tastes.
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin — the earthy note underneath the chili powder.
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano and 1 teaspoon dried parsley — two herbs that keep a long-simmered tomato sauce from tasting one-dimensional.
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional) — this is the heat. Flakes are more predictable than fresh chiles, whose strength varies wildly from one to the next.
- 2 dried bay leaves — removed before serving.
There is no added salt in the list. Between the canned beans and the canned tomato products there is already a good deal of sodium in the pot, so it is worth tasting at the end and salting then, if at all.
How to Make It
1. Brown the turkey over medium heat (about 5 minutes)
Set the pot over medium heat with a light coat of oil or cooking spray. Add the ground turkey and break it apart with the spoon as it cooks, pressing out the larger clumps so it cooks evenly. Pour off any liquid that collects. Ground poultry needs to reach 165°F (74°C), and it will pass that comfortably here, then keep cooking in the sauce.
The meat should be opaque all the way through with no pink streaks, and the bottom of the pot should look dry rather than swimming.
2. Add everything else and stir once
Tip in the crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, all three drained cans of beans, the onion, garlic and wine. Scatter the chili powder, cumin, oregano, parsley, black pepper and red pepper flakes over the top, drop in the bay leaves, and stir until the colour is even. There is no particular order to respect.
The pot will look loose and watery at this point, closer to a thin tomato soup than a chili. That is exactly right.
3. Cover and simmer on low for 1½ to 2 hours
Bring it up to a simmer over medium-high heat, then drop the heat to low and put the lid on. Stir every 20 to 30 minutes, mostly to check that nothing is catching. If your burner runs hot, leave the lid slightly ajar so steam can escape and the chili can reduce.
By the end, a spoon dragged through the middle should leave a track that closes slowly instead of filling in straight away.
4. Pull the bay leaves and taste
Fish out both bay leaves and taste before serving. This is the point to decide about salt, and to add more red pepper flakes if the heat has landed milder than you wanted.
The chili should coat the back of a spoon rather than run off it.
Why the Long Simmer Matters
A chili made from canned beans and canned tomatoes starts out as a collection of separate ingredients sitting in the same pot. The simmer is what turns it into one thing. Three processes are running at once: liquid is evaporating and concentrating the tomato, the beans are absorbing seasoned sauce rather than sitting in their own starchy canning liquid, and the dried spices are releasing compounds that only come out with sustained heat and moisture.
The lean turkey benefits too, which is less obvious. Lean ground meat dries out under dry heat because there is no fat to protect it, but here it is submerged in liquid the whole time and never climbs above the boiling point. You can cut the simmer to 45 minutes and still eat well, but the sauce will be thinner and the spices sharper and less settled. The same logic drives a long oven braise — our crockpot beef stew works on exactly this principle.
Make It Your Own
- Swap the meat. Lean ground beef works with no other changes. Ground chicken works too, though it is milder and wants a little more chili powder.
- Change a bean. Cannellini or great northern beans in place of the pinto gives a softer, creamier pot; chickpeas hold up like the kidney beans do.
- Go smoky. A teaspoon of smoked paprika or a single minced chipotle in adobo shifts the whole thing in a deeper direction without adding much heat.
- Build a toppings bar. Shredded cheddar, sour cream, chopped cilantro, diced red onion, sliced jalapeño and crushed tortilla chips. If you like the same Mexican-leaning spice profile in a thinner bowl, our chicken enchilada soup takes the toppings just as well.
- Use the slow cooker. Brown the turkey in a skillet, then move it and everything else to a 6-quart slow cooker and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours. Same approach as our crock pot potato soup.
Storage and Freezing
Cooled chili keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days, and genuinely improves on day two as the spices settle. For the freezer, portion it into bags or containers, press out the air, and freeze flat for up to 3 months; thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat gently on the stove with a splash of water, since it thickens further as it sits. It is one of the better candidates for a batch-cooking afternoon, alongside something like meatball soup or a pot of classic chicken noodle soup.
Frequently Asked Questions
How spicy is this chili?
Mild to moderate as written. The heat comes from the red pepper flakes, so halving them makes it comfortable for children and doubling them makes it noticeably hot. Adjusting the flakes is more predictable than adding fresh chiles, which vary a lot in strength.
Can I leave out the red wine?
Yes. Substitute an equal amount of beef or chicken broth, or simply leave it out. The wine adds depth rather than anything you could identify by taste, so nothing falls apart without it.
Why is my chili too thin?
Almost always a lid problem. If it is covered tightly on a low burner, very little steam escapes and the chili cannot reduce. Take the lid off for the last 20 to 30 minutes and it will tighten up on its own.
Can I use dried beans instead of canned?
Yes, but cook them fully before they go in. Beans added dry, or even soaked but raw, will not soften properly in an acidic tomato base, and you will end up with chalky centres no matter how long the pot simmers.
Does it really need two hours?
No, but the extra time is doing real work. At 45 minutes it is good; at 90 minutes to two hours the sauce is thicker, the beans have taken on the seasoning, and the spices have lost their raw edge.
Looking for more one-pot dinners like this? Browse the full collection of soup recipes.
Three Bean Turkey Chili
Ingredients
Method
- Set a 6-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium heat with a light coat of oil. Add the ground turkey and break it up with a spoon as it cooks, about 5 minutes, until no pink remains. Pour off any liquid that collects. The meat should be opaque throughout and the bottom of the pot dry rather than swimming.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, all three drained cans of beans, the onion, garlic and red wine. Scatter over the chili powder, cumin, oregano, parsley, black pepper and red pepper flakes, drop in the bay leaves, and stir until the colour is even. The pot will look thin and watery at this stage, which is correct.
- Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring every 20 to 30 minutes. If the chili is not thickening, set the lid slightly ajar for the last 20 to 30 minutes so steam can escape. A spoon dragged through should leave a track that closes slowly.
- Remove and discard both bay leaves. Taste and adjust for salt and heat, then serve with the toppings of your choice.
Notes
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