Sunday Night Chili

I've been making chili during the colder months for the past several years and have basically made the same chili each time ... ground turkey, some onions, some peppers, lots of nice spices, etc ...

For our first Sunday night chili of the year, we decided to use the new Bon Appetit cookbook Christine received as a gift. Turkey Chili with White Beans. I was a little apprehensive about making a new chili, and the inclusion of cocoa powder had me a little bit nervous.

The best thing about this recipe was the prep work involved ... just about none! The only thing that required a knife was the chopped onions (which I did earlier in the day while prepping my red sauce) ... once I had those done, I was ready to go.

The combination of the spices was actually really nice ... cumin, cinnamon, oregano, and lots of chili powder (I use a chili powder blend from Dean and Deluca, which I think just adds a lot of nice flavor to anything that calls for chili powder). The cocoa powder gave it a deep, rich flavor and color that was missing from my standby chili. White beans opposed to standard kidney beans was also a nice change.

Start to finish, this recipe was about a 90-minute project but well worth it. We served the chili over rice with chopped red onion, cilantro, and grated pepperjack cheese with cornbread on the side.

We have plenty of leftovers if you're in the neighborhood ...

Only one weekend into the new year and we've already tackled two cookbooks ... this project will be a breeze!

-ms