This recipe is one of my absolute favorites for winter meal prep. Don’t be intimidated by the longer ingredient list. You essentially throw everything in a pot, cook it for an hour, and voila, delicious hearty meals for the week. Easy, minimal clean up, and a full tummy.

My parents always snuck lots of beans into our meals (any other kids have to eat plain lima beans, oh my) and into our chili. I remember loudly complaining and eating around the chickpeas in our chili. Funny how your tastes can change as an adult, isn’t it? Now I love these little filling powerhouses of fiber.

For ingredients you will need:

• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• 1.5 lbs of extra lean ground turkey
• 540 ml of canned chickpeas
• 398 ml of canned kidney beans
• 398 ml of canned black beans
• 3/4 cup of chopped white onion
• 1/2 teaspoon or one clove of minced garlic
• 796 ml of canned diced tomatoes
• 1/2 liter of plain tomato sauce (not pasta sauce)
• 1 mini can of diced chilis or jalepenos (or use fresh if you like heat, I cannot handle any hot peppers that are not pickled)
• 1 tablespoon of worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon of chili powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of liquid smoke (start with half and add more depending on your desired level)
• generous dashes of tabasco (I used the chipotle tabasco, I recommend it)
• 1/2 teaspoon of seasoning salt (more to taste)
• black pepper to taste

First things first, drain your chickpeas, kidney beans, and black beans, but do not rinse. Heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Toss in your ground turkey, sprinkle on some of that seasoning salt and black pepper and cook it up breaking it up well. Once the ground turkey is almost cooked, toss in your onions and garlic and continue to cook and move around until onions are translucent and turkey is browned (but careful, do not burn your garlic, this will make your chili bitter). Add your three beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce (and I mean plain tomato sauce, ingredients should only be tomatoes and salt), hot peppers of choice, worcestershire, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, paprika, liquid smoke, tabasco, salt and pepper. Mix it up well, and bring up to a boil on high heat. Cover and reduce to low heat and simmer for about an hour, making sure to stir and scrape the bottom regularly to ensure nothing is sticking. At about 45 minutes, taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
After an hour on low heat you should have a thick flavorful chili to enjoy.

This should make about 10 cups of chili. My favorite way to store these, is to pull out the 500ml mason jars and fill them up, and you will get about 5 jars great for two modest servings or one heaping one and they transport well! I usually top mine with a little bit of cheese, sour cream and guacamole if I have it. Give it a try and let me know what you think!