This Chili is a Turkey

I love chili. Every year, usually in the colder months, I make some form of chili. I've made it with diced sirloin tips, hamburger, saugsage, chicken and no meat at all (bland). As big football watching time is upon us, I decided it was time to once again assemble a batch of chili. Alas, there was no hamburger, sirloin or sausage to adorn my diced tomatoes and beans, so something new and creative had to provide the protein for my brew. Nothing warms the body and fills the belly quite like a good bowl of chili.

As I perused the freezer, two frozen possibilities stared back at me. I chose both. I had a two pound package of ground turkey and a one pound package of ground venison from a hunter friend of mine. I sauteed the ground meats along with a large, chopped onion and six cloves of finely chopped garlic. Once the mixture was simmering, I added a tablespoon of Penzey's chili spice, a teaspoon of crushed red pepper, and of course the obligatory tablespoon of Sriracha sauce. After the spiced meat mixture is nicely browned, I put it in the handy dandy crock pot along with two one-quart cans of Brooks Chili Hot Beans, and two quarts of Dei Fratelli diced tomatoes. I added a little more chili powder and some garlic powder and set the crock pot on low. You might be thinking that three pounds of any kind of meat is too much for a batch of chili, but this was a six quart batch, and the meat proved to be just the right amount. Lucky guess on my part I suppose, but then I do have a sixth sense about all things foodie.

After several (four or more) hours of crock pot simmering, the flavors of all the ingredients had meshed sufficiently for the chili to be consumed. This particular chili was destined to be chili mac, so pasta of some kind had to be prepared. I chose regular old spaghetti and cooked it until it was, as they say, al dente. I grated some two year aged Tilamook cheddar cheese onto the steaming pasta, and ladled a generous amount of the spicy chili on top. The sharp and tangy cheese melted between the hot pasta and chili and added even more zest to an already zesty dish. If this doesn't warm the cockles then nothing will. Chili, as I have demonstrated here, is most definitely a dish that qualifies for the if you can imagine it, somebody can cook it phrase. In this case, my turkey and venison chili provided a fresh, relatively low fat and very tasty slant on an old favorite.