Turkey Chili and Savory Chipotle-Jack Scones

This week we had the first snowstorm of the year in New England! Yes, you read that correctly, here it is the beginning of March and we have only had ONE real snowstorm this year. In fact, my little town of Berwick, received about 14 inches of the white stuff. It snowed continuously for almost 2 days. We then had cold rain and sleet to follow it up. I can tell you that I did not miss it one little bit. If global warming means that New England will have warmer winter weather and less snow, then I am all for it!

All that cold and wet weather made for a perfect time to cook up a batch of some energy packed Turkey Chili. My turkey chili is made with lean ground turkey breast. The other thing that I love from my recipe is that once you prep all the ingredients, you can be sitting down to eat in 40 minutes. This chili requires none of the long stewing that some meat based recipes require.

Turkey Chili

When I usually make this chili, I setup a mise en place and then commence with the cooking. I found that this gives me complete focus on the cooking, rather than having to worry about cooking AND prepping at the same time. This recipe also has an added bonus of using beer, so feel free to consume while you are cooking!

I accompanied the chili with a savory scone recipe that I wanted to test out. I absolutely cannot eat chili without bread, or cornbread, or some other type of chili-sopping food item. This time I wanted to do something a bit different, so what could be more different than a savory scone? The first flavor combination that popped into my head was chipotle and cheese. So I went about researching recipes for various types of scones, I settled upon a lighter version from Cooking Light. The only variation that I made was that I added bit more chipotle and used monterry jack cheese instead of cheddar.

Chipotle Jack Scones

Grab a Corona, serve yourself up a bowl of turkey chili, grab a chipotle-jack scone, and enjoy!

So what are your traditional recipes for Chili? What would you suggest to make this recipe even better?

Turkey Chili

• 1 pkg (1.3 lbs)  Ground Turkey Breast
• 2 ½  tblsp Chili Powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• ½ tsp thyme
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• ½ tsp dried epazote
• 1 28oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes
• 3 chiles poblano
• 1 can of black beans
• 1 can of pinto beans
• 1 can white hominy (pozole)
• 1 yellow onion (for this recipe I used a vidalia)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 chipotles in adodo
• 1 tblsp. sauce from the adobo can
• 2 tblsp olive oil
• About 1 cup of beer
• About 1 cup of water

Mise en place all the ingredients:

• Chop the onions and mince the garlic and place in a small bowl.
• Combine the chili powder, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and paprika in another bowl.
• Roast, peel, seed, and devine the chili poblanos, chop and place in another small bowl.
• Remove the seeds from the chipotles and place with the adobo sauce in another small bowl.
• Rinse the beans well and place together in a small bowl together with the epazote.
• Rinse the hominy, then remove the seeds from each kernel, place in a small bowl.
• In a large bowl, take the tomatoes and crush through your fingers to make a nice pulp.

Now that you have all the ingredients ready, we can start to cook!

1. Heat the olive oil in a stockpot over medium-high heat
2. When the oil is hot, but not smoking, add the onion and garlic with a pinch of salt and cook until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the ground turkey and with your mixing spoon, break the ground turkey up really well.
4. Once you have broken it up, add the bowl with the spices. Mix well to combine and cook for about 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the beer and continue to cook until the ground turkey mixture is reduced to more than half, about 8 minutes
6. Now add the chili poblano and mix well to combine.
7. Next add the tomatoes. Once it comes back to a boil, reduce heat to medium and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring regularly.
8. After 20 minutes, add the beans with the epazote and mix well to combine.
9. Add the hominy, again, mix well to combine.
10. At this point you can add the 1 cup of water if you desire a more soupy consistency.
11. Simmer for another 20 minutes on medium-low heat.
12. Serve with those delicious chipotle-jack scones and some more beer!
    

    Spicy Turkey Chili

Chipotle-Jack Scones

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 tbsp cold butter, cut into chunks
• 3/4 cup low-fat sour cream
• 1/2 cup shredded monterry jack cheese
• 1 tbsp. water
• 2 tbsp. chopped chipotles in adobo (about 3 large chipotles)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and butter in a large mixing bowl and mix with a pastry blender until well combined and crumbly.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon (I used some damp hands!) until the dough is well formed and just a tad sticky.
4. Lightly grease a cookie sheet with some cooking spray and divide the dough in two halves and place on the baking sheet.
5. Form each ball of dough into a circle just about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick.
6. Then with a sharp knife or a pastry knife, divide into 6 triangles by cutting each circle in half, then making an “X”.
7. Place some parchment paper a spread the triangles out on the tray about 1 inch or more apart as they will rise during baking.
8. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, halfway through I rotated the sheets in the oven to ensure even baking.
   

   Chipotle Jack Scones

Tags: Baking, Chili, Chipotle, Food, recipes, Scones, Soup, Turkey