Cinco de Mayo Inspired Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

The Japanese Sakura Cherry Blossoms in High Park

Our Cherry Blossom tree in the front yard

Cinco de Mayo Inspired Turkey Chili

A Kitcheninspirations Original Recipe

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried red kidney beans, soaked overnight in water
• 250 g sweet onions, chopped
• 25 g garlic, finely chopped
• 300 mL tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 500 mL water and or chicken stock
• 900 g ground turkey breast
• 1 1/2 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp chili
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 5 g dried ancho chili (seeds and veins removed)
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
• 30 mL tequila (a nice smokey one)

Garnish:

• 1 ripe avocado, sliced thinly
• 10 tbsp Greek Yogurt (approx 150 mL)
• 10 tbsp mozzarella cheese
• handful of Cilantro, or to taste
• 3-4 Green onions, finely chopped
• 1 red chili pepper, finely sliced

Directions:

1. Pre-heat slow cooker on high. Rinse beans and add to the slow cooker along with the onions, garlic, tomato sauce, tomato paste and the water and/or stock and give it a good stir.
2. Brown the turkey meat in a very hot cast iron pan in batches. Add the browned turkey and juices into the slow cooker in batches. Once you have browned all of the turkey, remove the pan from the heat and deglaze the pan with the tequila, scraping off all the delicious turkey bits from the pan. Add this liquid into the slow cooker.
3. Give the chili a good stir. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or until the beans are fork tender. If the chili is too liquidy, then remove the lid for the final hour of cooking.
4. Serve hot garnished with sliced avocado, a tablespoon of yogurt or sour cream, cilantro, chopped green onion, shredded mozzarella cheese and finely sliced peppers.

Based on 10 Servings

It’s heavy on the points but high on flavour.

A delicious Mexican Flavoured Chili

Ladies Night May 2015

I should have set up the tri-pod for an all in shot.

 

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Sopa Azteca – Cinco de Mayo Celebration

Remember back in March, we held our second progressive dinner on our street and it happened to fall right smack in Earth Hour? Our course was the appetizer and I chose to make Sopa Azteca or Tortilla Soup. The soup was a resounding success, full of flavour, colour and texture, but I did the unthinkable — I completely forgot to record my recipe which worked out to be a hybrid of Rick Bayless’s Sopa Azetca and a recipe that my good friend Barb of Profiteroles and Ponytails posted about some time ago!

Cinco de Mayo was just a few weeks ago and I thought it’s a perfect time to recreate this wonderful soup, before the weather starts getting too hot to enjoy soup. There is a bit of prep work, but once it’s all done, you pop it into a slow cooker and forget about it. I would even suggest you make it the day before you want to serve it because it’s just that much tastier the next day.

This soup is well worth the effort.

Sopa Azteca (Tortilla Soup)

Serves 4, dinner portions

Ingredients:

• 100 g onions, coarsely chopped
• 3 large cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
• 2 small smoked dried haberno chili peppers, seeds removed (haberno is hot)
• 1 large pasilla chili pepper, seeds removed (pasilla is much more mild)
• 4 coriander stems with roots (rinsed well)
• 2-3 epazote stems (I could only find dried, you could probably use a bay leaf instead, but remember to remove it or omit it entirely)
• 800 mL strained tomato purée (I prefer low sodium)
• 2 L low sodium chicken stock
• 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp coriandre
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups frozen corn (or fresh on the cob BBQ’d and kernals cut off)
• 1 small whole wheat soft tortilla shell

BBQ’d Chicken or Turkey Breast (omit if you are using a previously roasted whole chicken)

• 400 g skinless, boneless chicken or turkey breast or 1 previously roasted chicken
• 1 dried haberno pepper, seeds removed
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• pinch of sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Avocado Garnish (or use guacamole):

• 1 small avocado
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• juice of one lime
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves
• 2 green onions, roughly chopped

Other Garnishes:

• 4 tbsp low fat yogurt
• 4 tbsp shredded Mexican melting cheese (like Chihuahua or mozzarella)
• 1 lime cut into wedges

Directions for the Soup:

1. Prepare your slow cooker by preheating it. Add the tomato sauce and chicken stock to the slow cooker; add the dried epazote and cilantro stems and roots.
2. If you are using a previously roasted chicken, remove all the tiny bones and add it to the slow cooker, covering with the liquid.
3. Add the seeded, dried chilli peppers (if you prefer less heat, put these peppers into a cheese cloth bag and tie off).
4. Add the onions and garlic and cocoa, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika and coriander into the tomato sauce and stir well. Add  1 cup of corn.
5. Cook on a medium low setting for 3-5 hours.
6. Remove the woody stems and roots of the cilantro and epazot and discard, blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve to remove all the corn husks return to the slow cooker and add the other cup of corn. Keep warm until you wish to serve.

Directions for the Chicken or Turkey (omit if you are using a previously roasted chicken):

1. Combine everything for the rub but the chicken or turkey in a dedicated coffee grinder for spices and grind until it’s a fine powder.
2. Remove any bits of fat or skin from the chicken or turkey and completely coat with the dry rub. Refrigerate while soup is cooking.
3. BBQ (with or without smoke) until the internal temperature is 74°C or 165°F. Set aside for 10 minutes and then using a fork, tear bite size pieces off. If you’re not going to use it right away, refrigerate and reheat when ready to use.

Directions for the Avocado Garnish:

1. Peel and chop the avocado into half centimetre cubes (1/4″).
2. Combine with the garlic, lime juice, cilantro and green onions and stir well.
3. Refrigerate until serving.

Tortilla Cones:

1. Preheat the oven to 175° C or 350°F.
2. Lightly brush the tortilla shell with olive oil to prevent it from drying out.
3. Using a pizza cutter and a kitchen ruler, cut the tortilla shell into 5-7mm strips (1/4″).
4. Join 3 strips together end to end using a bit of water and pressing the strips firmly together.
5. Carefully wrap each strip, oiled side in, on the cannoli cones. I found that pressing some tin foil on the tips prevented them from unraveling.
6. Bake for about 10 minutes turning once. You are aiming to dry out the tortilla into a crisp, cracker cone.
7. When finished, allow to cool for a minute and gently pry the cone from the cannoli mold. Reserve for presentation.

The strips are being attached to each other.

I won’t lie and say it’s easy, but with a little practice, it worked out very well.

The cones are ready for the oven

They released perfectly without casualties.

Soup Assembly:

1. Reheat the soup and chicken/turkey separately until piping hot. Ladle a generous amount of soup into each bowl, if using BBQd chicken or turkey breasts, shred into bite sized pieces and pile the chicken/turkey in the centre. If using the whole pre-roasted whole chicken, remove from bones and shred and pile into the centre of the bowl. Add a tablespoon of the avocado mixture and a tablespoon of yogurt. Sprinkle a tablespoon of the grated cheese over the hot soup and add the tortilla cone last to stand in the centre.Serve immediately with a wedge of lime.

Serving suggestions:

• Serve with Jalopeño corn bread.
• Instead of fussing with the tortilla cones, just toast the sliced tortilla strips until crisp and serve piled in the centre like a Tee-Pee.

 

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