Back before ground beef doubled in price I would make a huge batch of chili for canning. I did the math in January of last year and it worked out to a 28% savings over buying it but the downside was that it cost $50 to make the batch.
Of course the upsides were knowing every ingredient and here I am two weeks short of a year later eating chili that now costs way more to make because of beef cost increases.
This time I added a can of black beans during the reheat because I didn’t feel like making corn bread.
Cost per person: $3.06
I’ve tried ground turkey in chili before, and as with most dishes where it’s not the featured item, it tends to almost completely disappear, flavor and texture-wise. I hate to say it, but ground beef or maybe finely-cut cube steak stands out far more to me and adds a hearty level of flavor that turkey just can’t.
That said, nutritionally I’m not a fan of red meat at all, so mostly I just make veggie chili, with kidney beans usually being the featured player. Still quite delicious when I don’t boof it up, somehow.
Not sure what you’re doing to cause the meat to disintegrate, but I’ve never had an issue with the texture. I do try to get a nice deep browning on each side of the flat of ground meat before turning, and cook the onions with.
I didn’t say “disintegrate.” It’s that the ground turkey just barely registers as an ingredient of the dish.
But, hmm… browning.
I’m not sure I’ve ever tried that, and yet I seem to remember OP talking about that as something that can really boost meat’s flavor, I think?
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Okay, thanks, I’ll deffo give browning a try then with some turkey.
Actually… browned, shredded turkey sounds really interesting in chili, altho I’ve never heard of that before.
Browning meat is an essential step to just about any dish. The maillard reaction does an amazing amount of work.
I thought the maillard reaction was based on temperature and time, not on specific cooking methods.
Applying the combination of temperature and time is method. High temperature over a short period of time results in the creation of “umami” compounds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction
Okay, so to be clear-- browning via searing is just one of many, many ways to achieve the result. For example, simply by sprinkling ground turkey in to the chili dish, then cooking around 300°F for an adequate time will produce the maillard reaction in the turkey (plus whatever other ingredients), right?
No, because the meat won’t actually reach that temperature. Anything simmering on a stove will reach a maximum temperature of 212°F.
You could spread the meat on a sheet pan and broil it, form it (perhaps with a binder) around skewers and char it on a grill, or set it on a fireproof surface and take a blowtorch to it, though. But browning in a pan, turning, and chunking can yield a more even browning with an end result of chunks of meat at the desired granularity - plus you can do the onions at the same time.
Ohhhhh…
Well, I’ll be danged. Thanks for the tips and information!
Are you a chef, perchance?
I’ll second that but also depends on the chili