Guest Post: Jack's Mild Turkey Sausage Chili

Jack has been asked a few times for his chili recipe and asked if I'd be willing to post it. I said of course, I'm always looking for a new chili recipe to try. I like the look of this recipe because it has corn in it, always a good thing in chili. Enjoy.

Ingredients

1 pack of Hot Italian Turkey Sausage (about 5 sausages)

1 15 oz can of black beans

1 15 oz can of pinto beans

1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes

1 4 oz can of diced green chilis

1 green pepper

1/2 white onion

1 cup frozen corn

3 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp paprika (preferably a smoked paprika)

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cayenne pepper powder

Directions

Pan cook the sausages on med-high for about 7 min on each side, or whatever it takes to get the juice to leak out and brown up really nice. While those are cooking you can throw everything else in a crock pot. Dice up the green pepper in chunks that are just a bit bigger than a bean then throw it in the crockpot and turn the crockpot on low. You could dice the 1/2 onion in the same way, but I like to stick in the the food processor and it comes out as a consistency somewhere between baby food and a very fine dice. Throw the onion in the crockpot. Smash the garlic in a press and throw that in. Mostly drain the 2 cans of beans and throw those in the crockpot. Throw the tomatoes, corn and green chilies in. I suggest using the frozen corn in a bag as opposed to any canned corn because the canned corn is very sweet.

Now the sausages should be done (you did watch them and flip them when appropriate right?). Pull the sausages off the hot burner and let them cool. Put your spices in the crockpot and mix well. Now clean up all of your mess while the sausages cool. When you have nothing else left to clean see if the sausages are cool enough to handle, you want to cut each one in half length wise then cut them up width wise so that the chunks are about as wide as a bean. Dump these into the crockpot as you go. Cover and cook for a long time. I've done this on the fast cook setting (higher heat for 4 hours) and it came out fine, but I would suggest doing it for 6.

For extra credit when your chili is done but the crock pot is still on the "warm" setting, sprinkle in about a tablespoon of Masa flour. This will thicken it up a bit and give it a very good taste that nobody will be able to identify.

Now comes your most important decision: how to serve it. While the chili tastes great alone, it is meant to be poured on top of something. I usually pour it on top of Basmati rice. Delicious alternatives are a baked potato, crunched up Fritos, or oyster crackers. Customization options are to sprinkle on some grated cheese, diced red onion, or finely diced chives.