Butternut Squash & Turkey Chili

My Favorite Chili

Let’s make my favorite chili. I make this every week! This is my delicious and highly nutritious Butternut Squash and Ground Turkey Chili Recipe. Per serving, it packs a whopping 42 grams of protein, 20 grams of fiber and so many wonderful nutrients! Most of the cooking time is spent with the chili on simmer, tending to it only to stir it occasionally, so this is really an easy meal to make. Which is one of the reasons I make this chili every week! And by the way, this is the best chili I’ve ever had! So, let’s get started.

Butternut Squash & Turkey Chili | Recipe

Start with a very large stock pot. I’m using a wonderful Calphalon 8 Quart Stock Pot. If you are using a dutch oven or a stockpot with a smaller capacity, feel free to adjust the recipe down (recipe adjustments are easily made in the recipe card below).

Put your burner on medium high. In your stock pot, add your ingredients. Starting with 2 to three tablespoons of olive oil, 2 lbs of ground turkey.

Now, we put our spices in. 1 tbsp of ground cumin. Two teaspoons of ground coriander, 1/4 cup of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of paprika, 1 teaspoon of onion powder, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup of chia seeds, and 1 to 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar. You mix it all up. You want to make sure all the spices are completely coated on the meat.

Then you cover the pot and let the meat completely cook through. Maybe about 10 minutes or so. You can keep stirring the meat as you go.

Once it’s cooked through, add 3 tablespoon of tomato paste. And you mix that in really well. Add a little more olive oil, one chopped onion, three to four cloves of garlic (chopped or minced if you feel like it). Now mix that up.

Now we add one 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes. One to two butternut squash peeled, de-seeded, and cut into roughly 1/2 in cubes. You can use frozen or pre-cut butternut squash to save time, which is what I often do. 

Now, add one lb bag of frozen tri-color pepper strips and a one lb bag of frozen chopped spinach.

You’re going to cover it. Let the frozen vegetables melt down a little bit. Now we add one 15 1/2 oz can of drained kidney beans, one 15 1/2 oz can of drained black beans, and one can of great northern beans, 15 1/2 oz drained.

Next add two small cans of green chilies. Next we add 8 oz of sliced baby Bella mushrooms (you can use canned or frozen mushrooms for this as well to save time). Stir everything up.

Next add four bay leaves. Now we’re going to take some chicken stock. You’re going to use almost the entire box, which is 32 oz or 1 quart. Basically, you’re not going to want to overfill the pot, so fill until you leave a few inches at the top. And then you just get it nicely stirred in.

Then you’re going to turn up the heat. You’re going to bring it to a boil. Then stir it again.

Then you cover the pot, turn the heat down to low, and let it simmer for about an hour. You just want to make sure the butternut squash is tender and all the juices are allowed to marinate together in the stockpot. If you need to leave it longer than an hour, that is fine. 

By the way, it’s a very good idea to stir the butternut squash chili midway through, at about 1/2 hour of simmering.

After an hour, the butternut squash is super tender. I just cut it in half cleanly. It was just so easy to do it. This chili is ready. Just make sure you remove the bay leaves before you serve the chili. That’s always good practice.

You can serve the chili immediately, or remove from heat and let it sit until you’re ready to serve. It will still be plenty hot! Let’s serve the chili.

Butternut Squash & Turkey Chili | How Does It Taste?

This is so delicious! And ny the way, this is one of the few things that you don’t need to add salt to in the bowl. It is perfect as is. Also, there is some salt that is in the chili powder that I get, which is why I don’t need to add any additionally. I do add pepper at the end though in the bowl.

This is so good. This is the best chili that I’ve ever had. I make it all the time, pretty much every week. I love this chili so much. It is so nutritious, super high in protein, so much fiber, so many vegetables in here. The butternut squash just melts in your mouth.

This chili is so great for meal prep too. You can freeze it in individual Tupperware containers. You can defrost it or you can put it in the microwave from frozen about 10 minutes or so. You want to stir it in the middle. The flavor remains even when you freeze it and then reheat it. It is so good. It is so delicious. I cannot wait for you to try this. I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

If you want to check out more protein packed recipes, click here:

Protein Recipes | Simple Fantastic Kitchen