Turkish Turkey Chili Pasta | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with Turkish turkey chili pasta. That's right, we're doing a spin on the viral Tik Tok Turkish pasta. And instead of the beef, we're going to do a beautiful turkey chili, which isn't just delicious, it's also very appropriate since turkey gets its name from Turkey. And later on in the video, I'll tell you which one came first. But for now, let's go ahead and get started by adding one pound of ground turkey to a skillet set over high heat in which we've drizzled a few tablespoons of olive oil. And what we'll do is cook that while breaking it up with a spatula until we have it broken up into smaller pieces. But much more importantly, until those broken up pieces of turkey start to take on some nice brown color. And if you've seen the original video, which this is based on, the ground beef is pretty much cooked until it's crispy, which is not something we really want to do with the leaner turkey, which isn't a problem since, as I mentioned, we're going to turn this into a chili, but brown meat does taste better than unbrat. So, we definitely want to get at least this much color before we move on to the next step. And once our crumbled turkey is looking a little something like this, we will stop and add a diced onion. And we'll reduce our heat down a little bit to medium high, at which point we'll transfer in almost all the rest of the ingredients, including some salt, a fairly massive amount of butter, some paprika, some chili powder, of course, some freshly ground black pepper, some ground cumin, some dried oregano, some garlic powder, plus a whole bunch of onion powder. We'll also, of course, sneak in some cayenne. And then last but not least, some Turkish chili flakes. And I'm using Aleppo chili, which is Syrian, but I believe very close. And what we'll do is stir all that together. And we will keep cooking until that butter melts in and our onions start to soften and sweeten and turn translucent. And while that's happening, our meat is being crumbled even more. And it's hopefully browning up even further. And by the way, the reason for all the butter we added earlier is because in the original recipe, the dish is finished with a paprika butter that spooned over the top. But since I'm doing this with a turkey chili, I figured we'd add the butter right in from the start to achieve the same flavor profile without having to do that extra step. But anyway, once we're thrilled with how everything's looking, we will turn this into a chili by adding some tomato paste, as well as about a cup of tomato sauce or tomato puree or crushed tomatoes or pretty much any tomato product. And we'll also add a splash of water to whatever we use to transfer that in. And we'll add that to the pan as well. And then what we'll do is give all this a nice stir. And we'll reduce our heat to medium low, or maybe somewhere between medium low and medium. And we will simmer this stirring occasionally for probably about 20 minutes or so or until our onions are nice and soft and sweet and everything's looking and tasting exactly how we want, which of course we don't guess at. We actually taste and adjust. And if you need to toss in some more salt, go ahead, right? That is just you cooking. Oh, and speaking of adjustments, if we think our chili is reducing too much and maybe getting a little too thick, we can always stir in a splash of water and then simply continue cooking until we're happy with it. So, to summarize, the final seasoning as well as how thick or saucy this ends up being is completely up to you. I mean, you are after all the box car willy of how to do this very simple turkey chili. And that's it. We'll simply turn that down below if we're going to serve it soon. or we can actually turn it off and heated up later. But in any event, while that's cooking, we need to make the garlic yogurt sauce that's going to get spooned over the top, which could not be any easier since all it is is a whole bunch of finely crushed garlic that we'll add to some plain Greekstyle yogurt. And we'll also add a nice big splash of cold fresh water. And then we'll take a whisk and give this a mix. And anytime we're mixing something very thin into something very thick, there's going to be splashing. So, start off slow. And yes, I was trying to move the bowl to hide that one splash, but it didn't work. But anyway, we'll give that a mix and adjust with more water if we need since I don't think we want this too thick, and we do want it to be kind of saucy. And that's it. Once that's set, we can move on to the final component, which would be some kind of cooked open shaped pasta, which in this case is going to be shells, which I happen to think is the perfect shape. But no matter what you use, make sure your water is generously salted. And we'll go ahead and cook that according to the package directions or to your personal preference for dness. And yes, as you may have noticed, I've started to do some straight overhead shots. Since I've always wanted to know what my food would look like to Tom Cruz repelling down from a ceiling in one of those Mission Impossible movies. But anyway, once our pasta is cooked, we will drain that well and then transfer some into a bowl for service and we'll go ahead and top that with as much turkey chili as we want, which for me is going to be a lot. And that's it. Once our shells have been chilied, we will spoon over that beautifully tangy, very garlicky sauce, which I think is really the key to this recipe, both the original and this version. And we'll finish up with a very generous pinch of freshly chopped herbs, which for me was Italian parsley and mint. And that's it. What I'm calling Turkish turkey chili pasta was ready to enjoy, which by the way, if you've used the shells, I highly recommend doing with a spoon. And that, my friends, really was amazing. And the original Turkish pasta dish was meant to be sort of a deconstructed dumpling dish called mante. And while I've had those many times and absolutely love them, this approach is so much easier. And to me, every bit is enjoyable. Oh, and in case you didn't know, the country turkey was named before the bird turkey. And apparently, there was some kind of game hen from there that they sold in Europe called turkeycock. And when people came over here to see our native bird, they called it turkey because they thought it looked the same. So if you didn't know, now you know. And of course, if you want to add a can of beans to your chili, I think that would be totally fine. And you may end up with your new favorite version of pasta fizzoul. But whether you add other things or make this as shown, I could not have loved how this came out anymore. And I really do hope you give it a try soon. So, please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy.