My first turkey chili in the Burn the Fat recipe collection was a unique white bean stovetop version with no tomatoes. It’s still one of my favorites. But I also wanted to create a low calorie slow cooker turkey chili that’s more traditional – with red kidney beans, diced tomatoes, corn, bell pepper, and classic chili flavor – while keeping the macros lean and high in protein.
So I built this version to deliver everything you expect from comfort-food chili, but in a fat-loss friendly, high-protein chili recipe that fits perfectly into a muscle-building or weight-loss meal plan. The result came out awesome – and now we’ve got a traditional slow cooker turkey chili with better nutrition numbers than most recipes you’ll find online.
What Kind Of Protein Is Best For Slow Cooker Chili?
To keep the calories down and the protein high, this chili recipe uses ground turkey, though obviously this would work with ground beef too. Beef has a deeper more savory flavor and fits the classic chili profile.
However, ground beef also has more fat and more calories, so if you want the macros to be similar to my turkey chili recipe, then choose the leanest ground beef you can find. Usually the leanest grade is 96% fat-free, and 93% is even more widely available and the macro difference isn’t massive.
I use 99% fat free ground turkey for this chili. 99% lean ground turkey is notorious for being bland and dry by itself. However, it takes on the flavor of whatever you season it with, and with the seasonings in this recipe, it won’t leave you wanting for flavor.
Plus, when you make chili with enough liquid (broth) and include enough veggies and moisture-containing ingredients like this recipe does, it won’t be dry either.
If you prefer, go ahead and use 93% fat-free ground turkey. It will be juicier and taste richer, but the calories will be a little higher and the protein a little lower.
Here’s a comparison of the macros in this chili per serving for 99% lean vs 93% lean:
Chili with 99% fat free ground turkey:
Calories: 380 calories
Protein: 40g
Carbs: 44.7g
Fat: 5.1g
Chili with 93% fat free ground turkey:
Calories: 412
Protein: 35g
Carbs: 44.7g
Fat: 10.9g
How Much Turkey Should You Use (And How Much Protein Is In Turkey Chili?)
This recipe calls for 1.5 pounds of extra lean ground turkey. If you break the whole batch up into 6 servings (as per the recipe card below), you get 40 grams of protein per serving. If you split the batch up into 5 servings, you’d get almost 50 grams of protein.
Depending on how much protein you want per serving, feel free to adjust the ground turkey amount to suit your needs.
Also don’t forget, another reason the protein is high is because there’s protein in beans. It’s not as much as you get in lean meat, but it’s a significant amount. Those two cans of beans add 56 grams of protein to the batch. That’s why even a moderate serving of this chili – less than 2 cups – will still give you 40 grams of total protein.
I’ve never tried it, but I’m sure you could turn this into a tasty vegetarian version by using a tofu or tempeh for a protein in place of the ground turkey.
Low Calorie Turkey Chili Ingredients
To make the macros fat loss friendly as well as healthy, this recipe includes a balance of fibrous carbs (veggies) and starchy carbs (like corn and beans). Combined with the protein, that gives you nicely balanced macros.
This is not low carb, but not high carb either. I would call it a moderate carb recipe.
I used plenty of vegetables to make it healthy and keep the calorie density low. That includes two large bell peppers. These are fibrous carbs that increase the bulk of each serving, increasing satiety, while reducing the calorie density per serving.
Bell peppers also add flavor and texture. Use any kind you want. I like using red and green.
Turkey chili is great with a large amount of onions. They mellow nicely after slow cooking all day. They also boost the bulk of your meal, without boosting the calories much. This recipe calls for one large onion, which is usually at around 8 or 9 ounces, or 1.5 cups chopped.
Remember, the more fibrous vegetables you use, the fuller you’ll feel on fewer calories and the better your macros will be.
For starchy carbs there’s corn and beans. Dropping the corn reduces calories slightly, but I recommend keeping it if you like corn because the calories in this chili are already low. Either canned or frozen works fine.
In one of my early versions of this recipe I used only one (15 ounce) can of beans and I found the final product was lacking in substance. Without enough beans, it’s not really chili to me.
Two (15 oz) cans of red kidney beans is the perfect amount to make a chunky stew with ideal (balanced) macros.
How Do You Make Turkey Chili Thick And Chunky?
How chunky versus how soupy you want your chili is a personal taste matter and you can adjust ingredients to get the texture and thickness you want.
I enjoy a very chunky chili, but with a little juice. In my first attempt at creating this recipe, I thought my first batch had too much liquid. So in this final version of the recipe I settled on using only one cup of chicken broth (low sodium). That was perfect.
I suspect that more liquid is recommended in stove-top cooking because there’s more evaporation, but what you put in the slow cooker basically stays in the slow cooker, plus juice leaks out of the other ingredients as they simmer all day.
Mistakes To Avoid When Making Turkey Chili
A mistake I made which made which left my first attempt sub-par, was I skipped the browning of the turkey in a skillet on the stovetop. You’ll often hear that if you want to be lazy you can toss the turkey right into the crockpot first and it will cook just fine by the end of the day. That does work, but I discovered it’s not ideal.
Turkey is packaged after coming out of the grinder in strings. It also has a mushier texture than ground beef.By tossing that hunk of ground meat straight into the crockpot raw, without compacting it into chunks and then browning it, it partially dissolved on me.
The flavor was okay, so I knew I got the seasonings right, but it was not as appetizing because little particles of meat made the chili like mush. That’s one reason why it’s worth the time to brown the meat in a pan.
This also might have happened because in my earliest batches I used too much broth as well. Toss raw ground turkey into a pot of liquid and it’s no wonder it doesn’t come out well. That’s one reason why I only use a cup of broth. The other reason is I like chili to be thick, not soupy.
How To Season Turkey Chili So It Tastes Amazing
Here’s a no-brainer winning formula for seasonings:
- Chili powder
- Cumin
- Oregano
- Salt
- Pepper
- Cayenne pepper (optional if you like it hot)
As mentioned above, I also recommend seasoning the ground turkey with salt and pepper directly when you are browning it.
I’ve used anywhere between 1 and 2 tablespoons of chili powder. Using one will produce a lightly spicy chili. One and a half will be moderately spicy. And two will be spicy.
To make it super spicy, add cayenne pepper powder as well (to your taste).
Is Turkey Chili High In Sodium?
If you use regular canned beans, corn, and diced tomatoes, this will not be low in sodium and you may not need to add any more salt. Taste test it shortly before serving to see if the salt is needed.
On the other hand, if you’ve used low-sodium or no-sodium ingredients, you may notice it tastes good, but seems like it’s “missing something.”
That something might be a little extra salt, which you can add at your discretion after taste testing before serving. Adjust the other seasonings to your liking as well.
Slow Cooker Turkey Chili vs Stovetop Turkey Chili
I wanted to try a slow cooker turkey chili recipe instead of doing it on the stovetop. This way I could make it in the morning, set it and forget it, and come back to a huge batch, with my kitchen smelling amazing.
This exact set of ingredients would probably work for stovetop cooking as well. (Just make sure you have a huge stock pot).
However, turkey chili is one of those meals that seem to get more and more flavorful as it simmers all day long. Not to mention, the leftovers seem to taste as good or better the next day. It even freezes and serves well reheated too, so this slow cooker chili is great for meal prep.
Slow Cooker Chili Cook Time
Many slow cooker recipes take 8 hours, especially if they use potatoes and stew meat (beef chuck, round steak, etc), so you start mid morning and then it’s ready for dinner.
But this type of slow cooker turkey chili may be done in as little as 6 hours. If it is, but you’re not ready to eat yet, it certainly doesn’t hurt to keep it simmering on low for 8.
As I mentioned, letting slow cooker chili simmer a while is great for bringing the flavors out.
If you started late, you can turn your slow cooker to high and it will be done in about 4 hours.
Portions, Garnishes, And Serving Suggestions For Slow Cooker Chili
This healthy turkey chili is a complete (and delicious) standalone meal. It’s high in protein and has plenty of carbs without being too high in carbs (this is moderate in carbs).
Remember that “portions” in our recipes are based on typical fat loss programs, assuming calories need to be lower (to achieve a deficit). A family of four with no one dieting might polish off this whole batch at one dinner. So could hungry bodybuilders, bulking.
Amazingly, dividing this huge batch into only four servings, you’d still only get 569 calories per serving, and you would be stuffed.
If you have even more calories to spare, sour cream and cheese on top of this would be amazing. But to avoid turning this into a calorie bomb, use the low fat versions of each.
Always customize your portions for your own needs.
I usually choose recipe ingredients and select the portion sizes for fat loss programs. But you can see how this healthy turkey chili is great for muscle-building diets if you scale the recipe portions up or serve with additional ingredients
Be sure to rate the recipe and drop a note in the comments below to let me know what you think.
Enjoy!
-Tom Venuto
Founder of Burn the Fat Inner Circle
The Support Community For Health-First, All-Natural Body Transformation
Low Calorie Slow Cooker Turkey Chili
Equipment
- slow cooker
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs 99% lean ground turkey
- 1 lg Onion, chopped
- 1 lg Green bell pepper
- 1 lg Red bell pepper
- 2 14-oz cans Red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 15 oz can Sweet corn, drained
- 2 14.5 oz cans Diced tomatoes
- 2 Tbsp Tomato paste (optional but recommended)
- 1 cup Chicken broth, reduced sodium
- 4-6 cloves, lg Garlic, minced
- 1-2 Tbsp Chili powder (to taste)
- 1.5-2 tsp cumin
- 1.5-2 tsp Oregano
- 1/4 tsp Cayenne (optional for heat)
- 1/2-1 tsp Salt
- 1/2-1 tsp Pepper
- 2 tsp Olive oil
Nutrition
More Lean Ground Turkey Recipes:
Almost Fat-Free Homemade Breakfast Turkey Sausage Patties
About Tom Venuto
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilding and fat loss coach with 35 years of experience. He holds a degree in exercise science and has trained hundreds of clients in person and thousands online. He is also a recipe creator specializing in fat-burning, muscle-building cooking.
A former competitive bodybuilder, Tom is now a full-time evidence-based fitness writer, blogger, and author. His classic book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is an international bestseller, first as an ebook and later as a hardcover and audiobook. He is also the author of Meal Prep For Fat Loss, a practical guide to smart shopping, batch cooking, and kitchen strategies that make healthy eating simple and sustainable.
Tom is also the founder of Burn the Fat Inner Circle, a fitness support community with more than 59,000 members worldwide since 2006.
Tom’s work has been featured in Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Oprah Magazine and dozens of other major publications. He is best known for his no-BS, scientific approach to natural fat loss and muscle-building.
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