30-Minute Chili

I made chili for the first time last week.  I like chili, but I don't eat it very often.  Chili is usually filled with ground beef.  I don't eat cows or pigs, so chili is generally not an option for me.  I prefer vegetarian chili, but the person who requested the chili wasn't about to eat that.  I found a regular chili recipe and substituted ground turkey.  I was told that he couldn't tell the difference.

Does this look appealing?  Eh, no.  But it was tasty.  

I found a chili recipe from Everyday Food that I thought would be worth trying.  They called it 30-Minute Chili.  It took longer than thirty minutes to make.  Me being me, I couldn't just make it the way the recipe said.  I had to mess with it a bit.  I already mentioned that I substituted ground turkey for the beef.  I used two onions instead of three.  I used a greater amount of both the chili powder and the chipotle chiles in adobo sauce.  I left out the cinnamon completely, and I didn't put shredded cheese on top at the end.

The entire time I was making the chili, I was convinced it was going to be terrible.  After I added the ground turkey, it looked like a mushy mess.  I thought it would never cook properly.  After I added the beer and the diced tomatoes, I thought it was too watery and would never reduce enough.  It ended up just right.  It was hot and spicy, but not too much so.  It had a good ratio of liquid to beans, tomatoes, and meat.  I was surprisingly pleased with how it turned out.