Easy Turkey Kielbasa Chili (Gluten Free and Lower Fat!)

Easy Turkey Kielbasa Chili is a deliciously different twist on your usual chili recipes. Naturally gluten free, and lower fat than beef chili — but with all the chili flavor you’d expect!

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I have a confession to make, you guys. I cheated on ALDI last week! In my own defense, however, I was able to pick up a couple of packs of turkey kielbasa at another local grocery store for a buck each after a sale + coupons. Never fear: The next time I make this Easy Turkey Kielbasa Chili — and oh, there will be a next time! — it may instead feature ALDI’s Fit & Active brand of turkey sausage, because that is also darn tasty. (And $1.99 at my store at the time I wrote this post, but up to $2.49 a little over a year later!)

So anyway, that’s all of course a little tongue-in-cheek, but today’s kielbasa chili recipe was indeed inspired by these two packs of Butterball turkey kielbasa staring at me every time I opened the fridge (along with one sad, lonely, starting-to-wrinkle orange bell pepper). I wasn’t in the mood for the usual sausage, peppers, and onions thing, though (although some of that flavor does shine through), and I didn’t feel sausage, peppers, and onions frittata-ish today, so decided to roll with our depressingly cold and rainy weather here and throw together a comforting pot full of turkey kielbasa chili.

If you don’t care for turkey kielbasa, you can of course use regular kielbasa — or, an andouille smoked sausage chili would also probably be a pretty good and spicier twist. That’s the best thing about chili, right? Just like soup, it’s forgiving, and it’s customizable to your own tastes and what you have on hand.

But, here’s how I cooked up today’s batch of turkey sausage chili…

Easy Turkey Kielbasa Chili

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil (see Note)
Two 13-14 oz turkey kielbasa dinner sausages, halved lengthwise then sliced into half moons
6 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 Tbsp)
1/2 of a medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 medium sweet bell pepper (red, orange, or yellow), roughly chopped
14.5 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
10 oz can diced tomatoes with green chilies
8 oz can tomato sauce
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1.5 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 Tbsp cumin
1/2 Tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cayenne (omit if you are sensitive to heat)

Directions

Chop your vegetables and cut up the sausage. When those are ready, heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering, then add the sausage, onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Saute for 15 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion and pepper begin to soften.

While your sausage/pepper/onion mixture is cooking, open up all your cans and rinse and drain the beans. Once the vegetables are softened, stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, beans, and spices. Reduce heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally.

Serve hot. One optional serving suggestion: Serve over cooked rice topped with shredded cheddar cheese and/or sour cream.

Note: If you’re using regular rather than turkey kielbasa, you might reduce the olive oil to 1 Tbsp. Note also that turkey kielbasa doesn’t brown up as much as regular, but will still be darn tasty in the final chili.

That’s a different spin on chili!

This chili recipe is a nice change from your normal ground beef or ground turkey, and while it’s definitely a chili, the final result would also be good mixed into rice. Whether you serve yours with rice, potatoes, corn bread, or just as-is, however, you end up with a big pot of family-friendly comfort food that’s chock-full of flavor! The cayenne adds just a slight underlying kick here — it’s not overly spicy, but if you or your kids are sensitive to heat, just omit the cayenne for a milder version.

Easy turkey kielbasa chili is naturally gluten free, as long as the sausage you use is, and (even with a full 26-28 oz of kielbasa in here) it’s much lower in fat than traditional ground beef chili, for those of you watching that.

Easy Turkey Kielbasa Chili, printable recipe

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Easy Turkey Kielbasa Chili

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Easy turkey kielbasa chili is naturally gluten free, as long as the sausage you use is, and (even with a full 26-28 oz of kielbasa in here) it’s much lower in fat than traditional ground beef chili.

Course dinner

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Rachel Singer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil (see Note)
• Two 13-14 oz turkey kielbasa dinner sausage, halved lengthwise then sliced into half moons
• 6 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 Tbsp)
• 1/2 of a medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 1 medium sweet bell pepper (red, orange, or yellow, roughly chopped)
• 14.5 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 10 oz can diced tomatoes with green chilies
• 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1.5 Tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 Tbsp cumin
• 1/2 Tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp cayenne (omit if you are sensitive to heat)

Instructions

• Chop your vegetables and cut up the sausage. When those are ready, heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering, then add the sausage, onion, bell pepper, and garlic. 
• Saute for 15 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion and pepper begin to soften.
• While your sausage/pepper/onion mixture is cooking, open up all your cans and rinse and drain the beans. 
• Once the vegetables are softened, stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, beans, and spices. Reduce heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally.
• Serve hot. One optional serving suggestion: Serve over cooked rice topped with shredded cheddar cheese and/or sour cream.

Notes

If you’re using regular rather than turkey kielbasa, you might reduce the olive oil to 1 Tbsp. Note also that turkey kielbasa doesn’t brown up as much as regular, but will still be darn tasty in the final chili.

Recipes in the real world

Be sure not to miss the free ALDI meal plans, which show you how to use these easy family recipes to meal plan affordably and realistically for your family. Or, find more recipe ideas with the Recipe Search!

Be sure not to miss the free ALDI meal plans, which show you how to use these easy family recipes to meal plan affordably and realistically for your family. Or, find more recipe ideas with the Recipe Search!