A Healthy Twist On Chili: Turkey Picadillo Recipe
Photo: Christina Holmes
From Yahoo Food’s Cookbook of the Week: Healthy Latin Cooking
Turkey Picadillo
Serves 4
I’ll let my good friend DJ Enuff, who I worked with for years, do his own intro here: “Angie—or as my son calls her, Titi Angie—and I have known each other for nearly 20 years and have always been great friends. Over the years we’ve both dealt with similar weight challenges about how we eat and we’ve had countless conversations about it. I think everybody is always trying to figure out better ways to eat; even my own family has made a ton of changes in how we prepare our food. We are now very conscious of eating as clean and healthy as possible. This is my easy recipe for Turkey Picadillo, inspired by one that my mom always makes, which uses ground turkey instead of beef. It has all the same flavors as a classic picadillo, but without all the fat.” As for me, my grandfather always said that you could put whatever you have in your kitchen in picadillo, so we’d always have a mixture of different things like corn, carrots, and raisins. I like olives in mine because it reduces the amount of added salt you’ll need.
2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and minced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 pounds lean (90/10) ground turkey
2 cups dry red wine
1/2 pound fresh tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2/ 3 cup pimiento-stuffed green olives, drained and chopped
1/2 cup capers, rinsed
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 pinch dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Place the potatoes in a large pot with enough water to cover; season with salt. Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and let cool.
Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and garlic and cook until softened, about 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Crumble the ground turkey into the onion mixture, and using a wooden spoon, break the meat into smaller pieces as it begins to cook. Cook until the turkey is completely browned, about 5 minutes. Drain as much fat from the meat as possible.
Stir in the red wine, tomatoes, olives, capers, golden raisins, cumin, oregano, black pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer until the wine reduces and the mixture looks like chili, 8 to 10 minutes.
Peel the cooled potatoes and cut into chunks. Gently fold the cooked potatoes into the simmering beef mixture and cook for 5 minutes more.
Know your turkey:
