Jay’s Famous Chili

A group of us here at work have formed a lunch club. There are six of us and we take turns each week cooking a recipe on Sunday and bring it in on Monday. Mostly we make lunch. Sometimes it’s breakfast, or a snack. We started this group in January of 2019 and it continues today. Monday’s are always fun and adventurous. Sometimes it makes us try something we’re not familiar with but mostly, it’s always something new. As a big fan of chili, I’m always on the lookout for new recipes. Sometimes they’re good and sometimes they’re not. This particular recipe came in from Michelle. She made it for us in our first round of the “jar swap”, incidentally, we’re now starting our 9th round. She said it’s a recipe her husband Jason (Jay) has perfected over the years. I’ll say it’s perfected. It’s my favorite comfort food on a cold winter’s night. Served with cornbread you just can’t go wrong. It’s easy to put together and you let the crock-pot do all the work. You can certainly adjust the heat by adding more peppers, or less peppers, add some brown sugar if you want to sweeten it up a bit. It’s perfectly OK to adjust according to your taste. Just don’t change the time. The four hours on high is just right to make the meat and beans tender.

You’re going to end up with a thick, rich, delicious chili your entire family will enjoy.

Ingredients:

2 packages ground turkey, you’re choice of lean. (I prefer the 90% Fat Free because it has just enough fat to keep it from seeming dry).
2 garlic cloves, diced
Olive oil
1 large can, 28oz, whole peeled tomatoes
2 cans Big Y southwest style diced tomatoes
2 cans dark red kidney beans, drain and rinse
15 oz ketchup
1 packet of McCormick chili seasoning
1 jalapeno pepper, sliced and seeds removed
1/2 jar banana pepper rings, sliced. (just the peppers, no juice)