
When Ken and Linda Rosenthal founded a bakery in Missouri, they never imagined it would become one of America’s largest bakery chains. Panera was born, and they soon diversified to offer many fantastic comfort food classics, including their awesome turkey chili.
Here’s the thing, I don’t mind Panera selling ready-meals; they’re quite tasty. What I’m not a fan of is that you can make all these soups at home for a fraction of the cost. They even turn out better — they’re home-made, and you can’t beat that.
Having said that, today we’re making Panera’s turkey chili, and it’s an awesome chili because it relies on more than beans. Yes, you have kidney beans, chickpeas and soybeans, making this mean soup a protein bomb with lots of nutrients.
The rest of the ingredients are ground turkey, of course, which is a lean and flavorful alternative for ground beef and pork, onions, carrots and sweet corn. All swimming in a tomato and beef broth.
To flavor our soup, we’re using jalapeño peppers and lots of spices: oregano, cayenne pepper, cumin, salt and black pepper. To say this turkey chili is flavorful would be an understatement — it’s delicious!
The entire recipe takes about one hour to make, but most of the time is just simmering the soup. The truth is, this is an easy recipe, but the result is one-hundred times better than store-bought. Let’s get started and make ourselves a few bowls of turkey chili Panera style!
Heat a large pot or Dutch oven on the stovetop and heat two tablespoons of oil.
Add the minced garlic, jalapeño, and chopped red onion. Stir until translucent and fragrant.
Add the ground turkey meat. Stir until browned.
Drain and pour in the canned beans, garbanzo beans and soybeans. Stir.
Pour in the tomato paste and heat over medium flame until steamy.
Add the carrot and the corn kernels until softened.
Pour in the beef broth, season with oregano, cayenne pepper, cumin salt and pepper. Combine with a spoon.
Cover until boiling and let simmer for ten minutes.
Uncover and let reduce for ten more minutes until thickened to the desired texture.