This stovetop Dutch Oven Chili is everything you crave in a classic chili recipe. It's hearty, perfectly spiced, packed with protein, and makes for even better leftovers. Have this easy one-pot meal ready in just about 30 minutes!
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📋 About the Recipe
- Ideal for a crowd! Making a big pot of hearty chili is the perfect solution for a summer camping trip, entering a chili cook-off, or hosting a potluck during football season.
- Easy one-pot meal. This dutch oven chili comes together in just a few simple steps, then simmers until thickened and flavorful. If you love easy one-pot meals, you'll love this Instant Pot Navy Bean Soup, Pumpkin, Carrot, and Sweet Potato Soup, and this Healthy Chicken Chili.
- Versatile. Chili is hearty enough to serve on its own with your favorite toppings or with a simple side such as cornbread, Air Fryer Garlic Bread, or Air Fryer Fingerling Potatoes.
🛒 Ingredients
A few notes about the ingredients:
- Ground turkey - I made this chili using ground turkey to keep it on the lighter, leaner side.
- Beans - I used a combination of canned pinto beans and kidney beans. If you are cooking your beans from scratch, they must be cooked and cooled in advance. Replace each can with about 1 ½ to 2 cups of cooked beans.
- Tomatoes - For this recipe, you'll need diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste.
- Beer - My recommendation is to use a light, lager beer such as Heineken or Corona.
- Maple syrup - gives a nice flavor without adding sweetness. It helps round out the acidic flavors of the tomatoes and the spice of the chili.
⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
- Turkey substitutions: If preferred, you can also use another ground meat such as ground chicken or even ground beef. If using ground beef, I'd recommend choosing lean ground beef (85/15 or 90/10) and draining any excess fat before continuing to recipe step 3.
- Bean substitutions: Feel free to replace the pinto beans with black beans. If you're looking for a chili made with white beans, you'll love my Healthy Chicken Chili, Chicken Minestrone Soup, Instant Pot Navy Bean Soup, One Pot Vegetable, Bean, and Barley Soup.
- Chicken broth substitution: Both vegetable broth and beef broth are perfect alternatives - use what you have.
- Vegetarian chili option: Omit the ground turkey and add an additional can of beans in its place.
- Corn - I like adding corn to my chili, but if you don't like it, you can leave it out.
📓 Instructions
- Prep. Gather and prepare your needed recipe ingredients and heat olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat.
- Cook ground turkey, onion, and green bell pepper. Add the ground turkey, diced onion, and peppers to the pot. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, breaking up the turkey with a spoon.
- Add seasonings. Add garlic, chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika, salt, and black pepper, and cook for an additional 30 seconds, until fragrant.
- Add beans, corn, tomato products, and maple syrup. Make sure to drain and rinse the canned beans and corn before adding to the pot.
- Pour in liquids. Add the low sodium chicken broth and light beer. Stir well to combine, scraping the bottom of the pot to lift up remnants and flavor.
- Bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes until thickened.
- Serve. Ladle warm dutch oven chili into individual serving bowls and top with your favorite chili toppings. Some of our favorite toppings include sour cream, cheddar cheese, cubed avocado, green onions, and crushed tortilla chips!
❄️ How to Store
To store: Leftover dutch oven chili will keep for up to 5 days when stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
To freeze: Homemade chili also freezes extremely well. To freeze, allow the chili to cool completely to room temperature, then transfer the chili to a freezer safe container. Frozen chili will keep for up to 3 months.
To reheat: This dutch oven chili can be reheated on the stovetop over low heat until warmed through or in a microwave. If microwaving, heat in individual serving sizes in 30 second bursts until warm.
🔍 Recipe FAQs
The dutch oven has one advantage the slow cooker does not - a sauté-ability. If you cook chili in the slow cooker you will have to cook the turkey, onion, and bell pepper on the stovetop first to cook it through and develop its flavor. This adds an additional step and creates additional dishes.
As a general rule of thumb, the longer chili simmers, the more flavorful it becomes. The same is true for refrigerating overnight. If you've ever enjoyed a bowl of leftover chili, you'll know it's usually even better the next day!
Storing chili at room temperature is never recommended. This can cause harmful bacteria to grow and cause food poisoning. If you accidentally left your chili pot out overnight, it is best to discard the chili and cook a fresh batch.
Yes, chili needs to be cooled before refrigerating. This prevents condensation from building up inside your storage container and more importantly, prevents the overall temperature of your fridge to rise. This is not only better for the longevity of your refrigerator, but will keep the surrounding food in your fridge from spoiling.
💭 One More Tip
Double check the spice measurements! In order to make the best tasting stovetop chili, it's important to use the correct ratio of spices. This recipe calls for 3 full tablespoons of chili powder (no, this is not a typo!).
If you don't have enough chili powder to make this recipe, make homemade chili powder using these basic spices.
🍴 Related Recipes
Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!
📖 Recipe
Dutch Oven Chili
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound ground turkey or ground chicken
- 2 cups diced yellow onion (about 1 onion)
- 1 cup diced green bell pepper (about 1 pepper)
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 3 large cloves)
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15.25 ounce) can corn, drained
- 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- ½ cup low sodium chicken broth
- 1 (12 ounce) light beer
- Toppings: sour cream, cheddar cheese, avocado, green onions, crushed tortilla chips
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat.
- Add ground turkey (or chicken), onion, and green pepper. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally and breaking up the turkey with a spoon.
- Add garlic, chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper, and cook another 30 seconds.
- Add pinto beans, kidney beans, corn, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and maple syrup to the pot.
- Pour in broth and beer. Stir to combine.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes until thickened.
- Top with your favorite toppings!
Notes
- If you don't have a dutch oven, just use a pot large enough to fit all the ingredients.
- Note that this recipe calls for 3 TABLESPOONS of chili powder. Make sure to buy a large enough chili powder at the store to accommodate this.
Nutrition
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