In the center of Queens, the little neighborhood of Forest Hills Gardens fills with front-step pumpkins and skeletons each October. On Halloween, families start going from door to web-framed door as soon as school lets out, and the crowds swell, grow taller around dusk.
When my children were growing up, the holiday felt like the height of community, fellow parents watching out for one another’s ghosts and bats, friends coming over to trade candy at the end of the night. (Does anyone want these Skittles?) The challenge was what to feed everyone after a long day and jittery amounts of sweets.
Recipe: Quick Turkey Chili
Chili was — always is — the right choice for a Halloween party: a salty, warming bowl on a sugary, chilly night. There never seemed to be enough time to simmer a pot for hours in the busyness of costumes and handing out treats, so I created this turkey chili I could throw together in under half an hour.
And then I worried for weeks about whether it could even be considered a chili.
How is chili defined? Can it be? It’s a stew, for sure. Wait, or is it a hearty soup? Merriam-Webster calls it a “thick sauce,” which is an interesting take. Its inception remains murky, but it was popularized throughout the Southwest. And its one constant — chile peppers — originated in present-day Mexico. Fresh or dried peppers (or both) can season chili with a range of heat and flavors that’s as wide as the genus capsicum’s varieties.
The earthy musk of cumin often scents the pot, as does the dry-grass aroma of oregano. Onions and garlic are often guaranteed, with a subsequent choice of rojo tomatoes or verde tomatillos. Sometimes, there are beans, still considered sacrilege by many, and there’s often no meat at all. When there is, it’s lovely if chunks of tough cuts slow-braise for hours, exhaling into tender shreds.
But on an already-busy holiday, that’s as realistic as getting a peanut butter cup in exchange for candy corn. So, here, ground meat it is. As with every other ingredient in this chili, it’s the fastest possible option, with flavors that can be drawn out quickly. Dark meat turkey cooks through swiftly and absorbs a smokiness from the vegetables that go in the pot before it.
Prepared with a technique found in many Mexican stews and sauces, the onion is charred to near blackness. Because it’s diced in this recipe, it sears in minutes. Fresh green Hatch or Cubanelle peppers have flatter walls than regular green peppers, so they tenderize quickly. To deepen the aroma of spices, smash the powdery crimson mix into the meat and vegetables and against the pot’s base to toast.
Kale is far from being a standard chili addition, but it brings a welcome bite — and means you get all your greens without having to make a salad. Frozen chopped kale not only requires zero prep, it also tends to be less expensive than fresh. Because it’s already chopped and partly cooked, it wilts in minutes and, along with mashed canned lentils, thickens this brothy mix immediately.
This all happens in half an hour, and one taste at this moment, when the kale and cilantro are green as grass, answers the question of whether a chili requires hours of simmering. For a completely fresh take, no. This is the stew (yes, stew) at its lightest and brightest, with crisp-tender peppers and juicy meat, the tang of tomatoes, the tingle of spices. But keep it on the stove all night, and, by the end, it’ll feel as melded and profound as any classic.
Whichever way you serve it, you won’t have to give up much time from the community you’re building with the pot.
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Genevieve Ko is a deputy editor and columnist for the Food section and NYT Cooking, for which she also develops recipes.
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