Hot Sauce Chili - Low Fat and Gluten Free

How do you combine teaching kids about measurements and cooking, hot sauce, beans, low fat turkey meat, and a Sunday afternoon? You make Fall Inspired Hot Sauce Chili – Low Fat and Gluten Free in a crock pot and let the spicy flavorful smells fill your kitchen.

I love crock pot cooking because once I put the ingredients together and turn the crock pot on, I’m done. This meal is one of the easiest to assemble and even easier to eat. We used El Yucateco’s new Black Label Reserve to add flavor to our ground turkey and lots of tomatoes and beans to make it super healthy. Ground turkey tends to be bland in flavor, but if you follow these directions you can have a delicious dish that is both low fat and gluten free. The Black Label Reserve has a smoky flavor. The habanero in the hot sauce enriches the flavor of this dish.

I also used this as an exercise to teach my preschoolers about measurements and cooking. The boys were happy to help me assemble our Hot Sauce Chili. For some fun photos of the boys at work in the kitchen, read on.

Hot Sauce Chili Ingredients:

2 – 15 oz cans of Tomato Sauce
1 – 28 oz can of Kidney Beans
1 – 30 oz can of Pinto Beans
1 – 4.5 oz can of Chopped Green Chilies
1 – package Jennie-O lean Ground Turkey
1 – 14.5 oz can Petite Diced Tomatoes
1/2 tsp El Yucateco Black Label Reserve Hot Sauce
1/4 tsp Oregano
1/4 tsp Ground Cumin
1/4 tsp Salt

Optional Ingredients:

4 cups White Corn Tortilla Chips
2 cups Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese

In case you’re wondering where you can pick up the El Yucateco hot sauce, our first stop was the Hispanic Food aisle at Walmart. We found three varieties of El Yacateco hot sauces on the shelves: Red Habanero Sauce, Green Habanero Sauce, and Black Label Reserve (this new sauce flavor is exclusive to Walmart). Our family enjoys hot sauce in a variety of dishes so I picked up one in each flavor.

We picked up the rest of the ingredients as part of our weekly shopping trip and I cleared off a table in our breakfast area so I could get the boys to help me with our Chili recipe.

A few tips for cooking with Young Children

Make sure they are wearing clothes that can easily be treated with a stain-remover and washed.
Clear the area to ensure other items (i.e. toys) do not get mixed in with the food.
Make the instructions clear and simple.
Use multiple containers if needed. I used measuring cups and asked the boys to pour the contents of each can into the measuring cup that best matched the volume of the ingredients in the can. The boys did a great job matching the ingredients to the proper sized measuring cups and pouring in the ingredients.
Keep surfaces free of tablecloths or placemats to make clean-up a little easier.
Keep a roll of paper towels nearby.
Have fun (and take pictures!)

The boys loved being able to help me “cook” our dinner. They laughed when the beans and chilies hit the table. Even though I knew there would be a small mess to clean, I enjoyed watching them having fun with the measuring cups. Overall I think they did a great job on one of their first cooking adventures.

When my four year old dumped the last can of beans into a measuring cup and didn’t spill any, I could tell that my two year old was amazed. I could almost hear him think, “Did all the beans make it in?” 😉

Directions for Hot Sauce Chili – Low Fat and Gluten Free

In a large skillet, cook lean ground turkey meat over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often to keep meat separated, until turkey meat is brown, drain.
In a 4- to 5-quart slow cooker/crock pot, mix the cooked turkey meat, beans, one can of the tomato sauce, chillies, and the diced tomatoes together.
Pour one can of the tomato sauce into a large measuring cup and add the oregano, salt, cumin and El Yucateco Black Label Reserve hot sauce. Stir to mix well. Once completely mixed, add the seasoned tomato sauce to the slow cooker.
Stir together all of the ingredients until they are throughly mixed.
Cover and cook on low heat setting 6 to 8 hours, or high heat for 2 to 3 hours.

This dish is best served in a bowl with a large spoon. You can also serve this Hot Sauce Chili with white corn tortilla chips and shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

If you add the chips and cheese the dish is still gluten free but is no longer low fat.

My husband decided to eat his serving in the window seat on a breakfast tray. He loves to eat hot sauce so he tried all of the sauces on his chili and on the chips. He loved the flavor.

I hope this Fall Inspired Hot Sauce Chili inspires you to rev up your crock pot and make some yummy chili. Visit El Yucateco’s Recipes for even more delicious ways to cook with hot sauce. They also have a site for looking up recipes based upon the hot sauce you would like to use at Simple Ingredients, Great Dishes, and for even more info – store locations etc. check out El Yucateco.com online. #SauceOn #CollectiveBias

What’s your favorite dish to make with your children? Please leave me a comment, I love to hear from my readers and would love your ideas for cooking with kids.

Happy fall cooking!