Turkey Chili with Peppers, Mushrooms, and Olives

Turkey Chili with Peppers, Mushrooms, and Olives is so tasty and the spicy flavors plus olives make this one of my favorite chili recipes! This is low in net carbs for a chili with beans, but just use fewer beans and more turkey if you prefer an even lower-carb chili!

PIN Turkey Chili with Peppers, Mushrooms, and Olives to try it later.

This Turkey Chili with Peppers, Mushrooms, and Olives is a recipe I rediscovered when I made the recipe with Kara to improve the photos, and we loved this chili recipe with ground turkey, bell pepper, mushrooms, olives, diced green chiles, and pinto beans, especially with a little sour cream and grated cheese. We cut down the amount of beans when we updated the recipe to make it lower in carbs. (If you were a fan of the original recipe with more beans, you can still find the printer-friendly recipe at that link.)

I’ve made this tasty chili again twice since we took these photos, once just to get some chili to freeze so I can pull it out for a quick dinner. And if you like the sound of this combination of ingredients, I bet this might become a ground turkey chili recipe you’re going to make over and over as well!

What ingredients do you need for this recipe?

(This is ONLY a list of ingredients for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)

• Olive Oil (affiliate link)
• onion
• red bell pepper
• garlic
• Chili Powder (affiliate link)
• ground Ancho chile (affiliate link)
• Mexican Oregano (affiliate link)
• ground Cumin (affiliate link)
• Spike Seasoning (affiliate link)(or other all-purpose seasoning)
• mushrooms
• ground turkey
• canned chicken broth (affiliate link)
• tomatoes
• pinto beans
• green chiles
• black olives
• lime juice (I used my fresh-frozen lime juice)
• salt and black pepper
• Optional for serving: sour cream, grated cheese, cut limes, or other toppings, as desired

Do you have to use every ingredient shown here?

This is definitely a chili recipe with lots of interesting ingredients, but if one of the things we used isn’t your favorite, you can definitely adapt this recipe to use more of the ingredients you prefer.

How to make this ground turkey chili lower in carbs?

You could make a delicious version of this turkey chili that’s even lower in carbs by simply using even fewer beans and a bit more turkey.

Can you make this turkey chili recipe with leftover turkey?

If you’d like to use leftover turkey in this recipe, skip the step of browning the turkey of course. Cut up about 3 cups of leftover turkey into chunks, and add that turkey when you add the olives (or a few minutes sooner than that if your turkey pieces are large.)

Tasty Low-Carb Chili Recipes

If you want chili recipes that are really low in carbs, I recommend All-Beef Instant Pot Keto Chili, Instant Pot Ground Beef Chili with Olives, or Beef Chili with Sausage, Mushrooms, and Olives. Or you can find even more low-carb chili from around the web in my round-up of Amazing Low-Carb and Keto Chili Recipes!

How to Make Turkey Chili with Peppers, Mushrooms, and Olives:

(This is ONLY a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)

1. In soup pot or Dutch oven, heat one tablespoon olive oil and saute the chopped onion and pepper until they’re just starting to soften.
2. Then add garlic, chili powder, ground Ancho chile (affiliate link), Mexican Oregano (affiliate link), cumin (affiliate link), and Spike Seasoning (affiliate link) and cook a couple minutes more.
3. Add mushrooms, chicken stock or broth, and petite diced tomatoes and start to simmer.
4. Heat the other tablespoon olive oil in frying pan and cook the ground turkey until it’s nicely browned.
5. Add ground turkey to the pot with pinto beans and diced green chiles and let the chili simmer on low for about one hour.
6. (If you’re making this with leftover turkey, add it later around the time you add the olives.)
7. After the chili has simmered to blend flavors, drain the olives, cut into halves lengthwise, and add to the chili.
8. Simmer at least 15 minutes more; then stir in the lime juice, season with salt and fresh-ground black pepper, and simmer 5 minutes more.
9. Serve the chili hot, with sour cream, grated cheese, and a squeeze of fresh lime to add at the table if desired.

Want more options for turkey chili?

Any chili recipe that uses ground turkey can be made with leftover diced turkey, just be sure to add the diced turkey towards the end of the cooking time (otherwise it will shred apart into strings, which isn’t appealing.) If you want to see some other turkey chili ideas, check out Turkey Pinto Bean Chili, Turkey Sweet Potato Chili, or Amy’s Amazing White Chicken Chili which is perfect to make with leftover turkey.

Make some chili for Weekend Food Prep!

Recipes like this that make quite a few servings to produce leftovers suitable to be reheated later are what I feature in the Weekend Food Prep category on my site. And lately I am trying to do better at cooking on the weekend; is that a habit you have at your house?

Continue to Content

Print

Yield: 8 servings

Turkey Chili with Peppers, Mushrooms, and Olives

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Turkey Chili with Peppers, Mushrooms, and Olives is my favorite new chili recipe and it freezes very well to reheat later for a quick dinner!

Ingredients

• 2 T olive oil, divided
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped (see notes)
• 1 T minced garlic
• 1 T chili powder
• 2 tsp. ground Ancho chile pepper (see notes)
• 2 tsp. Mexican oregano
• 1 tsp. ground cumin (or more)
• 2 tsp. Spike Seasoning (or other all-purpose seasoning)
• 8 oz. white or brown mushrooms, quartered
• 1 1/2 lbs. ground turkey (see recipe notes to make with leftover turkey)
• 3 cups chicken broth (see notes)
• two 14.5 oz. cans petite dice tomatoes
• one 15 oz. can pinto beans
• one 4 oz. can diced green chiles (see notes)
• one 6 oz. can black olives, cut lengthwise into halves
• 2 T fresh-squeezed lime juice (see notes)
• salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
• For serving:  sour cream, grated cheese, cut limes, or other toppings, as desired

Instructions

1. In the soup pot or Dutch oven you're using to make the chili, heat one tablespoon olive oil and saute the onion and red (or green) pepper until they're just starting to soften.
2. Then add the garlic, chili powder, ground Ancho chile (affiliate link), Mexican Oregano (affiliate link), cumin (affiliate link), and Spike Seasoning (affiliate link) and cook a couple minutes more.
3. Add the mushrooms, chicken stock or canned chicken broth, and petite diced tomatoes and start to simmer.
4. Heat the other tablespoon olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the ground turkey until it's nicely browned and any water has evaporated.
5. Add ground turkey to the pot with the (rinsed or un-rinsed) pinto beans and diced green chiles and let the chili simmer on low for about one hour (or longer is great if you have the time.)
6. After the chili has simmered long enough to really blend the flavors, drain the olives, cut into halves lengthwise, and add to the chili.
7. Simmer at least 15 minutes more; then stir in the lime juice, season with salt and fresh-ground black pepper, and simmer 5 minutes more.
8. Serve the chili hot, with sour cream, grated cheese, and a squeeze of fresh lime to add at the table if desired.

Notes

Use red or green bell pepper, whichever you prefer. If you have homemade chicken stock, I'd definitely use that for this recipe, but two 14.5 oz. cans of chicken broth will also be fine.

Just use more chili powder if you don’t have ground Ancho chile (affiliate link). Unless you really want it spicy, use Anaheim green chiles, not Jalapenos for this recipe. I used my fresh-frozen lime juice.

If you'd like to use leftover turkey in this recipe, skip the step of browning the turkey of course. Cut up about 3 cups of leftover turkey into chunks, and add that turkey when you add the olives (or a few minutes sooner than that if your turkey pieces are large.)

Nutritional information doesn't include sour cream or grated cheese.

Recipe created by Kalyn.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

8

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 356Total Fat: 22gSaturated Fat: 4.8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 14.3gCholesterol: 92mgSodium: 1202mgCarbohydrates: 17gFiber: 5.3gSugar: 3.6gProtein: 26g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.

Did you make this recipe?

Did you make this recipe? Please leave a star rating (under the PRINT button in the recipe) or share a photo of your results on Instagram! THANKS!

Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Turkey Chili with Peppers, Mushrooms, and Olives  would be approved for any phase of the original South Beach Diet but dried beans are a limited food for Phase One, so use portion control.  For other low-carb eating plans, we made this into a lower-carb version by increasing the turkey and only using one can of beans. Check the nutritional information to see if this is low-carb enough for your preferences, or use one of the Low-Carb Chili Recipes on the site.

Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Danica's Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.

Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This ground turkey chili was first posted in January 2015. It was updated with better photos and a few slight changes to make it a bit lower in carbs in October 2020 and was last updated with more information in 2024.

Share This: