Healthy Instant Pot Turkey Chili

If you’re in need of a healthy pressure cooker chili recipe, you’re in the right place. Every serving of this simple turkey chili is packed with 23 grams of protein, 10 grams of fiber, and only 235 calories. And thanks to freshly diced peppers, a homemade chili seasoning, and the Instant Pot, loads of flavor in minimal time!

It’s perfect for meal prep, and I’ve included a ton of ways to serve or incorporate your leftover turkey chili into other recipes. But that’s plenty of chili talk, let’s get down to business.

Instant Pot Turkey Chili Recipe Walkthrough

I’ve included a visual walkthrough with tips, tricks, and ingredient notes below. If you skip down to the printable recipe card and have questions, you may want to hop back up to this walkthrough to see if it’s been covered.

Make your own chili seasoning.

This turkey chili takes a page from the book of my kid friendly chili recipe by limiting some of the veggie prep via garlic and onion powder. If you’d like to use freshly diced onion and minced garlic, you’re more than welcome to do that and add them in with the diced peppers in the next step. Though I’ll say I’ve tested both and obviously prefer this version.

You won’t see any salt in the recipe because every chili powder, can of beans, and chicken broth may have varying sodium levels. It’s better to salt to taste at the end instead of using a salty chili seasoning.

And in case you’re wondering, a pre-made chili seasoning would work here. Store bought chili seasoning, however, tends to have higher sodium content so be mindful of your other ingredients.

Dice 8 ounces of bell pepper or an assortment of peppers. 

This turkey chili is definitely on the milder side of the spice spectrum. I went with a combo of sweet mini bell peppers and shishito peppers, which are both near the bottom of the Scoville scale. If you wanted to spice things up, use peppers like ancho, poblano, jalapeño, or gaujillo. Any hotter than that and you probably don’t need my help choosing chiles!

If you’re not up for all the veggie prep, check out my easy ground turkey chili, which uses a blended hidden veggie sauce that requires zero knife work.

Brown ground turkey using the Instant Pot’s sauté function before flipping and adding the diced peppers. Brown the other side before mincing and fully cooking.

Now, to actually cooking the turkey chili.

If you’ve tried my ground turkey sweet potato skillet, you’re aware of my passion for browning ground meats. It’s one of the easiest ways to improve the flavor of your dishes via the Maillard reaction. That’s a fancy way of saying putting your meat in the pan or Instant Pot and leaving it alone creates the brown crust that’s full of flavor.

Make sure your Instant Pot heats up before adding the ground turkey or it may take a while to get the browning you’re after. Once the pot is hot, it shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes or so. Then you can flip, add the peppers, and brown the other side before you crumble and finish cooking the turkey.

Turn off the Instant Pot and add tomato sauce, balsamic vinegar, and the chili seasoning. 

My biggest tip in this step is to use the tomato sauce and balsamic vinegar to deglaze the pot or remove any crispy bits (the fond) stuck to the bottom of the pot. Not only is there tons of flavor in the fond, it’s important to remove so you can avoid the Instant Pot’s “burn” error during pressure cooking.

Add 3 cans of beans and 1 cup of chicken broth. Stir, seal, and pressure cook for 15 minutes.

I used a trio of black, pinto, and kidney beans in my turkey chili, but you can make it your own with any beans you’d like. Since my recipes are geared toward macronutrient and calorie tracking, I never drain beans. There are tons of nutrients and goodies in the juices!

That said, you could drain and rinse the beans, using extra broth to make up the difference in liquid. If you’re winging it and add a little too much broth, you can always turn the Instant Pot’s sauté function back on after pressure cooking to reduce and thicken your turkey chili.

After pressure cooking, that’s a wrap. You’re ready to serve up some turkey chili or pack it up as meal prep for the week.

Serving Your Turkey Chili

There’s nothing wrong with keeping things simple. This turkey chili goes great with the usual corn chips (or baked tortilla chips for a lighter option), shredded cheese, and scallions or diced chiles. I also love using fat free Greek yogurt as a sour cream alternative.

If you want to get a bit more creative and work your chili into other recipes, check out these options:

• stuffed chili spuds using my air fryer baked potato recipe
• with the baked corn chips from my healthier Frito pie
• over hash browns with fried eggs like my breakfast chili
• inside leftover chili cheese dog boats or chili cornbread casserole

For even more leftover chili recipes, check out these leftover chili burritos or chili cheese enchiladas.

And that should cover it. If you have any recipe or ingredient questions I missed, don’t hesitate to leave a comment at the bottom of the post. Otherwise, enjoy your Instant Pot turkey chili!