It’s almost fall and you know what that means: football, Octoberfest and chili.

We take chili very seriously at our house, to the point where we hold a mostly annual chili cook-off (it went on a brief hiatus for two years). We give prizes (usually silly ones) for best overall chili, hottest chili and most innovative chili, and this recipe won best overall the first year we held the cookoff.

Here’s the recipe (award-winning!) that’s just a little spicy, and just a little sweet:

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey
2 cans diced tomatoes (I like ones that have been seasoned for chili already)
2 cans dark red kidney beans
1 or 2 cloves garlic
1 onion, chopped
3 to 6 tbs any style chili powder to taste
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp honey
1/2 bottle of any good beer (we prefer Sam Adams)

For a slightly thicker chili, you can also add 1 small can of tomato paste.

**Note: As a general rule, do not cook with beer you wouldn’t drink. If it tastes bad when you drink it, it will taste bad when you cook with it.

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large pot on medium-high heat, add onion and garlic. Add ground turkey when garlic just begins to brown. Heat turkey until it’s cooked through. Stir in 1/2 a bottle of beer. Guess what you do with the other half.  Let the turkey simmer in the beer for a few minutes, then stir in the chili powder, diced tomatoes and beans. Then add the honey and brown sugar. Let everything simmer for about 30 minutes.

Top it with anything you like: shredded cheese, sour cream, anything. I like adding a little fat-free Greek yogurt and avocado on top of mine.