Slow Cooker Turkey Sweet Potato Chili

This slow cooker turkey sweet potato chili has become a family favorite. It’s bean-free. It’s paleo. And, it only has a prep-time of 15-20 minutes so it’s easy to throw together when you have time earlier in the day, but need dinner ready and waiting. You can even prep and make ahead so you can just pull it out and reheat for dinner.

We pretty much make chili weekly at our house once we get into the cool weather months.  We tend to meal prep on the weekends and slow cooker chili is perfect to make on Sunday mornings. Besides just getting a jump on meal prep for the week, it also makes the house smell great. 🙂

This turkey and sweet potato chili recipe also results in some great leftovers. Usually, we end up having it for dinner and then several additional meals throughout the week which is great because having a few meals that you just pull out and reheat is almost a sanity requirement of busy family life.

As mentioned above, this chili recipe is made without beans and is paleo. It’s packed with sweet potatoes, lots of other veggies and goodness, and it’s a recipe that you can easily customize it to fit your tastes. We find that it’s a great hearty family meal that everyone enjoys.

Reasons to go with a no bean chili

We are not averse to beans. In fact, we love them and use them in some of our other chili recipes like our butternut squash chili and our Instant Pot Chili.

But when you’re watching your carbs, avoiding legumes, or looking to go paleo, then a no-bean chili is a great option.

Slow Cooker Turkey Sweet Potato Chili Tips

• If you are watching your salt content, make sure you check your broth and canned tomatoes. When initially entering the nutritional info, I noticed the sodium level was ridiculously high.  We make our own broth, so the salt content is much lower.  And I usually stock up on no salt added diced tomatoes–and you can just as easily buy a couple plum tomatoes and use them instead.
• Experiment with your slow cooker settings. We have made this recipe both on the low and the high setting for our slow cooker and it took 3-4 hours on high and 5-6 on low to cook.  You could just as easily cook on the stove in a large pot for a shorter amount of time.  I like it out of the slow cooker because the tomatoes and tomato paste have time to thicken up with the broth and create the perfect chili. Experiment around and find what settings lead to the best results for you.
• Top with your favorite chili toppings.  We like to add avocado and fresh cilantro.  If you aren’t worried about paleo/whole 30, it would also be good with sour cream, grated cheddar, or crushed tortilla chips.  Or top a pan of nachos with it!  Or make a batch of fresh cornbread to go with it!