Turkey Sweet Potato Chili
Turkey Sweet Potato Chili is a no-bean chili recipe that’s a winner for everyone who loves chili and savory sweet potato recipes! And although sweet potatoes have a few carbs, I updated this turkey chili recipe with some slight changes to make it quite low in net carbs!
PIN Turkey Sweet Potato Chili to try it later!
This Turkey Sweet Potato Chili is a recipe I came up with when I was brainstorming recipe ideas with my niece Kara. We experimented with ingredients a few times until we loved the flavor combination in this slightly-spicy no-bean chili. And of course, leaving out the beans makes this a lower-carb sweet potato chili!
Then recently I was making the original recipe and decided to try some changes to make this chili with turkey and sweet potatoes even lower in carbs! In fact, if you check the net carbs I bet this is much lower in net carbs than you think. I also took new photos to entice other sweet potato fans to try this delicious chili. I hope you enjoy it if you’re also a fan of savory sweet potato recipes!
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What ingredients do you need?
(This is only a list of ingredients; 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 with ingredient amounts.)
- Olive Oil (affiliate link)
- ground turkey
- green pepper
- onion
- Minced Garlic (affiliate link)
- Spike Seasoning (affiliate link), or other all-purpose seasoning blend
- Chili Powder (affiliate link)
- ground Ancho Chiles (or use more regular chili powder if you don’t have Ancho)
- ground Cumin (affiliate link)
- canned diced green chiles (affiliate link), use Anaheim chiles, not Jalapenos
- canned petite diced tomatoes
- canned tomato sauce
- canned beef broth (affiliate link) or use homemade beef stock if you have some
- sweet potato
- Green Tabasco Sauce (affiliate link), or other green hot sauce
- salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
- sour cream and grated Monterey Jack cheese for serving, optional
Can you use ground beef in the sweet potato chili recipe?
If you’re not such a fan of ground turkey just use ground beef for an equally delicious sweet potato chili recipe!
Is the Turkey Sweet Potato Chili gluten-free and dairy-free?
As long as you make sure ingredients like the canned beef broth are gluten-free, this turkey chili will be a gluten-free recipe. And if you skip the optional sour cream and cheese for serving, this recipe is also dairy-free.
Are they yams or sweet potatoes?
This recipe uses the type of orange-flesh sweet potatoes that are sometimes called yams or sweet yams in U.S. grocery store. But they’re sweet potatoes, please trust me on that! You can read here about the difference between yams and sweet potatoes if you’re not convinced!
How low in carbs is the Turkey Sweet Potato Chili?
I used more turkey and an extra green pepper so that this no-bean chili only has 10 net carbs per serving with 27 grams of protein! And you could use even less sweet potato than I did you to make a version that’s even lower in carbs!
How to make Turkey Sweet Potato Chili:
(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.)
- Brown the turkey well and put in the soup pot.
- Then cook the chopped green peppers, chopped onion, and spices in the same pan.
- Put that mixture in the soup pot along with the petite diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef broth, canned green chiles, and Green Tabasco.
- Start to simmer the chili on low while you chop up the sweet potato.
- Add sweet potato to the chili and simmer on low for an hour, adding a little water if it gets too thick.
- Season Turkey Sweet Potato Chili to taste with Green Tabasco Sauce (affiliate link), salt, and pepper; then serve hot, with optional sour cream and cheese to add at the table if desired!
- This will keep 4-5 days at least in the fridge and it also freezes well.
Make it a Low-Carb Meal:
I’d probably just eat a bowl of chili and call it a meal! But if you wanted to add something else this would be delicious with toasted Olive Bread or Savory Almond Flour Bread. And if you wanted a salad, I’d serve this with Spicy Mexican Slaw.
Want more ideas for tasty chili without many carbs?
Check out Amazing Low-Carb and Keto Chili Recipes for tasty ideas for no-bean chili from around the web. Or if you don’t care so much about the carbs, you can find more tasty chili recipes in my collection of Healthy Chili Recipes Your Family Will Love!
Weekend Food Prep:
This chili recipe with turkey and sweet potatoes has been added to a category called Weekend Food Prep where you’ll find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!
Turkey Sweet Potato Chili
This delicious no-bean Turkey Sweet Potato Chili is amazingly delicious, and this will be a winner for anyone who loves savory sweet potato recipes! And this chili has a lot of turkey and peppers and not so many sweet potatoes, so it's quite low in carbs!
Ingredients
- 2 T olive oil, divided
- 1 1/2 lbs. lean ground turkey
- 2 green peppers, seeds and stem removed and chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 T minced garlic
- 1 T Spike Seasoning (optional, but recommended; see notes)
- 1 T chili powder
- 1 tsp. ground Ancho Chiles (or use more regular chili powder if you don’t have Ancho)
- 1 T ground cumin
- two 4 oz. cans diced green chiles (Anaheim chiles, not jalapenos)
- one 14.5 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
- one 8 oz. can tomato sauce
- two 14 ounce cans beef broth (see notes)
- 1 large sweet potato, diced into cubes (see notes)
- 1 T Green Tabasco Sauce (or more, to taste)
- salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat 1 T olive oil in a heavy frying pan, add ground turkey, and cook over medium-high heat until the turkey is well-browned and all liquid has evaporated. (I like to break it apart with an old-fashioned potato masher (affiliate link) as the meat cooks.)
- Put the browned turkey into a medium-sized soup pot.
- Add the other T of olive oil to the frying pan, add the chopped green pepper and chopped onion, and saute about 3-4 minutes over medium heat.
- Add the minced garlic, Spike Seasoning (affiliate link) if using, chili powder, Ancho chile powder, and ground cumin and cook 1-2 minutes.
- Add the pepper-onion-spices mixture to the soup pot.
- Then add the diced green chiles with juice, petite diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and beef broth to the soup pot and start to simmer the chili on low.
- While the chili simmers, peel the sweet potatoes and dice into pieces about 3/4 – 1 inches square.
- Add sweet potatoes to the chili and simmer about an hour, adding a little water if it gets too thick.
- Taste for seasoning and add Green Tabasco Sauce (affiliate link), salt, and fresh ground pepper to taste.
- Serve Turkey Sweet Potato Chili hot, with optional sour cream and cheese to add at the table if desired.
- This will keep in the fridge for at least 4-5 days or can be frozen.
Notes
If you don’t have Spike Seasoning (affiliate link), substitute any all-purpose seasoning blend.
If you have homemade Beef Stock, that would be great in this recipe.
You need about 1 lb. diced sweet potato cubes.
Recipe created by Kalyn and Kara.
Nutrition Information
Yield
8Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 282Total Fat 14gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 10gCholesterol 88mgSodium 1312mgCarbohydrates 14gFiber 4gSugar 6gProtein 27g
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.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
This chili has a lot of ground turkey and green pepper and no beans, so it’s quite low in carbs for a chili recipe with sweet potato. It’s probably too high in carbs for most people eating Keto. If made with lean ground turkey, this recipe would be approved for phase 2 or 3 of the original South Beach Diet.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Chili Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’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 chili recipe with turkey and sweet potatoes was first posted in 2015. It was updated with new photos and some changes to make it lower in carbs in 2025 and last updated with more information in 2026.
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30 Comments on “Turkey Sweet Potato Chili”
I am just writing to share this first there a two potatoes 1 is sweet they look like reg potatoes there sweet potatoes is white then there the mis shapen potato thats a yam they actually Tell you in the store what to want to yam is yellow they are great baked with butter and salt and pepper on top yams I think are the best I don’t like candied yams any more of course sweet potato pie which is yams is great to sweet potato bread is good too
Despite what people call them and even what the stores often call them, the white ones and the orange ones are both sweet potatoes. Click the link in my post and read about it, or google it if you prefer.
That said, I don’t really care what people call them and I don’t want to argue about it either.
This was awesome! Whole family loved it.
Happy to hear that; so glad you enjoyed it!
I’ve made this and it is one of the best soup/chili/stew recipes.  Love the flavors all coming together so deliciously.  I am making it again today with the first snowfall.  This freezes nicely too.
So glad you are enjoying it!
This has been one of my go-to recipes for years! Do you know how I might be able to make this in the Instant Pot?
I wish I was more experienced with the Instant Pot, but without trying it I couldn’t really tell you. I know you can brown the meat in the IP, push it over and cook the pepper and onion. But I really don’t know about the timing under pressure. I’m guessing it would be really quick because sweet potatoes wouldn’t take much time. And you would need less stock too, but without trying it I am not sure just what the right amount would be. If you experiment I’d love to hear how it works!
What a simple but brilliant idea!! Thank you so much for the inspo! I have pinned the recipe so I can make it soon! x
Thanks, glad you like it!
I wasn’t sure about this one, but it was really tasty! Both hubby and I enjoyed!
So glad to hear that; thanks for telling me!
This was absolutely delicious. I'm a good recipe reader and was eyeing another. I thought, no, I gotta try this one. So glad I did! I don't think I'll ever look at another one again. Thank you, thank you!!
So glad you liked it!
how much is a serving? 1 cup?
One reason I don't want to try to calculate nutritional information is I'm not really sure how much the average person will eat, and I am certainly not trying to tell people how much of something they should eat. In estimating this to be about six servings, I don't measure out the servings, but I'd say it's probably slightly more than a cup.
I made this before on the stove and it was amazing! Do you think i can make this in a slow cooker?
I'm sure it will work in the slow cooker, although I have done it that way so I can't give you an exact recipe. I would definitely reduce the amount of beef stock, maybe by about half. I might use a little more sweet potato for the slow cooker too.
Hey, so I know this post is old, but I LOVE your napkins. Where are they from?
Adrienne, I am pretty sure they were from Williams-Sonoma. I have the same one with kind of yellow-green with the gray.
Tried this recipe tonight. It was delicious. Even my boyfriend, who has liked very few of the paleo recipes I've tried and doesn't like chili at all, LOVED it and went for seconds! I made slight modifications. Ground lamb instead of Turkey, added parsnips during the simmer stage, and baby spinach at the end just until withered. It was so yummy and there's plenty leftovers to carry for work lunches!
Glad you liked it. I like the idea of lamb in this.
Thanks for the very kind feedback Rick, so glad you enjoyed it!
This was fantastic and I say that as someone who makes a lot of different chili recipes. I think this will become my new go-to chili recipe. The only thing I did differently was I added a splash of liquid smoke and some hickory-smoked sea salt, which added just a little more depth. But thank you so much…this is a keeper!
This was fantastic! I did modify slightly I am incapable of following a recipe, it seems) to cut down the heat (husband is highly intolerable of spiciness). Then I used it for the chili part of I Breath I'm Hungry's Cheesy Chili Spaghetti Squash (http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2013/12/cheesy-chili-spaghetti-squash-casserole-low-carb-gluten-free.html), and that took it to new levels of wonderful. Thanks for a great recipe!
I'm incapable of following a recipe as well! Fun hearing how you adapted it.
I love sweet potatoes and I definitely love this chili!
Thanks Medeja; hope you enjoy!
I love using sweet potatoes in chili, especially when there's a spicy kick to it! I've never been a fan of the sweet recipes that use brown sugar or maple syrup — or marshmallows.
Lydia, I am 100% in agreement with you on that!