It’s no secret I’m obsessed with my slow cooker. There’s a reason I published a Cookbook full of easy and healthy slow cooker recipes. I can’t get enough of it.
I’ll even go out on a limb and say a slow cooker is the most essential kitchen tool for busy moms. Seriously.
When you’re short on time or energy to make dinner, your slow cooker is your best friend.
Here’s a quick, homemade meal that I know your family will love: Slow Cooker Turkey Black Bean Chili. You can throw it together in the morning or freeze it for a morning when you can’t afford to open cans and get messy. (In a previous blog post I explained how to prep and cook freezer meals in your crockpot.)
Slow Cooker Turkey Black Bean Chili
Yield: 6 servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Cook fresh or freeze to cook later. Serve with shredded cheese and chips!
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 28oz can tomato sauce
- 2 cans black beans (15oz each), drained and rinsed
- 14.5oz can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 2/3 cup frozen corn (half of a one pound bag)
- 2 large cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Directions
- Add all ingredients to your slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours.
- Break apart turkey and stir.
To Freeze and Cook Later
- Label a gallon-sized plastic freezer bag with the name of the recipe, cooking instructions, and use-by date (which would be 3 months from the prep date).
- Add all ingredients to freezer bag, seal, and freeze up to three months.
- Thaw.
- Cook on “low” setting in slow cooker for 6-8 hours.
- Break apart ground turkey and stir.
Here are some of my other favorite slow cooker recipes:
- the Chicken Chili in my freezer recipes cookbook
- the Shredded BBQ Chicken (with mango coleslaw) from my slow cooker cookbook
- Cranberry Pork Roast
What’s one meal that you’d love to be able to make in your slow cooker? Leave a comment or email me and I’ll try to make it slow cooker-friendly!
Hi! This looks great…could you throw this all into a freezer bag after step 3 and freeze for future crock pot cooking? I would love to add this to my freezer exchange if so!
It freezes great! I do steps one and two, cool the turkey to room temp, and then combine everything in a gallon-sized plastic freezer bag. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before cooking and then cook in the crockpot for 4-8 hours, or until everything is heated through (depending on the size/strength of your crockpot). Hope you love it as much as we do!
Making this right now and have a few questions:
1.) What size crock pot do you use for this recipe?
2.) Do you stir everything up once it’s in the crockpot, or layer it and don’t stir?
3.) How many months will this keep in the freezer if you prep it as a freezer meal?
Thanks Kelly!
I typically use my 4-qt slow cooker. If I used my bigger, more powerful 6-qt one I would definitely decrease the cooking time.
Yes, stir!
3 months.
Enjoy!! 🙂
Thanks Kelly! Great recipe. Everyone loved it. And I have a backup batch in the freezer now, which makes me feel like a domestic badass. THANK YOU!! Trying the chicken curry tomorrow and the Dr. Pepper shredded pork on Friday! 🙂
Yay!! GREAT JOB. Can’t wait to see what you think of those recipes too!
[…] will have to work my way up to trying those types of recipes again), but so far I’ve made the slow cooker turkey black bean chili (sans the cheese) and it was really good. Like really really good. It was super simple, I […]
Stupid question. When you say tomato sauce are you talking about Ragu or like a pasta sauce? Just wondering. I need to be a more organized Mom. We are very busy.
It’s sold in the canned tomato section. They sell a bunch of different types of canned tomatoes, like diced, crushed, pureed, etc. Tomato sauce is one option. Hope that helps!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 24 oz. can of tomato sauce. Is that correct?
Thanks!
No, it’s a typo. It should say 28oz. Changing it now, thanks!
How many people does this serve?
Four adults. Six people might be able to eat it if they’re children or have smaller appetites.
Do you think I could make this without cooking the meat ahead of time and just putting it in raw and freezing it?
Yes, I done it several times that way. I used to brown my ground meat before freezing, but I’ve found it’s unnecessary and only takes more time.
I had the same question – is it healthier / safer to cook the meat, freeze, thaw then put in crock pot? Or just freeze it raw and let it cook in the crock pot?
Kelly, we always freeze it raw.