Apple Ale Pumpkin Chili

Thanks for sharing!

Apple ale pumpkin chili is loaded with fall flavors! It is perfect for game day or for warming you when it’s chili outside!

Cozy up with a bowl of apple ale pumpkin chili and it is sure to warm you from the inside out.  It screams fall with pumpkin, apple, beer, and chili all together in one bowl. 

Make a big pot and get your favorite toppings ready.  It is perfect for any time, but especially for game day!

Crisp nights, bonfires, warm apple cider, sweaters, hoodies, football and chili! Fall is finally rolling in everyone and I couldn’t be more excited!

I love fall weather, fall clothes and fall flavors. Now if only we could find a way to make fall last until spring!

We love football season around here.  It always comes in with the fantasy drafts and pick’em pool registrations.  It feels like we should really be able to take off running after that, but it always takes a few weeks to really get into the spirit.

When it is still 90 degrees out and we are inevitably trying to finish up some sort of project in the yard, it is hard to sit down and watch the games.  But when the weather cools down everything changes.

Then Sunday mornings start with making chili.  I love getting out a pot and adding things until it’s full.  That is my method for any sort of soup.

Pick the size pot I’m going to use and keep going until it can’t hold one more thing! I can’t be the only one that does that, am I?

Either way, every time my chili is a little bit different. This time I thought it would be fun to really bring in some fall flavors.

Maybe if we put all of those iconic things together, Mother Nature wouldn’t have a choice but to bring the fall weather to match.

I made the chili and the temperatures began to come down. It could be a coincidence, but I think not!

To really make it fall I started with ground turkey.  You could use whatever ground meat you like best but if Thanksgiving is the iconic fall holiday, than turkey seemed like the iconic fall meat.

I think the mild turkey went great with the other textures and flavors in the chili, but I can imagine it would be great with ground beef or even some pulled pork as well.

After the turkey, onions and peppers were cooked a bit I added some chili powder to toast and then poured in some hard cider to deglaze the pan and bring my favorite fall fruit into the mix.  If we are celebrating all things fall, there had to be some apple in there!

I generally like using a big mix of beans in my chili.  I like the variety of shapes, colors and textures they bring and I think it makes it fun.  But for some reason I was really feeling white beans this time so I stuck with garbanzos and great northern beans.

Throw in some tomatoes and you are well on your way to a nice pot of chili.  But don’t forget the thing that brings it all together.  Pumpkin!!  It couldn’t be a all things fall chili without the pumpkin!

Plus I love how the pumpkin puree automatically thickens up the base of the chili.  It gives you that simmered all day consistency without having to let it simmer all day! It also imparts just a bit of earthiness that brings it all together.

Don’t worry if you are feeding this to people who don’t love pumpkin as much as you and I.  My husband is one of those that could take or leave pumpkin season.

He was pretty skeptical about pumpkin in his chili (though he’s unwittingly had it many times before… but that a story for another day!)

Of course he got a second bowl despite of his reservations and was actually quite complimentary of it.  So even if you are skeptical, I think you should give it a try!

We love our chili topped with sour cream, cheese and chives.  This is also great with cheddar crackers.  MiMi shared a cracker recipe very early in the blog and I jazzed them up when I made these chili cheese spritz crackers.

It is also great with apple cider beer bread! What do you like to serve with your chili?

Do you love discovering great recipes? Me too! Click here and follow Cooking With Carlee on Pinterest for tons of great ideas

Thanks for sharing!