Venison Chili Recipes???

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Some Like it Hot

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Hi!!

I want to try and make vension chili. This is my first time using venison in cooking. Anyone have any venison chili recipes they can vouche for?

I had another question, is it common to mix beef or any other meats in with the venison? I'm using ground venison.

Thank you!
 
I mix beef fat with with venison prior to grinding for "hamburger"....Pork fat...some times a little pork meat prior to grinding when making sausage.

You favorite beef chili recipe will work for ground venison.
 
Hi SLH,
Don't know where you got your ground venison from, but you may find it neccesary to ad some fat to your mix as venison is naturally lean. Maybe mix in some minced bacon, and some cubed chuck roast with the fat included. After that, you can pretty much use any chile recipe. Just adapt the seasoning to your taste, write down your season measurements and change what you don't like from batch to batch. Just don't forget to log your changes.
 
Thank you Uncle Bob and JohnL. I did not realize that using venison would be that easy. Thanks for the information!!

JohnL - I made the purchase from Black Wing. Have you ever heard of them? It appears to be pretty lean, so I suspect that I will be adding fat.
 
I just use my regular old chili recipe. Uncle Bob is right though Venison has less fat so if you are using it for any thing like meat balls you'll want to add some pork or something.

Good luck. Venison is great!!!
 
Venison chili? I'll agree partway with the others to use your favorite chili recipe and treat it like regular burger, but I myself would not add anything like fat to it. That's the beauty of using venison for chili, tacos.... all those foods you typically need to drain the grease off of when using regular beef burger. Since you bought it already ground I'm sure it already has a little fat added to it. I would use it as is.
 
One year DH and the grandson brought home 8 deer, and we had venison everything.
For my chili, I chop up a roast into bite-sized pieces, season with S&P, heat up a big pot, and brown them in a little oil. I then set the meat aside, and cook up some hot pork sausage (I like Jimmy Dean) along with a large chopped onion and a chopped green pepper. Add 2-3 tsp minced garlic toward the last.
Next comes Bush's Best Chili Beans, including the sauce, however many you want. I use two to four large cans, depending on how many people I want to feed.
I then add a couple 29 oz. cans of tomato sauce and 4 16 oz cans of diced tomatoes.
As it simmers, start adding the seasoning...salt, pepper, a little brown sugar, heavy on the chili powder, and cumin to taste.
Then we simmer and taste, adding Louisiana Hot Sauce and other seasonings as needed.

I don't get into the hot peppers and such, but if you do, go for it! Just remember, less is more.
 
I don't like to mix the beef with the venison flavors so I use EVOO to keep my venison/elk/buffalo from burning when I brown it. That's the only difference I use when I substitute other meats for beef in my chili recipe.

LL
 
Some Like It Hot said:
I made the purchase from Black Wing. Have you ever heard of them? It appears to be pretty lean, so I suspect that I will be adding fat.

There "appears" to be some added fat in the pictures of the grind on the web site...You may be fine using it "as is" ....fry up a small "hamburger" patty over medium heat and you will know....

Have Fun & Enjoy!
 
Yes Uncle Bob, I looked at the package I got and it does have fat. I would say about 85/15 ratio, so I should be good with just going with the venison. I thought people combined the meats to avoid the wild taste it has.

Constance, thanks so much for you insight. You definately sound like someone who has been around the block a few times with deer meat. I may have more questions if that is ok? (Know anything about elk sirloin????) LOL!

I think as a few others haven mentioned, I would love to just try a chili using only venison. So that is something I think I will try for Sunday's dinner!

Thanks so much for your help! Looking forward to the new flavors!!!!
 
This is not chilli but it gives you another option....:chef:

Venison Sausage Balls

Ingredients
1-1/2 pounds ground venison
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/4 cup melted butter

Mix first 6 ingredients and spices in bowl. Shape in 1-inch balls. Brown in butter in skillet, turning frequently. Cook covered over low heat for 15 minutes. Garnish with parsley and lemon and orange slices.
 
Commercial "farm raised" venison (Blackhawk, Broken Arrow Ranch, etc.) does not have the gamey flavor of wild game venison harvested by a hunter.

Venison is very low in fat - so you might need to add a little when you brown it up to make your chili. It doesn't have to be a lot - just enough to cover the bottom of your pot - 2-3 tablespoons of oil should do it.

You can use any chili recipe you want. I use the same one for venison as I do for beef.
 
Thank you Deelady! Sounds like a wonderful recipe. What else would you serve with the Venison sausage meatballs?

Michael, I'm curious about your statement that farm raised wild game not having a gamey flavor. Why is that? Maybe I just answered my own question... maybe because they are not truly wild game?
 
Michael, I'm curious about your statement that farm raised wild game not having a gamey flavor. Why is that? Maybe I just answered my own question... maybe because they are not truly wild game?

Yep - it's all about their diet. Farm raised game animals are fed supplemental feed (usually corn or corn-based) to fatten them up - while "wild" animals eat what they can find ... nuts, berries, bark, etc.

Same thing goes for farm raised pigs vs feral pigs, rabbits, squirrels, etc. There is also a difference in the taste of beef that is totally grass fed and finished on corn in a feedlot.
 
Y
Constance, thanks so much for you insight. You definately sound like someone who has been around the block a few times with deer meat. I may have more questions if that is ok? (Know anything about elk sirloin????) LOL!

I'll be happy to help you any way I can. I've never cooked elk, but I've heard it's wonderful. All those critters, including moose and caribou as well, are considered venison and treated the same way.

We made roasts out of the deer sirloins, but I've tasted some that were cut into steaks, marinated in an herb vinaigrette and grilled like steaks, and they were outstanding. I think taste depends a lot on the individual animal...it's age, sex and diet. Most importantly, whether you do it hot and fast or low and slow, don't overcook the meat, or it will be dry.

By the way, Michael, our deer may as well be considered farm raised, as the fatten up on the farmers' corn and soybeans. Our grandson gut-shot a deer once, and he said there was corn all over the place. LOL!
 
Michael in FtW - Thanks for the explanation. I'm somewhat dissapointed now knowing that it is not 'true' wild game. But then I'm not sure what I was expecting when I ordered the stuff. I guess it is not like a hunter can actually hunt the game and sell it on the web right?

Constance, I'm trying to expand my pallet by trying different things. I get so tired of cooking the same things over and over. Buffalo is really good, but as mentioned earlier in the thread, if you had not of told me it was buffalo, I would have never know the difference. I appreciate your willingness to help, looking forward to it actually!!

Oh!!! Michael!! Got another question for you! Maybe you or Constance knows the answer to this and I'm certain it has to do with the fact that it is farmed raised. But the buffalo strip and ribeye that I got was dissapointingly small. I guess when I think of buffalo, I think of those massive creatures roaming the plains. I assumed that a ribeye could very well be the size of my face. But when I got them, they seemed smaller than the beef ribeyes I order locally. Perhaps a trade off, less fat and more meat when it comes to the buffalo? I'm yappin, I'll hush now. :)
 
As far as I know - it is against the law in every state for a hunter to sell wild game they harvest. They can donate game to organizations that feed the hoimeless, or to "food banks", or you can give meat to friends ... but there are usually some record keeping requirements (the meat might need to have a game tag) - and this also includes fish in some instances. There are limits on how much game you can possess at any given time ...

Buffalo (American Bison) has less fat than beef - simply cooked it is a little sweeter and slightly gamier (if totally grass fed) than beef - totally grass fed beef is gamier than corn fed. But, it is really hard to tell the difference in most cases - especially when smoked or cooked with herbs, spices, etc. I honestly could not tell you the difference between a beef burger or a bison burger, chili, stew, etc. Trust me, when I lived in Colorado I ate a lot of it.

Now, as for the size of your meat cuts - it depends on the age of the animal and the meat cutter. Bison, because it is "exotic", is going to cost more than beef. If you're buying x-oz steaks, that's what you are getting - not a steak that represents the size that the steak could be. The bison chuck roasts that I used to get were about twice the size of a beef chuck roast the same thickness.

Moose and bear have much more distinctive flavors.
 
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I can't thank you enough Michael. I guess I did not even take into account that I was getting 8 oz steaks, a real noodle head I can be at times!

I do get grass fed beef and you are correct, it does have a gamier flavor than grain fed beef.

Thank you for taking to time to answer my rather ignorant questions! :)
 
On another note: I never got around to making that chili on Sunday, I think it will be on this weekend's menu! I'm excited!
 

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