Venison chili, page 25

Fred here. I like making chili, even if I do have a hard time remembering how to spell it. I’ve made some pretty good batches of chili before just by winging it. I don’t have a particular recipe that I go by, I just use what I have on hand.

The author of Cooking Wild In Missouri takes a similar approach, owning up to the fact that when she made this recipe she based it loosely on her mother’s chili, but was largely just cleaning out her freezer and using what she had in.

Nevertheless, in keeping with the spirit of our blog, I followed this recipe precisely – well, almost. I doubled it, and as it was getting it all pulled together, the three cups of water looked like plenty, so I didn’t double it to six. I’m glad I made this adjustment, because the chili was still a little thin for my taste.

It seems venison is used in chili a lot, I think because some people who aren't wild about the taste of straight venison don't know what else to do with it, and chili is a good way to mask the flavor. But in my opinion, the other venison recipes in this book allow you to really appreciate venison at it's best.

 Overall, this was a great, easy chili recipe. Personally, when I make chili I like to include either stew meat or dice up steak. Some ground venison or hamburger is fine, but I like to have at least half of the meat to be some venison steaks or even a cut-up roast. And I'd add some masa to thicken it up a bit. I would encourage anyone to experiment with chili and make it yours.

With this big recipe, we ended up with four ziplock bags going into the freezer. It's nice to get a few meals ahead, and a couple of these may get used on top of baked potatoes, hot dogs or nachos.