Venison Chili

[9dawgs]

Last night we had a Christmas Party over at my daughters house. My contribution was some venison chili. I ground up some of what I had left from last season's hunt along with about 1/4lb of bacon. Turned out pretty amazing. We had three pots of chili, ground beef, chicken & my venison. Mine was the only pot that was empty at the end of the night. Here's what I did.

2.5lbs of ground venison (I used a medium plate to grind mine)
1/4lb of ground bacon (I used Black Label Original)
1/2 medium onion chopped fine
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/4 stick of butter
2 packs of McCormick Chili-O seasoning
Cayenne Pepper to your taste (I used about 1/2tbsp)
Chili powder to taste (I used about 1tbsp)
Cumin to taste (I used about 1/2tbsp)
Black pepper to taste
1can of Tomato sauce 29oz
1 can diced Tomato 29oz
1 can diced tomato with chilies 14.5oz
1 can diced tomato with green peppers & celery 14.5oz
1 can Kidney beans 29oz (drained)

In a large pot sweat the onions & garlic in the butter until just turning brown. While the onions are cooking, mix the venison, bacon and dry seasoning by hand in a mixing bowl. Add the meat to the pot when the onions are done and brown it. There's no need to drain the meat as you want the fat from the bacon in there. Once the meat is done add the wet ingredients and cook down on the stove for a couple of hours on medium heat. Be sure to stir occasionally to prevent sticking. I transferred mine to a large crock pot and let it cook on high for a couple more hours. Continue to stir until ready to serve. Man its good!

[Iluv2hunt]

Adding bacon to any wild meat sausage/burger is the ticket. Wild hogs don't have enough fat and deer don't have any. I made 15 lbs of brats and 15 pounds of eye-talian the other day. Winn Dixie sells a package called "bacon ends and pieces". It is 1/3 the price of other packs and some/most of it is in pieces big enough to fry. I add it to every batch of meat I grind

[9dawgs]

Yep, it's always added to my sausage. Either that or the free pork fat trimmings from the butcher. :>)