Thank you so much to Tomato Love, a division of Red Gold Tomatoes, for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own!
What makes a recipe GREAT? I believe a great recipe is one you go back to again and again. One shared with great people, made with great ingredients. Now that the colder weather has settled in, it’s the time of year to pull out one of our all time GREAT recipes— one for Deer Chili!
Price found a Deer Chili recipe yearrrrrs ago on a message board and we have slowly tweaked it over time to make it our own. Since Price is a big hunter, we always have plenty of wild game on hand, which I love because who doesn’t love free-range, organic meat from a place that my husband can tell me all about!? To me, there’s no better kind. Sometimes we even have more exotic stuff like antelope on hand (which, I can tell you first hand, goes just as well as deer in this chili recipe!)
Back to the great ingredients— the free range meat needs to be well supported with other quality ingredients, don’t you think? I have a certain type of beans I buy that I think are the best, and now that I’ve been introduced to Tomato Love diced tomatoes, I cannot go back to any other brand! Tomato Love diced tomatoes are picked at the peak of freshness from family-owned farms, then canned within one hour of coming off the tomato truck! This just blows my mind – that is SO FAST – and you can truly taste the difference!
I was so excited to see that Tomato Love now has diced tomatoes specifically made for chili recipes! I used those this go-round, but I can also tell you from personal experience that any of their other diced tomatoes are winners in this recipe, too!
Before I blab on any longer and lose ya, I’ll go ahead and give you the recipe! 🙂
DEER CHILI
Prep Time: 10 minutes // Cook Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes // Serves 8 to 10
WHAT YOU NEED:
1/4 cup olive oil
3 to 4 lbs. coarsely ground deer meat
2 large yellow onions, diced medium
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chili powder
2 tbsp. paprika
1 tbsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 can of Tomato Love diced tomatoes
2 cans of chili beans
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 (12-ounce) bottle of beer
1 cup water
2 tbsp. cornmeal
WHAT YOU DO:
- Heat a large, heavy soup pot over medium heat and add the oil.
- Add the venison and cook until it begins to brown, about 8 minutes.
- Add the onion and garlic, and cook until the onion becomes soft, about 2 minutes.
- Stir in the chili powder, paprika, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper, and cook until all of the meat is coated with the spices, about 2 minutes.
- Add the Tomato Love tomatoes, tomato paste, beer, and water, and bring the chili to a simmer. Cook the chili at a low simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the flavors come together and the texture thickens.
- Add the beans and simmer another 15 minutes.
- During the cooking, add water to keep the chili moist as the liquid evaporates.
- At the end of the cooking time, sprinkle the cornmeal over the chili and stir in. Cook until the cornmeal is cooked through and has slightly thickened the chili, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Ladle the hot chili into bowls and top with cheese, diced onion, and sour cream.
- ENJOY!!
I love this chili in a big bowl as a stand alone meal, but it’s also great with a grilled cheese sandwich! Our kids love it, I love it because the hardest part of the prep is cutting up the onions (since I buy pre-minced garlic), Price loves it because it’s farm-to-table, and we all love how wonderful it makes the place smell!
I hope you and your family enjoy this recipe as much as our family does. It’s definitely a keeper!
I want to give another big thank you to Tomato Love for this opportunity to work together! Click here to find out what stores near you carry Tomato Love goodness!
Thanks for stopping in— I hope you have a WONDERFUL week!!
