Post Holiday Chili

Happy New Year! MDF and BDF Blog readers welcome to the first recipe of the week in 2025. If you are anything like us, all the cooking over the holiday season can become taxing, even for those of us who enjoy our kitchen time. In the week or so after the holidays, when the crowds of family, friends, and other guests have left when the once seemingly endless stream of leftovers in the fridge runs dry, you are left in a dilemma of having to cook again even if the kitchen burnout is still there. At times like this, I lean on chili as a wintertime staple that requires little effort from me and leaves the family full and happy.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of your preferred cooking oil (we used vegetable oil for this recipe)
• 2 lbs ground venison
• salt and black pepper
• 3 peppers, stemmed and diced (Jalapeño, Bell, Ancho, or Poblano peppers all work excellent depending on your tastes)
• 1 large onion
• 6 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp. Ancho chile powder
• 1 tbsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. oregano
• 3 cans whole tomatoes
• 2 cans of small red beans, kidney beans, or pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 cups beef stock (bonus if you use wild game bone broth instead)

Cooking Instructions:

1. Turn your crock pot to low and add beef broth or wild game stock.
2. Heat a bit of oil in your skillet
3. Salt and Pepper your ground meat according to your tastes
4. Brown your meat in the skillet
5. Remove the browned meat and put it in a small bowl while you add the peppers and onions to the skillet
6. Cook, stirring often, until soft
7. Add peppers, onions, and browned meat to your crock pot.
8. Stir in all spices
9. Add your chipotles and tomatoes and the beans
10. Stir to combine
11. Cook for 2 hours
12. Serve in whichever form your family prefers: chili dogs, a bowl with sour cream and cheese, or corn chips

Bonus tip: If your kids or guests are a bit spice-averse, throw in a tablespoon of brown sugar in their bowl and stir to give the chili a burst of sweetness that won’t be overwhelming but will cover the heat while you and any other guests who enjoy spicy food can still have what they enjoy.

Cocktail Pairing:

For chili, a light lager beer hits the spot for me. Perhaps it’s a lifetime in Missouri deer camps, but I prefer Busch Light. Our other writers and communications staff from Texas and the Southwest prefer Pacifico with a lime wedge, so there are multiple right answers here. Don’t overcomplicate this. Make a big pot of chili and crack open a cold one. It’s a new year!

Get Cooking!

Happy New Year! As always, good luck this winter and remember to send any success pictures or stories from the field to [email protected] and you could be featured on our website or in our magazine. If this article or any of our articles have helped you become a better hunter or conservation steward, consider becoming a member of MDF and BDF for only $35 dollars a year each. Click here to join: https://muledeer.org/product-category/membership/

Trevor J Hubbs https://www.instagram.com/trevorhubbs/

Trevor is the Communications Manager for the Mule Deer Foundation and Blacktail Deer Foundation. He grew up hunting and fishing the eastern edge of the Ozark mountains for quail, ducks, and bucks. Trevor is a contributor for “Fur, Fish, and Game”, “Lethal Minds Journal”, “Strung Magazine”, and “Feathers and Whiskey”, among others.