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A Make-ahead Chili For Hunting Camp Or Sunday Football
 | Author:
Eileen Clarke, Rifles and Recipes
Author: Rifles and Recipes |
A Make-Ahead Chili for Hunting Camp or Sunday Football
Eileen Clarke
Rifles and Recipes
We were driving around a couple of weeks ago and it soon became obvious that the winter wheat around Townsend would soon be ready to cut. The fields I was seeing were that ripe-yellow color and all the heads I could see were tipping at an angle. The next step will be moisture content, having the wheat dry enough to not mold in storage, but with a few hot, dry days, the cutting will begin.
We’re excited.
That means hunting season isn’t far off. And with hunting season comes friends and hunting stories both true and not, and sitting around the camp stove enjoying a hearty bowl of chili to refuel the batteries. It’s time to put the bacon in the skillet and plan ahead. So, how’s your chili repertoire?
Do you need a new and simple, make-ahead, stick-to-your-ribs chili for hunting camp? Or just an easy Saturday dig-in-any-time-pot-on-the-stove?
For this one, most of the flavor--and all the cheese--is provided by a pile of crackers, augmented by a good dose of bacon. A perfect dish for hunting season. There’s enough spice to hide some gamy flavors, and the crackers will also thicken the sauce without any work from you.
Smoky Cheez-It® Pepper Jack Chili
Makes about 12 cups/3 quarts
Ingredients
2 cups chopped raw bacon
1 pound venison, cut in small chunks
1 yellow onion, sliced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 tablespoons Chipotle Tabasco sauce*
4 cups beef broth
2 15 ounce cans chopped tomatoes
2 cups whole Cheez-It Pepper Jack crackers
Cooking
1. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, start half the bacon. As it begins to brown, add half the meat to the fat. Sauté until browned then spoon the meat out of the pan, transfer to a large bowl, and cook the rest of the bacon and red meat. Transfer that to the bowl too, but don’t pour the bacon fat from the skillet.
2. Add the onion and garlic to the bacon fat and gently brown them. In the meantime, start a Dutch oven or soup pot on high, on another burner and combine the chili powder, Chipotle Tabasco, beef broth and chopped tomatoes. When the onions and garlic are lightly browned, add them to the broth, along with the browned meat.
3. Bring the pot to a low boil, just so it’s gently bubbling along the outer edges. Now grab the crackers, break them up in your hands, and toss them into the pot. (Do measure them before you crumble or your flavoring will be off.)
4. Let the pot simmer slowly, for about 15 minutes, till the sauce thickens, giving it a stir every now and then. (It will thicken pretty quickly, because of the crackers, so keep an eye on it so the chili doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.)
5. Serve hot with Cerveza. And perhaps a few more Cheez-Its® Pepper Jack crackers.
* Yes, 2 tablespoons is a lot of Tabasco sauce. Just make sure it’s the chipotle variety, not the original red hot flavored sauce.
Eileen Clarke was a game cooking columnist for Field & Stream and Successful Hunter. This recipe is from her game cookbook, The Wild Bowl: 100 wild game soups, stews and chilies. Enter MT43News in the coupon box @ https://www.riflesandrecipes.com and get $5 off any of her wild game cookbooks.
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PhotoCredit: Eileen Clarke
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