Brown the
venison in batches until brown on all
sides. Remove to a dish.
When all the
venison is browned, sauté the onions in
the remaining oil. You
want the onions
to melt but not brown. When the onions
have reached the
melt stage
(about 10 minutes) add the garlic. Don't
let the garlic burn.
Just let it
scent up. Add the browned meat, the
stock, the chili powder,
cumin, cayenne,
paprika, bay leaves, oregano, salt and
stock. Bring to a
boil. Reduce
heat to a just barely simmering and
cover. Simmer gently
covered for 3
hours. The meat should be fork tender
Even though
venison is very lean, the chili should
be defatted. I do this
by letting it
cool and then refrigerating the chili
overnight. The next
day, I remove
the fat.
To serve,
reheat. Taste for seasoning. Sometimes,
I add a bit more cumin.
Some like to
thicken the chili with masa or fine corn
meal. To do this, mix
some about 1/4
cup fine corn meal with enough water to
make a thin paste
(no more than
one cup of water). Add this quickly to
the chili as it
simmers, stir
like crazy, or you may get lumps. If you
use the masa, be
sure to cook the
chili for at least another 20 minutes or
so, or
it may taste
pasty.
Coleslaw would
be the only salad I'd serve with this.
If there's any chili
left, and this
should feed six adults, it freezes
beautifully.
Enjoy! |
