First and foremost, Happy New Year! It has been seriously crazy leading up to the new year for us. From the big move out of Los Angeles to me (Sean) having to work all kinds of crazy hours to finish out the year in Vancouver.
After all the months of non stop action, I was more than excited to take a couple weeks off for Christmas and New Years to just relax and not have anything specific to do for awhile. For the first few days while I was in Colorado, it worked out just the way I wanted. The only thing I had planned was a food project that I’ve had in the works for quite some time but more on that later.
The day after Christmas we awoke to over 12 inches of snow in town. It’s a rarity for it to snow that much at one time and my cousins have a nice steep hill in their back yard that leads directly to a hiking trail. My uncle has always been telling me about how he will hike up to the top and ski down when it snows this much. So I jumped at the opportunity to try it out for myself.
It was a ton of fun to say the least…even though with a foot of snow on the ground, there were plenty of rocks and logs that I ran over.
Now what does this have to do with Venison you may ask? Well, to me, there’s nothing quite like a big bowl of chili after a long day of skiing. In fact, I actually had some chili for lunch that day.
Now, I also spent a week in Alabama with Suz and her family for New Year’s. Suz had told me that her mom was given 4 pounds of freshly ground venison (Southern Whitetail Deer) from a friend and wasn’t quite sure what to do with it, but I did: Chili.
We’ve made and posted some different variations of chili on here before but none of them contain a starchy component. I grew up eating chili with beans in it and depending where you’re from, that can either be the norm or downright culinary heresy.
I like it both ways personally but obviously using beans is out of the question. We decided to dice up a couple sweet potatoes and let the starchiness come out in the crock pot. The result was very similar in taste and texture to the chili I’m used to growing up. The sweet potatoes really helped add a thickening component that reminds me of growing up.
Since Suz and I have been doing our first Whole30 in a few years, this is the perfect recipe to stay Whole30 Compliant and still have a hearty meal for those cold days that are happening now.
- 3 lbs ground venison
- 1/2 lb bacon, chopped
- 1 cup hard cider (see note)
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 large bell pepper, diced
- 2 jalapeño peppers, diced seeds optional
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 14oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 can tomato paste
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp chipotle chili powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp himalayan sea salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- Add chopped bacon to a large dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot and cook until crispy over medium heat.
- Add onion, garlic, jalapeños, and bell pepper to pot and cook until tender.
- Add ground venison and cook until browned. About 10 minutes.
- Deglaze pot with cider and scoop up brown bits with a wooden spoon.
- Transfer venison mixture to a crock pot or slow cooker and in no particular order, stir in tomato paste, diced tomatoes, sweet potatoes and spices.
- Cook on low for 10 hours stirring occasionally.
- Serve and enjoy.
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