Cubed Venison Chili
Diced venison, dried peppers, and broth powder. Rehydrates into a thick chili in one pot.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 138
- protein
- 48 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- 600 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dehydrated venison, cut in 1/2" cubes before drying | 2 oz | cook it first, then dry it, or it never softens |
|---|---|---|
| Dried onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried bell and hot peppers | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried celery | 1 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Beef bouillon | 1 cube or 1 tsp powder | |
| Chili powder and cumin | 1 tbsp total | |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste | |
| Tomato powder | 2 tbsp | replaces the fresh tomato the pot never had |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Hot sauce | a few dashes | small bottle, carried separately |
Method
- Dump everything except the oil and hot sauce into the pot with 600 ml of water. Stir once.
- Bring it to a boil, then drop to the lowest flame that keeps it moving.
- Simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Stir every few minutes so the tomato powder does not weld to the bottom.
- Poke a cube. If it still chews like a pencil eraser, give it five more minutes and a splash of water.
- Off the heat, stir in the oil and shake in the hot sauce.
The original was a home pot of chili built on cubed deer meat instead of ground, browned in fat with fresh onion, garlic, peppers, and celery. Cubes hold their texture where ground meat disappears, which is the whole point, and it survives the trip to the trail better than most chili does. Everything that came out of a garden here comes out of a dehydrator instead.
Cubed meat is the one thing that will not shortcut. Dry raw venison and you get gravel that no amount of simmering fixes, so cook it through at home before it goes in the dehydrator. The tomato powder is doing the thickening; without it you have spiced broth with meat in it. Hot sauce goes in at the end so you can set the heat per person rather than per pot.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one bag except the meat, which rides in its own bag with the air pressed out. Oil in a dropper bottle, hot sauce in a small squeeze bottle.
Variations
- Half a cup of instant refried beans stirred in at the end thickens it and adds 15 g of protein.
- Diced pepperoni in place of some venison adds fat and keeps without refrigeration.
- No dehydrator: a foil pouch of shelf-stable roast beef works, added in the last five minutes.
https://www.huntingpa.com/threads/venison-chili-ground-or-steak.9326