Venison Chili with Cornbread Lid
Dehydrated chili rehydrated in the pot, with a cornmeal batter steamed on top.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 130
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 700 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
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Dehydrated venison chili | 2 cups dry | ground venison, diced tomatoes, kidney beans, and pork and beans, cooked and dried at home |
|---|---|---|
| Chili powder | 1 tsp | the dried mix loses heat, so top it up |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Crushed red pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Cornmeal mix | 3/4 cup | self-rising, the kind with leavening already in it |
| Powdered whole milk | 2 tbsp | |
| Sugar | 2 tbsp | |
| Freeze-dried corn | 1/4 cup | stands in for the can of cream corn |
| Hard cheddar | 1.5 oz | a waxed block keeps for days out |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Pour 500 ml of boiling water over the dry chili and the spices. Lid on, off the heat, ten minutes. It should look like chili again, not soup.
- While it sits, put the corn in a mug with 60 ml of hot water to soften.
- Mix the cornmeal, milk powder, and sugar in a bag. Add the softened corn with its water and about 80 ml more, working it in until you have a thick batter that falls off a spoon in lumps.
- Grate or chop the cheddar over the chili.
- Snip a corner off the bag and squeeze the batter across the top in a rough layer. Do not stir it in.
- Lid on, lowest flame the stove will hold, fifteen minutes. Rotate the pot every few minutes so one spot does not scorch.
- The top is done when it is set and dry to a fingertip. Kill the heat and let it stand five minutes before you dig in.
The original bakes chili in a dish and pours cornbread batter over it, which needs an oven and a fridge full of cans. Neither travels. Dehydrating the cooked chili at home cuts most of the weight and all of the cans, and the cornbread turns out to cook fine as a steamed lid on a covered pot. It comes out denser than oven cornbread, closer to a dumpling. That is the trade.
Low heat and a sealed lid are the whole technique. Too hot and the chili underneath burns before the batter sets; the flame should be barely on. The freeze-dried corn and milk powder replace the can of cream corn and the half cup of milk, and they carry the same job: moisture and body in the batter. The sugar is halved from the source, on the theory that a sweet chili topping is a matter of taste and yours may differ.
Packing
Chili and its spices in one bag, cornmeal-milk-sugar in another, corn in a third. Cheese and oil ride separately. Bring a lid that actually seals; the cornbread cooks on trapped steam.
Variations
- No venison at home? Any lean ground meat dehydrates the same way. Beef needs the fat rinsed off first or it goes rancid.
- Skip the cornbread layer entirely and eat the chili straight. Several people who cooked the original said the sweet topping was too much.
- Crushed corn chips over the top instead of the batter gets you crunch for no cook time.
https://www.huntingpa.com/threads/the-best-chili-i-ever-ate.140