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Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Recipe first published Jan. 31, 2008. Updated May 2011.
Who doesn’t love chili? And what hunter doesn’t love venison chili? This is my version of this classic dish. Chili has endless variations: Beans or no beans? Ground meat or chunks? Or no meat at all? Tomato products or no tomato products? Add coffee? Chocolate? Cinnamon?
In fact, so far as I can tell, the only things that really must be in chili to make it chili are red peppers of some sort, cumin, and onions.
My version hinges on ground venison, but I’ve made it with all kinds of meats, even ground turkey. You can use any meat here. If you are a vegetarian, use lots of different dried mushrooms instead of meat.
What makes my chili unique is the huge amount of dried chiles I use. I will typically use 12-16 dried chiles of all sorts, reconstituted and then pureed with a cup of weak coffee to make the backbone of the dish. My advice is to use at least 4 kinds of chiles, and not all of them should be super hot. I like a mix of ancho, chipotle, guajillo, chile negro, chile mulato, cascabel, New Mexican and pasilla chiles. As you get to know these chiles — some are smoky, some hot, some sweet — you can adjust the mix to your taste.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
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VENISON CHILI
This is my version of this classic dish. It does involve several items you don’t normally see in chili, like molasses and coffee, but I’ve been modifying this recipe over the years to the point where this is what I like. Serve this over rice or polenta, garnished with cilantro and maybe some Mexican queso seco, jack cheese or American cheddar.
Serves 8-10.
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 3 hours
- 1 pound pinto beans or kidney beans
- 4 each, dried ancho, guajillo, pasilla, cascabel, mirasol or mulato chiles
- 1/2 pound bacon
- 1 large onion, diced
- 6-8 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 habanero, fresh, if they’re in season
- 2 pounds ground venison or ground beef
- 1 pound sausage, taken out of skin and broken up (venison or pork is fine)
- 2 tablespoons paprika
- 2 tablespoons cumin
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped or one small can
- 1 cup of weak coffee
- 3 tablespoons molasses
- Beef or venison broth (have a quart ready)
- At least 2 tablespoons salt
- Cilantro and shredded cheese to garnish
- Soak beans in water overnight. If you have forgotten this, pour boiling water over them and soak for 4 hours, changing the water after 2 hours. Break up and seed the chiles and cover with boiling water. Let stand for an hour or so. Grind to a thick puree, adding about 1 cup of the soaking water and the coffee.
- Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
- Chop bacon and fry over medium heat in a Dutch oven or other large, lidded, oven-proof pot. Once the bacon is crispy, remove it and set aside.
- Add the meat and brown over high heat. You want the highest heat on your most powerful burner here, because the meat will want to steam and stew and not brown. Stir occasionally.
- Once all the meat is browned, add onion to the pot and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring often. Return half the bacon to the pot. Add garlic, stir and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the beans, paprika, cumin, coriander and salt one at a time, stirring to combine each time.
- Add chile puree and tomato paste and stir to combine well. Add chopped tomatoes, molasses and enough beef broth to cover everything – you want it to be stew-like, not thin like a soup. I typically need at least a pint of broth, sometimes a quart.
- Stir to combine all this well, plunk the lid on and bake in the oven for at least 3 hours. Check after 2 hours to see if you need more salt and broth, and to see how the beans are doing. If you have the habanero, this is the time to add it.
- When the beans are tender, take out of the oven and let rest for 15 minutes. Serve with your grain of choice, and top with cilantro, cheese and some of the crispy bacon pieces.
Man, this sounds good!
I’ve only recently started experimenting with the dried chiles from the Mexican market. I haven’t tried the puree as you describe here, but you can bet it’s on my list when I get home from SHOT next week!
Hi, I discovered your blog via Becks & Posh. We eat a lot of wild venison – in fact we had it for dinner last night. Usually we just pan fry it in homemade lard (can’t go wrong with that, LOL), but I’ve been wanting to make venison chili for ages. Your recipe sounds intriguing; I love the combination of ingredients. Thanks for the inspiration – and the reminder that I need to expand the chile section of my kitchen garden this year!
Welcome, Susan! No, you definitely cannot go wrong with homemade lard – other than homemade duck fat, it is my favorite. And you know you can never have too many chiles, provided you can dry or pickle them…
Molasses and coffee — two of the most underused flavorings out there. Raw cocoa also works as a balancer for sweet. Don’t get many of the peppers you mention in Canada though — basically just habaneros and jalapeños.
Gotta try this with the fresh batch of paprika my buddy brought back from his hometown in Hungary!
Well I have 3 of those chili’s in my arsenal, think I’ll have to look for more, I’ve got some venison in my freezer just waiting to be transformed into good chili!
This is inspirational and decadent. When I make venison chili, I’m usually pretty stingy with the meat. It’s typically a dish I make to stretch the last of the venison in the freezer or to introduce non-game meat eaters to the power and the glory. I can abide by 2 pounds of ground, but I know my hands would start shaking when I reached for the sausage for uncasing. And the quart of venison stock – that would be rough. That said, a lot of people take chili very seriously and I think it might be time for me to start giving it the resources and love it deserves. Thanks Hank.
I am a chili snob. I have tried even the award winning chili recipes and cant find the taste Im looking for. I gave up on making chili…til now. Ill give this recipe a try. The coffee and molasses may be the ticket.
We love all things wild. We hunt and fish and forage. Im very grateful to have found this site. Your mustard is amazing. The wild turkey carnitas!…drool. As soon as we collect enough wild turkey gizzards, Im going for the corned gizzards recipe.
You have no idea, Hank, what an absolute inspiration you are. From one wild game cook to another…Thank you for this site.
When can I come for dinner?
Andrew: Use any random assortment of dried chiles. Some hot, some mild, some in between and you will be fine. Look in Latin markets.
Rhonda: Let me know how you like it!
Bumbling: Yep, I am one of those who take chili seriously. I’ve done a few cook-offs, back in the day, and there have been near-fistfights over the question of beans or no beans, tomato products or no tomato products. Sheesh.
Stella: Thanks so much! You definitely brightened my day! As for wild turkey gizzards, they are so large you may only need 2 to make the dish…
Loving this recipe, and going to try it tomorrow methinks
I’ve always added dark chocolate to my beef chilli recipe (at least 70% cocoa) – really adds depth of flavour, not sweethness. I tried doing venison chilli recently with venison with chilli and chocolate sausagemeat along with venison mince…needed a little pork fat to loosen it, and that did the trick perfectly. Delicious! Let you know how I go with this recipe though 
Can’t wait! Thanks!
Looks fantastic Hank… I just discovered my local Sprouts has a bunch of ground game meats, feral hog, venison, elk, and I think even yak. maybe I should make some up.
Back home I used to make a killer Kangaroo Chilli, but for some reason it’s not very easy to find kangaroo in texas. I always add a few pieces of dark chocolate right at the end, I find it makes a huge difference to the overall texture.
This is great! Thanks Hank! I *just* finished grinding up the rest of our harvest and was getting burnt out on venison-bacon sliders (although, I must admit, they are very, very tasty). I’m definately going to try your “backbone.”
[...] Venison Chili – Hunter Angler Gardener Cook: A great looking venison chili recipe from Hank Shaw of Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook. [...]
Now that’s how you make a chili — the more kinds of chiles the better, that’s the point of the dish, is to be made of chiles! And why would anyone ever leave out the beans? I don’t understand it.
Sausage, though, that’s interesting. Don’t think I’ve ever had chili with sausage in it.
Well you have let out my secret! I have been making Chile with the dry red Chile for years and have refused to give out the secret when asked…LOL! I also use it for my Taco’s and Enchiladas.
Hank,
Have you ever done this recipe in a slow cooker? Would like to try, but I’m not sure about the cooking time and how that would work with the beans and the liquid…
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
Tomatoes and beans? Not chili. (We Texans can be quite snobbish on this point).
Hank, this recipe is a home run! Made it two weeks ago and it was very rich and the dried chilis with coffee added great complexity. Because hunting season starts in a few weeks, I need to make more room in the freezer and this is the recipe I’ll be cooking from. Cheers!
I made this wonderful chili yesterday! The best I have ever had! The combination of spices, coffee and molasses was a perfect balance. We all raved over it. Thank you for sharing your recipe, I may not be so generous….
[...] Venison Chili. [...]
[...] fabulous venison chili courtesy of Hank Shaw, author of a super cool blog calledHunter Angler Gardener [...]
What kind of sausage do you use in your venison chili? Breakfast or italian.
Also I have Ancho, Guajillo, Negro, Chipotle, Cascabel and Pasilla dried peppers, should I use 4 of each pepper?
Peggy: I tend more toward the Italian style, but you could use any sausage. I’ve used chorizo and it works really well. As for the chiles, I would only use 1-2 chipotles, but 4 each of the others. Chipotles can get pretty darn hot.
The chili count is not clear. 4 of each, or 4 in a combination of.
Dano: Four each, so you are using 16-24 chiles. Just be sure to watch your heat levels, i.e., cascabels are much hotter than anchos or pasilla. My typical combination is: 3-4 ancho, 3-4 guajillo, 3-4 pasilla, 1-2 cascabel or mirasol. Hope that helps!
HI-
I just wanted to tell you that my friend and I got some venison while visiting his parents in the Poconos, which is a rarity for us (we live in Boston). We weren’t too sure what to do with it, so we followed your recipe.
OH. MY. GOD.
This is seriously the best chili we have ever made or tasted, and I just wanted to say Thank You!!!!!!!
What a great recipe – we live in NE PA and love to eat venison during the entire year…. Will definitely be trying this recipe!
This recipe is incredible. We don’t have a large enough oven-safe container, so we used a pressure cooker for steps 6 through 8. For the sausage, we used Palacios chorizo from Spain–it has lots of smoked paprika, which complements everything else really well.
This is by far the best chili I’ve ever had. Thank you for posting this wonderful recipe.
I saw quite a few comments from people who like how the recipe sounded but had not made it….I thought I’d give feed back on the dish itself. I actually started out by making the Portuguese style brazed venison shanks (also on this website). The liquid had almost dried up from the extended cooking leaving the meat a bit dry. I decided try to salvage it and roll it right into the venison chili. I pulled the shank meat out and chunked it – cutting across the grain. I followed the recipe for the chili more or less. Did not see a need to cook it in the oven since the meat was already tender (cooked it on the stove top instead). Also went heavy on the shank meat and left out the sausage. I think chili should have discrete pieces of actual meat in it. Critique: the best chili I’ve made yet. The ground chili base has a rich, addictive quality. I like the focus on the peppers – most chili’s settle for a little ground cayenne or just some red pepper flakes – the flavorful heat really makes it for me.
The chili had so many levels of wonderful complex flavors. My wife and I loved it.
Thanks for the recipe
P.S. love your web site
sounds like a worthy recipe. when venison isn’t available, i substitute lamb, grill the meat over hickory, then chop up, venison or lamb. chocolate? coffee? ABSOLUTELY! Adds wonderful color and depth people can’t quite figure out. I call mine Wicked Willy’s Roadkill Chili. I’ve gotta check this site more, see if there’s a comparison to my Bodacious Billy’s Boulevard Bonanza Brunswick Burgoo.
The best chile I have ever had. Very complex flavors, back of the throat heat, not up front like so many others Loved the smoky flavor, not sure which chile gave it that flavor, ancho perhaps. I entered this in a church chile cook off and tied first place for flavor thanks to your recipe. Will definitely make this again. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes
This recipe is fantastic.
Made yesterday, the only minor substitution being that I used brown sugar instead of molasses.
I used kashmiri chilis along with pasilla, ancho, and guajillo; I also used smoked paprika. The sausage used was homemade venison chorizo.
Never had chili with quite this flavor, this is recipe is definitely a keeper.
Was worried there might be too much heat with the dried chilis and habanero, but it’s PERFECT. Flavorful and balanced. Thanks, Hank!
Will have to try this recipe in the fall. I’ve messed around with a base chili recipe, and now use a 24-bean soup mix, and just soak the beans for 20-24 hrs, plus use ground turkey & beef or venison stew meat. Usually use 3-5 different peppers, plus cinnamon & allspice. I’ve even tried corn kernels & carrots just to see what they would add for sweetness.
Haven’t ever used sausage, broth or coffee in chili – have used coffee to make a Texas-style BBQ sauce.
keep all recipes comming stews, chilli’s
Just came back from market with peppers, am cooking this tonight. I don’t have an oven pot large enough, though. Am I making a mistake using a slow cooker. Hi temp runs a touch hot on mine, reasonably clsoe to the stated 275F.
Can I safely use it, or should I borrow a larger pot??
Hello – my husband was lucky and got 2 young does this season, his first season getting into hunting. I have been gathering what I need for some of your recipes including this one. Do you (or any readers) happen to have any online sources for pastured pork fat (to add to make ground meat)? – I’m in a remote area of the Southern California desert and this is hard to come by (I would really prefer fat from pastured animals.)
Love, Love, Love this recipe. I Entered this recipe in a Sub for Santa fund raiser chile cook off at work and won! Not a super competitive contest but there were a total of 10 entries and this chile won. I donated the $50.00 gift certificate back to the cause. The coffee,molasses and variety of peppers added complexity and richness that were pleasantly unexpected. I used chunked venison instead of ground. I used my slow cooker and it worked just fine. Served over fried polenta. Thanks!!
I’ve made this chili several times and it is AWESOME! Thanks Hank for the recipe.
My only suggestion is to force the pepper puree thru a sieve to remove the bits of pepper skin that otherwise don’t always soften up.
[...] Venison Chili from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook [...]
This looks like a great recipe to use for the ground venison from my first-ever hunt. This might sound like a dumb question, but does this call for 1 lb. of dried beans, or 1 lb of beans after an overnight soak?
Thanks again for the recipe, and all the other great recipes on your site!
Kyle: You use 1 pound of beans before soaking. Good luck with the recipe!
Hi Hank: Made this last year and it was amazing. This time around I’d like to give it a little more heat. Can you recommend specific dried chilies that would do this? (I can’t remember which I used last year, although they were all authentic, from a Mexican market we have nearby.) Also, I was thinking of using cubed black bear meat, which I got from a friend, but have no experience with bear meat. Any thoughts on that? For starters it would be replacing ground meat with cubed steak… Thanks so much for your help with this!
Hi Hank – I ran into this while searching for a recipe for a chili cook-off at work. My wife usually makes the chili but I’m the better cook. I substituted beer for the broth, used very little chiles since it was a gathering of tenderfoots and just 1 can of pinto beans (just to tick off the Texas chili purists) and some Goya Sofrito for the tomato paste. I won 1st place. Thanks for a great recipe with twists on the traditional flavorings.
Tried this (with a few little adjustments) very tasty! Thanks again really appreciate your sharing of knowledge. I look here first for all of my game meals! Cheers
Just wanted to add to the chorus of “yea’s”. This is an awesome chili. I was concerned that the coffee and molasses combination would have a bit too much bitter bite, but after the simmer the flavors melded beautifully, the subtle sweetness of the tomatoes and molasses came to the forefront and this became easily the best chili I’ve made.
I used browned chunked up venison roasts for the meat and it ended up tender after the time stewing in the pot. I wouldn’t change a thing- maybe add some fresh green or red peppers towards the end of the cook, but it’s certainly not necessary. This one is gold.
I will give this recipe a try, thanks. I usually avoid broth and use a chocolate beer like Young’s Double Chocolate Stout or Sam Adam’s Chocolate Bock since chiles and bitter chocolate are such a wonderful culinary pairing. I’m still trying to perfect a venison broth that I’m happy with for soups and stews…