I've had a few venison steaks sitting in the fridge defrosting for the last few days and today, since we don't have propane still or else those babies would have been chilling on the grill, I decided to make a leaner chili, by combining some ground beef and some venison steaks! I believe as of tomorrow we will be getting propane!! My husband is grilling/cooking tomorrow night, we'll see what treat he grills up!
Prep time for this meal is about 30-45 mins, which is pretty simple.
Cook time for the meal will be about 4-5 hours on HIGH setting. If you want the LOW setting I would give it 10 hours minimum.
What You Need:
Ground Beef- about 1/2 a pound.
Venison Steaks- I used 4 about 2-3 inches thick.
1 Onion.
1 Can - Sauce. (29 oz or 1 lb 13 oz)
1 Can - Whole Peeled Tomatoes. (14.5 oz or 411 g)
1 Can - Dark Red Kidney Beans. (15 oz or 425 g)
Chili Powder about 6 tablespoons.
Cumin about 4 tablespoons
Crushed Red Pepper about 2 tablespoons.
Cracked Salt and Pepper both about 2 tablespoons each.
Garlic and Onion Powder about 2 1/2 tablespoons each.
Paprika about 1 tablespoon.
Open up your can of sauce and add to the slow cooker. Open beans and whole peeled tomatoes, drain and rinse the beans and the whole peeled tomatoes as they tend to add unwanted water into the slow cooker and makes the end result a bit on the watery side, then promptly add to the cooker. About 4 minutes.
Keep the stove on a medium heat (about a 3 1/2-4). Start by browning your ground beef and once it is browned, drain some of the grease, but reserve enough to fry the venison, and then add to the slow cooker. About 10 minutes.
Turn the heat down to a medium low heat (3). Cut up your venison steaks into small bite sized pieces, and brown them in the ground beef grease. They do shrink up in size a bit. Once they are browned well, drain that grease, reserve a bit for the onions and add the venison steak pieces to the slow cooker. About 10 minutes.
Cut up the onion into small confetti pieces, and add to the same pan you cooked the venison and beef in. Add in a little bit of butter if there is not enough grease left. Cook the onions until they are soft, and slightly a light yellow/tan color. It will only take about 10-15 minutes. You just want the onions to be soft here because they will cook the rest of the way in the slow cooker!
Now that everything is nice and tucked in the slow cooker, you may want to add some of your spices!! Yay!! Let's see...a lot of chili powder, I use about 6 tablespoons, cumin about 4 tablespoons, crushed red pepper about 2 tablespoons, salt and pepper both about 2 tablespoons each, garlic and onion powder about 2 1/2 tablespoons each, and lastly paprika about 1 tablespoon.
Mix everything well and put the lid on!
I have the cooker on HIGH for at least 4 hours. At this rate, my food should be ready by about 2:30 am since I started prep at 8 or so..and then the slow cooker was filled and ready to go at about 9 20 pm.
