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| Photo taken by Me! - Angela Abernathy 05/05/14 |
My neighbor and I were talking the other day. She was making chili and needed to borrow some cumin. In exchange she gave me some "Mexican" oregano. I don't know what makes it Mexican, but she got it at a place called Penzy's Spices in Southfield, MI, and she said she uses it in her chili all the time.
I thought it sounded yummy so I knew I needed to give it a try. I love love love spicing up any dish and trying new things make it even more enticing.
When I realized I was going to make the chili the very next day, I had forgotten to ask my neighbor for her recipe, and she had already left for the week, so I went on an internet search for what looked like a good one.
Do you know how many different ways there are to make chili? Geez oh pizza! Mmmm Pizza. That sounds good too. Anyway, there were a lot! So, I printed a couple recipes and saved a couple more to my Pinterest page and Allrecipes.com account.
I had to make do with what I had in my kitchen. As it was, I only had one can of beans. But who likes beans anyway. Ick! If it ain't black beans, it ain't goin' in my chili! LOL So, I had one can and got another from my Mom the next morning to make it complete.
These are the links to the two recipes I actually printed.
and
Now, here is my recipe...
Angie's Venison Chili
2 lbs ground venison
1 medium red onion, peeled and chopped (about size of tennis ball)
2 Tbsp fresh minced garlic
1 Tbsp Cumin (other recipe said 1 tsp, but I goofed. Thought it would be too much, but I don't think you can taste the difference.)
15 oz can tomato sauce
12 oz can tomato paste
28 oz can diced tomatoes
4 celery hearts stalks, chopped
2 - 15 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp beef flavored soup base, dissolved in 1 cup hot water
2 Tbsp chili powder
3 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/2 Tbsp Mexican oregano
4-6 shakes hot sauce
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
couple shakes of salt and a few extra of course ground black pepper
What I did next:
1. In large, deep dish skillet, add venison, onion and minced garlic. Cook over med-high heat til browned. Add Cumin, tomato paste and tomato sauce. Mix well.
2. Meanwhile, in slow cooker pot, add diced tomatoes, celery, black beans and soup base/water mixture.
3. Pour contents of skillet in to slow cooker, then add all remaining spices/seasonings. Mix very well.
4. Cook on low about 6-8 hours.
We were eating our chili after about 7 hours cook time AND I stirred it twice thru-out the day. My slow cooker is older and cooks hotter on one corner than the rest so I stirred it to evenly distribute and avoid that section being burned/scorched.
I must say, I thought this recipe would taste very tomato-y because of the paste and the sauce, but it really doesn't. I think all the spices really offset the overabundance of tomato. The taste is very 'zippy' with a bit of tanginess. I don't know where that comes from, but all in all, this is a very tasty chili. Not spicy hot, cuz my daughter and I are not too much in to spicy hot.
So, try it or don't try it. Makes no difference to me. But coming from a person who has spent most of her life absolutely despising chili of any kind...I give it two thumbs up and a great big Can I Have Some More Please?!! And yes, I did have seconds!
Enjoy!
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