Venison Chili

During our fall camping trip this past camping season, we came up with what just might be my best venison chili recipe yet!

We’ve always been fans of any form of chili con carne - or “chili with meat”. A big pot of chili on a cold night? Bliss - and that goes double for when the cold evening is on a campsite!

Our first Campfire Chili Recipe was more or less a version of my Roasted Convention Chili - the BEST chili for serving out of a hotel room!

Aside from that, I’ve also always enjoyed my Roasted Chili Verde - and I’ve got my Southwest Chicken Chili recipe yet to come.

Anyway, I’ve been on a bit of a kick with venison recipes this year, starting out with my Venison Burger Recipe - and I have a delicious venison stew recipe posting in the next week or two.

For now, though, let’s talk about this hearty venison chili!

It’s a ground venison chili recipe - and a good chili for those who love smoky flavours in their chili.

It starts out with a bit of bacon, and the smokiness is intensified through the use of Chipotles in Adobo Sauce.

This chili has a great, warming heat to it - nothing extreme, but enough to MATTER, you know? It’s especially fantastic when served with one of our campfire bread recipes: Traditional Bannock, Jalapeno Cheddar Bannock, Traditional Skillet Cornbread, or Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread.

We enjoyed this batch overlooking the lake at Rene Brunelle Provincial Park, and had a great time doing so!

Anyway, let’s look at what you’ll need for your own batch of this venison chili recipe!

Ingredients

This deer chili recipe has a fairly extensive grocery list, but they’re all fairly basic ingredients. Aside from the venison itself, you shouldn’t have any difficulty finding what you need in pretty much any larger grocery store.

As always, I have some ingredient notes for you:

Ground Deer Meat

I use 2 pounds of ground venison as the bulk of the meat in this delicious venison chili recipe. I love the depth of flavor that wild game meat tends to have, and deer is no exception.

I buy mine from Wild Fork (no relationship to disclose, just a fan!), but home grinding 2 pounds of meat that you’ve harvested yourself is a great option, if you have it!

While this recipe was specifically developed to worth is with gamey flavor of the venison ... you can substitute ground beef. Lean meat, ideally.

Chili Beans

I use a couple cans of Dark Red Kidney Beans, but black beans would also work really well with the flavours in this recipe.

Pinto beans are another great option, if kidney beans aren’t your thing.

Fresh Produce

Given that chili is specifically named for the peppers used to make it, I feel like roasted peppers shouldn’t exactly be a secret ingredient... but then again, a lot of chili recipes are more tomato than anything else!

Anyway, I fire roast a couple different kinds of peppers -to puree into sauce for this venison chili recipe:

Red Bell Peppers - if red pepper isn’t your thing, feel free to use green pepper instead.

Poblanos - If you can’t get ahold of any fresh Poblano Peppers, feel free to use green bell peppers instead.

Note: This deer chili has some heat from the Chipotle Peppers, but for an even more hot chili, feel free to roast a few Jalapeno Peppers and toss them in, as well.

Besides the veggies that are getting roasted and pureed, you’ll need:

Onion: I’ll usually use yellow onion, but you can use white onion if you prefer. Really, any medium sweet onion should be fine.

Celery Ribs - no notes.

Garlic Cloves - can substitute 2.5 - 3 teaspoon of Garlic Powder, if you prefer.

Bacon

I use a bit of bacon to bring up the smoky flavour of the chili.

While I wouldn’t recommend swapping chicken bacon or turkey bacon in this chili recipe, you can if you need to - but I’d add a bit of oil to the pan, as you won’t be rendering any fat off it.

Tomato Sauce

Home or store bought both work fine. You could also puree canned tomatoes, if you happen to have some on hand.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce
Olive Oil, or Nonstick Cooking Spray
Salt and Ground Black Pepper
Beef Broth (Can use Chicken Broth)
Smoked Paprika
Ground Cumin
Dried Oregano
Dried Thyme
Bay Leaf

I don’t have anything to add, for these last few remaining ingredients. Pretty simple stuff!

Optional Toppings

Part of the fun with chili is customizing your bowl with your favorite toppings.

Try cheddar cheese, chopped jalapenos, crunchy fried garlic, green onions, and/or sour cream, and serve with tortilla chips or other corn chips - I like the scoop kind!

How to Make Venison Chili

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post, here is the pictorial walk through:

Prepare the Spice Packet - Optional

We do these spice packets up when preparing for a camping trip.

Just measure all of the dried herbs and spices into a small baggie, seal and label it.

Prepare the Peppers

Get a good fire going, set a grate over it.

Seed the peppers, cut into large pieces. Toss with a bit of Olive oil (or spray both sides with nonstick spray), sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper.

Working in batches, cook pepper pieces over your fire until the peppers are soft and skin is charred.

Remove from heat and allow to cool. If you’d like to, gently peel off the pepper skin while still warm - we don’t bother.

Note: I missed one of my red peppers when initially grilling them. I found it after this batch, and grilled it separately!

Also: I prefer to do this over a charcoal grill, but you can broil them in an oven if needed!

Once cool enough to handle, chop into smaller pieces.

Drizzle a little oil in a large dutch oven, add bacon and onion. Cook over a fire (or medium-high heat on a stovetop) - stirring often - until bacon is cooked and onions are translucent.

Add celery, garlic, and as much of the chopped chipotle peppers as you’d like. Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until celery is translucent and chipotles are fragrant.

Add ground venison to the pot.

Using a wooden spoon or silicone spatula to break up any large chunks of ground meat, cook until browned all over.

Add the rest of the ingredients - beans, tomato sauce, and the spices - stir well to combine.

Cover and simmer for 20 minutes (on low heat if using a stovetop). If you’d like the chili thicker, take the cover off and let the chili cook until it reaches the desired texture.

Remove chili from the heat, season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve hot, with your favorite chili toppings.

Leftovers

Leftover chili can be cooled to room temperature before storing in an airtight container. We’ll usually use a large freezer baggie.

Leftover venison chili will keep for 3 days in the fridge, or several months in the freezer.

More One-Pot Camping Recipes

Looking for more easy - but satisfying! - one pot meals to cook over your campfire? Here are some of my favourites!

Bacon Cheeseburger Soup
Beef & Root Vegetable Stew
Cajun Chicken Sloppy Joes
Easy Campfire Chicken Curry
Campfire Chili
Dutch Oven Jambalaya
Easy Chicken Curry
Egg Roll in a Bowl
Hearty Campfire Beef Stew
Indian Sloppy Joes
Mexican Sloppy Joes
Sloppy Giuseppes
Traditional Sloppy Joes

Be sure to check out our other Camping Recipes, including Camping Desserts, Camping Snacks, Make-Ahead Camping Mix Recipes, and a ton of delicious Camping Main Dish Recipes.

Also, we had SO much fun designing gourmet jerky recipes for our camping trips, we started a whole new blog for them! Check out Dried & Tasty for all kinds of fun recipes to make in your food dehydrator!