Deer Camp Chili (Crockpot)
This is something I came up with on a cold day at deer camp. Pretty delicious!
This is something I came up with on a cold day at deer camp. Pretty delicious!
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 3 pounds chili grind or regular ground meat
- 1 large onion roughly chopped
- 3 tablespoons chili powder divided use
- 3 tablespoons ground cumin divided use
- 1 10 ounce can rotel tomatoes use hot if you like spicy chili
- 1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 11 ounce can v8 vegetable juice
- 1 15 ounce can ranch style beans use the kind with jalapenos if desired
- 1 cup water or more as needed
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper or more to taste
- 1 cup pace's picante sauce
- 1 cup grated cheddar cheese optional
- Carbohydrate 21.7309097508527 g
- Cholesterol 135.600475 mg
- Fat 41.0265512502615 g
- Fiber 6.41912491705572 g
- Protein 37.8927755001913 g
- Saturated Fat 16.3141391750461 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (416g)
- Sodium 1228.50185001576 mg
- Sugar 15.311784833797 g
- Trans Fat 5.8422854000433 g
- Calories 608 calories
Step-by-step
- Brown meat and chopped onion in a large skillet.
- Add 2 tbsp. each of the chili powder and cumin.
- Stir and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Transfer the meat to a four quart crockpot and stir in the other ingredients, mixing well.
- Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
- Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Add salt and pepper if needed and a little bit of water if the chili is too thick.
- Serve topped with plenty of grated cheddar cheese.
- Enjoy with good friends around a campfire.
Why is the liquid separating at the surface of the slow cooker? Low and slow cooking methods release moisture from large quantities of meat and canned vegetables, often pooling fat and water on top before the starches have time to bind. To prevent a watery pot, brown the three pounds of coarse chili grind thoroughly in a skillet first, draining excess grease before transferring the solids to the insert. A four-quart slow cooker is the minimum size required to hold this volume safely without splashing over the rim during the four-hour high heat cycle or eight-hour low heat cycle.
Dividing the dry spices—incorporating part of the cumin and chili powder during the initial browning phase and adding the remaining portions directly into the slow cooker—builds deeper layers of seasoning than dumping all aromatics in at once. If scaling this recipe down for a smaller household, reduce the liquid components proportionally while maintaining the ratio of canned tomatoes to vegetable juice so the base does not become overly thin. Conversely, doubling the batch requires moving to a six-quart slow cooker and extending the low cook time by one hour to ensure uniform heat penetration throughout the denser mass.
