Recipe: Easy Antelope Chili

Last week, I was between travels so the pantry was pretty bare. I was also battling a head cold and didn’t feel much like grocery shopping or cooking. Since Domino’s or Lee Ho Fook’s doesn’t deliver out here in the hinterlands, I had to resort to eating whatever was easy and on hand. Chili sounded pretty good, but I didn’t have the energy to get fancy, so I just dumped a bunch of stuff into a pot. The result was pretty darn good.

Forgive me if the recipe seems a little long. It really is easier than it looks. If you don’t have the energy to read it all the way through, let me break it down for you into four simple steps:

1. Brown meat.
2. Saute onion and garlic.
3. Dump in everything else.
4. Enjoy.

Easy Antelope Chili

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground antelope
½ lb. antelope steaks, cut in ½-inch cubes
Flour
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 cup vegetable stock
Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. cumin
2 Tbsp. sugar
Salt
Black pepper
¼ cup Hatch red chile powder
2 cans black beans
1 can kidney beans
1 small can green chiles
1 pint homemade tomato sauce

Directions:

Dust cubed antelope steaks with flour. In a large Dutch oven, heat 1 Tbsp. oil over medium-heat. Brown ground antelope. Add salt, pepper and sprinkle with a small amount of red chile powder. Remove burger to colander to drain. Add more oil if needed and brown antelope chunks in the Dutch oven. Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. red chile powder and stir. Transfer to colander.

Add chopped onions to the Dutch oven and cook until translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes. Lower heat and add minced garlic, along with about 1 tsp. salt. Add a few dashes of Worcestershire, along with the tomato paste and stock. Raise the heat and stir, scraping up any browned bits as the mix comes to a simmer.

Add cumin, cinnamon, sugar, black pepper, and the remaining red chile powder, along with tomato sauce, beans, and green chiles. Stir in the ground and chunked meat.

Bring just to the boiling point then cover and lower heat to a simmer until it’s time to eat.