Cowboy Chili — The Last Batch Before Deer Season Fills the Freezer Back Up

Deer season opens the first weekend of November and it's September now, which means I'm starting to think about it seriously. I drove back out to the lease land twice this week—once in the evening to check a trail camera I'd set up near the creek crossing, once on a Saturday morning just to sit in the stand for a few hours and see what moved.

The camera had good footage. A decent eight-point buck passing through around midnight, two does together just before dawn, a raccoon investigating the base of the tree for twenty minutes straight like it was doing a home inspection. The land is healthy. Danny was good to it and I plan to be good to it too.

Sitting in the stand alone is different from sitting with someone. When it was Danny and me we had a whole quiet vocabulary—a look, a hand signal, the specific weight of a shared silence. Now it's just silence, which is its own thing. Not bad. Just different. I sat for about three hours Saturday and saw nothing deer-shaped and didn't mind at all. The morning was cool enough to need a jacket. Jays were going nuts in the oaks above me. At one point a coyote trotted through the bottom maybe forty yards out, stopped and looked directly at me for five full seconds, and then moved on like it had somewhere to be.

I've been thinking about who I'd want to hunt with this season. Caleb has been out a few times but he's not as committed as Danny was—he goes for the company more than the actual hunting. Maybe that's fine. Maybe this season is just about keeping the tradition going, even if it looks a little different.

Made venison chili from last year's freezer meat this week. Just about used up. Time to fill it back up.

That pot of chili I made this week was the last real use of the venison from last season — a few pounds of ground meat I’d been rationing since January, and it felt right to send it off in something worthy. Cowboy chili is exactly that: straightforward, honest, no fuss, the kind of thing you can put on the stove and let go while you’re pulling trail cam footage off an SD card and thinking about who might sit in that second stand this November. Danny would’ve eaten two bowls without saying much and that would’ve been the whole review. I’ll take that as the standard.

Cowboy Chili

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 2 lbs ground venison (or ground beef)
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 2 cans (15 oz each) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
• 2 cans (15 oz each) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup beef broth
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Optional toppings: shredded cheddar, sour cream, sliced green onions, cornbread

Instructions

1. Brown the meat. Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the ground venison and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until no longer pink, about 6–8 minutes. Drain excess fat if needed.
2. Soften the aromatics. Add the diced onion and green pepper to the pot and cook until softened, about 4–5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for another minute until fragrant.
3. Add tomatoes and seasoning. Stir in the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. Add the chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, cayenne, salt, black pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Mix well to combine.
4. Add beans and broth. Pour in the kidney beans and beef broth. Stir everything together and bring to a boil.
5. Simmer low and slow. Reduce heat to low, cover partially, and simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. For deeper flavor, simmer up to an hour. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
6. Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with shredded cheddar, sour cream, and green onions if desired. Pairs well with cornbread or crackers.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 340 | Protein: 32g | Fat: 9g | Carbs: 28g | Fiber: 8g | Sodium: 720mg