Brown Bayou Smoked Duck and Alligator Sausage Cajun Chili with Sweet and Spicy Cornbread
I graduated high school and spent several years going to college in Louisiana. When I wasn't studying, which was pretty much always, you could find me fishing any number of different bayou's around Shreveport and Bossier City, with my now ex brother-in-law. I remember us pulling some monster largemouth bass out of those waters, but on more than one occasion, I hooked something very large, that would just instantly jerk the whole boat and take us for a ride ... until it eventually snapped my line, or I cut it. Was it a bass? Maybe a large catfish? Possibly, I can't really say for certain, because I never actually saw what was dragging us around, but if I was guessing, I'd say it was most likely a large alligator. It wasn't uncommon to see them while fishing and we had caught several small gators on fishing tackle before, just not the kind that could just pull you around wherever it wanted to go.
I remember a few years ago, laying in bed watching the food channel and Guy Fieri was on. I don't remember what the show as called, maybe Guy's Backyard Bites or something like that. On the show he was making a chili ... out of dried chilies, not tomato sauce ... and it blew my mind. Sounds weird, I know ... I had always made my chili out of tomato sauce, it never occurred to me to actually use chilies, even though it's called chili. That pretty much launched my obsession with making chili without using tomato sauce. I actually got online and studied the history of chili after that! Did you know that beans aren't considered a traditional chili ingredient either?? Mind blown.
I've had a recipe like this on my mind for a long time now, toying around with different ideas and this recipe wasn't my first attempt at making this no tomato sauce, no beans, chili based traditional chili. I failed at this several times before I got something that I really, really liked. When I say failed, you could eat it, but it wasn't anything to brag about. The first time I tried to make something like this, I cooked the dried chilies indoors ... MISTAKE!! You would have thought someone set off a can of pepper spray in my house. Please don't try to cook this indoors, unless you enjoy getting in trouble with the spouse. I've tried using red wine and dark beer instead of coffee, but the Café du Monde coffee, being a Louisiana based coffee, just plays into the theme of this dish really, sense this is all Cajun inspired dish .. plus it just taste great. If you make this recipe per the instructions I've included, it's gonna be HOT, but I like it that way. If you don't like your chill that hot, you might consider leaving out a few of the Chile De Arbor's. Or replacing a few of them with a milder chili, like the Ancho Chilies or Guajillo Chilies. Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as me.
About the Author : Jeff Davis
Visit authors website | View more articlesYou may think cooking and recipes don’t have much to do with a website dedicated to hunting dogs ... but really, why do we hunt? Sure, we enjoy watching our dogs work in the field and being outdoors, but ultimately, hunting is about survival and feeding our families. We might as well try to do it well. I'm not a chef and definitely no food authority ... but I do like to eat and enjoy cooking. After searching for people willing to share their recipes on Gundog Central, without much success, I decided to try to do a few on my own, with my wife Tami's help. The recipes I share here are things I like to eat and have made here at home. I've tried to include step-by-step instructions with each meal describing exactly how I did it, but my method may not be best, if you decide to try a recipe posted here, please use whatever technique you think works best, I'm simply sharing how I did it. You'll see a lot of recipes where I've tried to make things from starch, when I could have just used store bought ingredients, simply because I wanted to learn how something was done. My goal is to continually update these recipes as I learn new things and techniques. These are my attempts at creating good, home cooked food, that I would like to eat! If I'm sharing it here, my family and I enjoyed it and I believe you will too.
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