Sort-of Simple Slow Cooker Pheasant Chili
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This is my Sort-of Simple Slow Cooker Chili. It's sort-of my go to Chili recipe when I'm hungry and feeling super lazy. It can be made with ground beef, deer, chicken, or turkey, but for this recipe I'm making it with ground pheasant. I typically make this on the stove in a Dutch oven if I'm in a hurry. This is an easy one pot meal with very little clean up. I'm calling this version Sort-of Simply Slow Cooker Chili because I sort-of didn't cook the whole thing in the slow cooker, but it's still super simple to make, without a lot of clean up. This isn't going to win any Chili contest, but it's a good hearty meal for a cold day that doesn't take a lot of effort. It does have beans in it, so if you live in Texas, you might call it a stew.
I could have cooked this whole thing in the crockpot, the meat still would have cooked, but I preferred to cook the pheasant, onions, and garlic on the stove top, so I could brown and season the meat separately. You may think browning the meat on the stove defeats the purpose of the slow cooker, but I sort-of disagree. It only takes a few minutes to brown the Pheasant meat and cook the onions down, which can really be done at any time during the slow cooking process. Once the meat is cooked and added to slow cooker, this can be eaten after all the canned goods warm through, but the longer it gets to sit in the slow cooker, the better it'll be. If you decide cooking the meat separately isn't worth the effort for you, then you'll need to cook this at least two hours on high or four hours on low, to ensure the meat cooks through.
We sold our house recently and only had a few weeks to move out. It's been crazy around here trying to pack up all our stuff. We've taken countless loads of stuff to the trash and to Goodwill, it's really a wonder we have stuff left. We have plans to build a new home, but in the meantime, we're moving into a much smaller house. We're not going to have room for all our stuff, so we've been trying to use up some of the pantry items we bought during the pandemic, just to keep from moving them. Needless to say, we ate pretty good there for a while. We had bought lots of canned goods, rice, pasta, and various other things that wouldn't go bad sitting on the shelf for a while. We also have a small deep freeze packed with different meats and seafood. This past week, we made Gumbo, Crawfish Etouffee, Beef Bourguignons, Blacken Catfish over Cheesy Grits and this Chili, just to name a few things we cooked. We let this cook while we were hauling loads of furniture between houses. By afternoon we were taking frequent breaks to chow down on this chili, which is sort-of the point of the slow cooker. It allowed us to move stuff, without worrying about cooking, but was there and warm when we were ready for it. It's a low maintenance, set it and forget it kind of meal. You toss all the ingredients in and allow them to hang out all day, until you're ready to eat.
Ingredients
Instructions
Step #1 Dice up small onion and garlic
Step #2 Add skillet to stove top with heat set to medium high. Add one tablespoon of vegetable oil and allow to heat up.
Step #3 Add Pheasant to hot skillet. Season with Salt and Pepper. Allow to cook for a few minutes.
Step #4 Add Onions and Garlic to skillet with Pheasant.
Step #5 Add seasonings to Pheasant and Onions.
Step #6 Cook until Onions are translucent and Pheasant meat is browned.
Step #7 While Pheasant is cooking, gather your canned goods.
Step #8 Add all the canned goods to your crock pot. Setting the heat to low.
Step #9 Add Molasses, salt and pepper.
Step #10 Add Pheasant meat and broth to the Crock Pot.
Step #11 Dice up Jalapeno, Cilantro and Green Onions. Cut up some Limes to use as garnish.
Step #12 Allow to cook on low for a few hours. When done garnish with Jalapenos, Cilantro, Lime, Green Onions, Cheese and / or Sour Cream.
Recipe Card
Sort-of Simple Slow Cooker Pheasant Chili
Ingredients
Instructions
About the Author
Jeff Davis
Visit authors websiteYou 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.
