Five Alarm Venison or Beef Chili (pressure-canning recipe)
Canning venison chili is a great way to preserve the flavor of fall, & ensures you have almost instant delicious homemade dinners on hand. This zesty, spicy chili is great on its own or as a foundation ingredient for many other quick and easy meals. You can also substitute ground beef, pork, goat, elk, bear... almost any large game animal that has a listed USDA-approved home canning processing time for ground meat should work. Do not substitute ground poultry like chicken, turkey, or game birds, or meat substitutes if you are canning this chili.
Ingredients
Venison or Beef Chili
- 8.5 lbs lean venison, coarsely ground (if you substitute ground beef, use the leanest possible, or drain most of the fat after browning before adding other ingredients)
- 8 oz fatty pork shoulder or lean bacon grind with the meat or mince
- 109 oz whole peeled tomatoes with juice, or diced tomatoes in juice #10 can (12 cups)
- 4 cups onions, diced (yellow, white, or red onions)
- 4-6 large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
- ⅔-1 cup chili powder (NOT taco seasoning) (good quality or homemade blend, see below)
- 1 tbsp cumin, whole or ground
- 3 tbsp salt
Homemade Five Alarm Chili Powder
- 3-4 large dried pasilla peppers
- 3-4 large dried guajillo peppers
- 2-3 large dried ancho chilies
- 1 medium dried chipotle or morita pepper
- 3 tbsp smoked or plain paprika (or a blend)
- 3 tbsp ground cumin
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder.
- 2 tbsp Mexican oregano (sub regular oregano)
- 2 tbsp ground coriander
- 1 tbsp Kashmiri chili powder (sub cayenne or other dried chili, or paprika for milder chili powder)
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
Instructions
Homemade Chili Powder Instructions:
- Remove the stems and most of the seeds from the dried peppers. Use gloves if your hands are sensitive, or if you are making a big batch, and wash them thoroughly after handling the dried peppers.
- It helps to tear the seeded and stemmed peppers into smaller pieces (an inch or three in size) so that they are easier to blend.
- I use a blender to grind the chilies into a coarse powder, pulsing them and shaking the jar so that they grind evenly. I sift them through a coarse sieve/strainer to reblend any large pieces, along with the other ingredients.
- When all ingredients are well blended and combined, store in a well-sealed jar in a cool and dry place until you are ready to use the chili powder.
Venison or Beef Chili Prep:
- Prepare and assemble your ingredients. Peel and chop the onions and garlic and measure out your dry seasonings.
- Brown the ground meat in batches in a large heavy skillet. Drain any excess fat (this shouldn't be necessary with venison, but less lean beef may need some fat drained). Add the meat to a large stockpot.
- Keep browning the meat in batches, along with the onions and garlic, sauteing the onions and garlic until they are tender. If you are not draining excess fat from the meat, you can season it with the chili powder as it browns. Otherwise, add the salt, chili powder, and cumin to the large stockpot and keep warm as you brown the rest of the meat.
- Add the canned tomatoes and their juice to the pot, crushing or breaking up the large chunks if you are using whole tomatoes. If you want a thinner or more tomato-forward chili, you can safely add more (or some tomato juice or V8), but don't use less (this is less about the pH than about the density of the chili- if it's too thick, the heat may not penetrate to the center of the jars during canning).
- Bring the mixture up to a low boil and simmer for at least twenty minutes. You can simmer it longer and adjust seasonings as it cooks, but remember that if you are pressure canning your chili, it will have another hour and 15-30 minutes in the canner. If you are not canning it, the flavor will improve if you simmer it longer before serving.
- If you are not serving this immediately, keep chili hot while you ready the jars and canner, or divide into freezer containers and cool rapidly.
Pressure Canning Instructions:
- Put several quarts of hot water in the bottom of your pressure canner (follow instructions from your manufacturer, enough to have several inches of water in the canner once you place the jars inside, without covering the jars) and begin to heat the canner. You can pre-heat your jars in the canner if you like, or keep them warm on a baking pan in the oven or a clean dishwasher with a heating element.
- Fill the clean, warmed canning jars with hot chili, using a jar funnel and ladle. Debubble the jars and top up if needed, leaving a one inch head-space at the top of the jars.
- Wipe down the rims of the canning jars with a clean cloth dampened with distilled vinegar (to cut any oil that may interfere with a good seal) and cover with clean, new canning jar lids. Tighten the rings finger-tight and place them in your pressure canner.
- Check the weighted vent of your canner to make sure it is clean and free to vent, then place the lid on your canner and latch it.
- Begin heating the canner over medium heat, with the weight off or the vent open (depending on your canner model) until it is steadily venting steam. Once it begins to vent, set a timer for 10 minutes and let it continue to vent steam. Then, place the weight on your canner and/or close the vent valve.
- Watch the dial gauge and/or listen for the appropriate jiggle on your canner to let you know it has reached your processing pressure- generally 10 lbs of pressure on a weighted gauge or 11 lbs on a dial, unless you are at an altitude above 1000 feet.
- Process pint (500 ml) jars for 75 minutes or quart (1 L) jars for 90 minutes. If the canner drops below the recommended processing pressure at any time, you must restart the timer from zero, so keep an eye on that gauge or listen for the weight and adjust heat if necessary as you can. It's best to make slow, gradual adjustments as sudden swings in pressure can cause siphoning in the jars.
- When the processing time is up, turn the heat off under the canner. Let cool until the gauge reads zero (or a weighted canner doesn't vent steam when you bump the weight). Carefully remove the weight or open the vent, away from you in case there is still steam to vent. Open the canner away from you, and remove the jars with jar tongs.
- Place the jars of chili on a towel or cooling rack (not a cold countertop) and let cool undisturbed for at least 8 and up to 24 hours. Check to make sure that the jars sealed, and refrigerate any jars that did not and use promptly. Remove the rings, wash the outsides of the jars with hot soapy water, label, and store in a cool dark pantry.
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