We were recently, and very generously given some elk meat. A little background here, we\u2019ve been making a conscious effort to eat \u201creal\u201d food from good sources, and that includes wild game from friends! It includes a lot of other things, but we\u2019ll go into that another time. If you\u2019ve ever cooked with elk, you know it\u2019s a very lean red meat with a mild gamey flavor. Elk meat is very high in protein, and low in calories and fat. It\u2019s also very high in vitamin B-12 and being free range, doesn\u2019t have any added hormones or chemicals. Overall, it\u2019s an excellent meat to have in your diet.<\/p>\n
Now, all that being said, cooking with elk is a lot different that cooking with beef or pork. There\u2019s very little fat and\/or marbling in the meat, so you have to take that into consideration when preparing it. While I love a good elk steak, a lot of the cuts are excellent for things like chili and stew, where it has the opportunity to break down and get nice and tender.<\/p>\n
One of the packages of meat was trimmed chunks from various other cuts, so not the best pieces. I took the whole package and put it in a large stock pot, covered with water, and let it simmer for a few hours. Once it started to get tender, I drained off the water and let the meat cool enough to handle. I cut it up into small bite sized chunks and set aside. I chopped 2 onions and a bunch of garlic and added it to the stock pot to saute. Once they got soft, I added the meat back in and just covered the mixture with water. Now I added tons of chili powder, garlic salt, cumin, smoked paprika, chipotle chili powder, and black pepper. I simmered this over low heat for 30-45 minutes. This lets all those spices really get into the meat before adding the tomato. I tasted and corrected the seasonings, then added a large can of chopped tomatoes, a can of Rotele, and a can of pinto beans. I simmered all of this together for another 2 hours over low, keeping an eye on the liquid level and adding a bit of water here and there.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s it. Pretty easy, and absolutely delicious. We ate that chili up in just a couple of days, and it was really tasty and satisfying. You can serve it with avocado, cheese, cilantro, green onion, sour cream, pickled onions, or whatever else you fancy.<\/p>\n
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