I ended up with the front quarters of a deer, and rather than grind the meat, I chopped it into small pieces and made stew with lots of spices. This is delicious and warming comfort food.
Spiced Smoky Deer Meat Stew (Slow Cooker)
Ingredients
- 3 lbs deer meat, diced
- 2 cups apple juice
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 3-4 TBSP extra virgin olive oil (or fat of choice)
- 2 TBSP black pepper
- 2 TBSP smoked paprika
- 2 TBSP sweet rice flour (in Asian section of grocery store)*
- 2 TBSP Worcestershire
- 1 1/2 TBSP salt
- 1 TBSP molasses
- 1 TBSP honey
- 1 TBSP liquid smoke
- 1 TBSP garlic powder
- 1 TBSP Italian seasoning
- 1/2 TBSP fennel seed
- 1/2 TBSP cayenne
- 4 potatoes, diced
- 1 lb frozen lima beans, cooked
Instructions
- Combine deer meat, apple juice, and vinegar. Let marinate in fridge for a few hours.
- Combine the rest of the ingredients, except the limas, in the slow cooker.
- Place deer meat with marinade into the slow cooker and combine with the rest of the ingredients.
- Cook on low for 10-12 hours until meat is very tender.
- Add limas at the end of the cooking time.
- *If you don't use sweet rice flour, drain meat into slow cooker, and toss meat with all purpose flour before adding it. Make sure you add fat to the mix, it makes the stew develop flavor because deer is so lean.