Recipe: Southwest Style Venison Soft Taco

Southwest Style Venison Soft Taco

Venison shoulder dry rub ingredients:
1 branch of Sage
1 tablespoon of salt
1 teaspoon of coarse ground black pepper
Slow-smoke your venison shoulder for an hour with charcoal and mesquite wood chips. Try to keep the temperature around 150 degrees. When you're ready to remove the shoulder from the smoker, coat a pan in olive oil or some other high heat oil and heat the pan on medium-high heat. Sear the venison in a pan for just long enough to brown the outside layer of meat and lock in the smokey flavor. After searing, give the shoulder a dry rub of sage, salt and pepper. Then place it in a crockpot over a bed of your preferred vegetables, with just enough water to cover the vegetables and barely submerge the lower portion of the meat, then cook for another two to four hours. Your meat will fall right off the bone, but will retain the smoky flavors as well as the dry rub that sticks to the seared outside layer of the meat. The meat itself will shred easily using a fork or your fingers and you can serve the veggies as a side. You can do with this without the vegetables, but it's a shame to waste all that delicious broth, and after-all, vegetables are good for you.

Taco Ingredients:
1 can of Black beans (rinsed)
1 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar
1 Poblano pepper
1 Anaheim pepper
1 Walla-Walla Onion
1 tablespoon sliced black olives
2 tablespoons of sour cream
1 green onion

Directions:
Cut anaheim, poblano peppers lengthwise, then remove the seeds and skeins. Cut the remaining pieces of the peppers as well as the onions into strips roughly the length of your thumb.

Coat a pan with butter or olive oil, bring to medium to medium-high heat, then toss in the chopped onions and peppers. Monitor your pan until you've lightly seared the peppers, a matter that should only a few minutes.

Once the peppers are hot, pour your black beans over them in the pan. The moisture from the cooked beans (even if they've been rinsed) will mix with the peppers and fats from the oil or butter and really amp up the sizzle from the pan. Then toss in your grilled venison leftovers and let the steam re-heat the meat. This will prevent overcooking it the second time around.

Give a separate pan a very light coat of butter or olive oil and spread it around with your tortilla. Slowly heat the pan on low to medium heat, add extra sharp cheddar shreds to the tortilla and allow the heat to slowly melt the cheese. Place your onions, peppers and venison evenly on the tortilla, then top first with sour cream, then olives and chopped green onions.

Serve the taco open faced with your colorful ingredients and enjoy.