Alligator and Wild Boar Chili

Our ward has an annual chili cook-off and I like to bring chili with an exotic meat twist. Last year I made buffalo chili and the year before I made chili with duck, pheasant and rattlesnake. As I've experimented with chili I've decided I like it thick, with lots of peppers and with a fair amount of heat. 

This year I had three pounds of alligator ribs. I decided to use the rib meat and supplement it with a pound of wild boar sausage (from a wild boar shot earlier this year by a friend) and a small amount of left-over armadillo meat. The base of my chili is onions and peppers, lots of them. I grill the peppers, remove the outer layer and seeds, and then chop them into small pieces. I used four bell peppers (a red, green, yellow and orange), two poblanos, five jalapenos and five yellow peppers. They provide thickness and they also provide a slow, back of the mouth burn.

Grilled peppers with the skins removed. I did this the day before I made the chili because it takes a fair amount of time. 

The chilies chopped up in a tupper ware container.

I started with four chopped up yellow onions and two and a half heads of garlic and sauteed them in canola oil. When they got soft, I added the wild boar sausage and cooked it until it started to brown.

Onions and garlic sauteing in canola oil.

Wild boar sausage browning with the onions and garlic.

Then I added the chopped chilies, 15 ounce cans of white beans, great northern beans, white kidney beans and sweet corn, a 28 ounce can of stewed tomatoes (chopping the stewed tomatoes into smaller pieces), chopped basil leaves, about a tablespoon of cayenne pepper, a 14.5 ounce can of chicken broth and vegetable broth (I would have used chicken, but only had one can) and three chicken bouillon cubes.

While it was simmering, for about an hour, I cut the alligator rib meat into individual ribs, then removed and chopped up the alligator rib meat. I added it to the chili for about five minutes at the end, along with two cups of sour cream. I also added the inside contents of the sous vide alligator bags which was butter, salt and pepper and a small amount of armadillo meat. Then I put the mixture in the refrigerator over-night and heated it up before the chili cook-off the next evening. It was sufficient to fully cook the alligator. The sour cream whitened up the chili, along with the alligator and white beans, and helped take a little of the heat off.

Raw alligator ribs (4 racks)

One rack of alligator ribs after sous vide cooking.

Rack cut into individual ribs. I kept them pink, knowing they would cook further when added to the chili.

Chopped up alligator.

Remaining alligator rib bones.

Alligator being added to the chili mixture.

I took quite a big pot of chili and it was all eaten by the end of the party.

Alligator chili. Very chunky with lots of color.

Small bowl of alligator chili.