Chili Cheese Dogs with Venison Boudin Blanc

A boudin blanc is built more like a custard than a sausage. Meat, cream and egg white go into a processor cold and come out as a paste, and the paste sets in the poaching water into something closer to a mousse than a link. Pale, delicate, French, and about as far from a hot dog as a sausage gets.

Then it goes in a brioche bun under a ladle of chili and a slice of cheese.

Why You'll Love This Venison Chili Cheese Dog

Venison is the reason it works. A boudin blanc wants a lean, quiet meat, which is why the French versions use veal, pork loin or chicken breast. Ground venison is leaner than any of them.

That leanness is also the problem. Ground venison runs around 1 to 2 percent fat. There is almost nothing in the meat itself holding this together, so the cream, the egg white, the butter and the cooked rice are not richness. They are structure. Leave any of them out and you get a crumbly grey sausage instead of a white springy one.

The rest of it is a chili dog, and it should be. Yellow mustard, a slice of cheese that melts into the chili, creme fraiche and dill.

Tips and Tricks

• Weigh the salt. It is the one thing in here that has to be right, and a teaspoon of one brand of kosher salt is almost double another.
• Everything cold. The meat, the cream, the bowl, the blade. A warm paste is a broken paste and there is no bringing it back.
• The poach is a bare shiver, never a boil. A rolling boil bursts casings and squeezes the water out of the paste you just built.
• Dry the sausages properly before they meet the pan. Any water on the outside steams instead of browning.
• Make the chili the day before if you can. It is better cold and reheated than it is an hour old.

Variations

• Skip the casings. A double layer of plastic wrap, ends twisted and tied with string, wrapped once in foil, poaches into the same shape with no stuffer. Use a wrap whose box says it is safe for cooking or boiling.
• Split baguette or a potato roll instead of brioche. Brioche is the softest of the three and the chili gets to it fastest.
• Make the sausage and stop there. Poached, seared, and eaten with mustard and a pile of something green, it is a dish on its own.

Substitutions

• Ground venison becomes ground elk or bison. Both are close in leanness and both are milder, so the thyme and nutmeg will come forward.
• Fire-roasted tomatoes become plain crushed tomatoes plus a little more smoked paprika. The fire-roasting is doing smoke, not acid.
• Creme fraiche becomes sour cream thinned with a spoon of heavy cream. Not yogurt, which splits against the hot chili.

Best Served With

• A cold lager or a pilsner. Something with no opinion of its own.
• An iceberg wedge with blue cheese, or anything raw and cold against all that soft warm food.
• Thick-cut fries or kettle chips, for the salt and the noise.

How to Store Leftovers

Keep the sausages and the chili in separate airtight containers in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat the sausages gently in a pan with a little butter, low, because a cream-bound sausage blasted on high will weep. The chili goes back on the stove over low heat with a splash of stock if it has tightened. Do not build a dog and save it. The bun is finished within the hour.

The sausage freezes well after poaching, before searing. Wrap each one and freeze up to 3 months, thaw in the fridge overnight, then sear from cold.

Common Questions

The other way to fix a lean grind is pork fat. Venison sloppy joe adds ground pork and bacon lardons, the venison and pork cheeseburger splits the grind with pork, and ground venison chorizo breakfast tacos work pork fat straight into the mix.

Chili Cheese Dogs with Venison Boudin Blanc

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Ground venison pulsed smooth with cream, rice and butter into a boudin blanc, poached gently and seared in butter, then put in a brioche bun under a venison chili with mustard, cheese, creme fraiche and dill.

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Servings: 5

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

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Boudin Blanc Sausage

• 2 lb ground venison very cold
• 15 g Diamond Crystal kosher salt weighed, or about 5 ½ tsp
• 1 cup heavy cream very cold
• 2 egg whites cold
• 3 tablespoon unsalted butter frozen hard and grated
• 1 cup cooked white rice short or medium grain, cooked and cooled
• 1 shallot minced very fine
• 2 cloves garlic minced to a paste
• ½ teaspoon white pepper
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg freshly grated
• 1 teaspoon thyme leaves chopped
• hog casings optional
• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter for searing the links

Venison Chili

• 1 tablespoon neutral oil grapeseed or similar
• 1 lb ground venison
• ½ yellow onion diced
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 2 tablespoon tomato paste
• 14 oz fire-roasted crushed tomatoes 1 can
• 1 cup beef stock beef or venison
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne
• Diamond Crystal kosher salt to taste

To Assemble

• 10 brioche hot dog buns sliced open lengthwise
• yellow mustard
• cheddar or American cheese sliced
• 2 tablespoon creme fraiche
• 1 tablespoon dill chopped

Equipment

• Food processor
• heavy pot or Dutch oven
• Large pot for poaching
• Cast iron or heavy skillet
• Instant-read thermometer

Method

 

The Day Before

1. Toss the venison with the weighed salt until every crumb is coated. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours, or overnight. This is the step that makes it a sausage instead of a meatloaf: the salt pulls protein out of the meat, and that protein is the net that holds the cream and the fat later. Weigh it. A teaspoon of one brand of kosher salt is almost double another.

The Sausage

1. Everything cold. The meat, the cream, the bowl, the blade, the grated butter. Put the processor bowl in the freezer for ten minutes first if the kitchen is warm.
2. Combine the salted venison, cream, egg whites, grated butter, rice, shallot, garlic, white pepper, nutmeg and thyme in the food processor. Pulse to a smooth paste, stopping every ten seconds to scrape down and feel the bowl. If the paste climbs past 50°F, put the whole thing in the freezer for ten minutes before carrying on. A warm paste is a broken paste and there is no bringing it back. It is ready when a spoonful holds a soft peak and springs back when you press it.
3. Stuff into hog casings and tie into 10 links, each about six inches long and no thicker than an inch and a quarter. Or roll into 10 tight logs the same size in a double layer of plastic wrap, twist the ends, tie them off with string and wrap once in foil so no water gets in. Use a wrap or bag whose box says it is safe for cooking or boiling, not one sold only for covering and storing. Chill 30 minutes before poaching. Anything fatter than an inch and a quarter will not cook through in the time below, and anything longer will not fit a bun.
4. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to 180°F and hold it there, never letting it bubble. Slide the links in. They are done when the center of the thickest one reads 160°F, about 18 to 25 minutes. There is no way to see this: a boudin blanc is white raw and white cooked, so the thermometer is the only thing telling you the truth. A hard boil bursts casings and squeezes the water out of the paste you just built.
5. Lift them out, pat dry, and put them in the fridge for 10 minutes before they see a pan. They are fully cooked now, and chilling the outside is what stops them bursting or drying in the butter.
6. Skillet over medium heat. Butter, and let the foam subside. Sear about 4 minutes in all, turning, until deeply golden all round. Medium, not high: butter burns at 350°F and a hot pan here only squeezes the juice out of a sausage that is already cooked. This is colour, not cooking.

The Chili

1. Film a wide pan with the oil and get it hot. Venison is lean enough that it will not render anything to cook in, so the oil is doing the job the fat would do in beef.
2. Brown the venison in two batches so it is never crowded, letting each batch sit untouched before you break it up. It will spit and go grey and wet first. Keep going. When the spitting stops and the sizzle turns sharp and dry, the crumbles start catching brown. That sound is the water leaving, and nothing browns until it has.
3. Onion in, 3 minutes, until it loses its bite. Garlic for the last minute only. The pan has been driven hot to brown lean meat and garlic scorches in about two.
4. Tomato paste in, 2 minutes without moving it much, until it darkens and smells sweet rather than raw.
5. Tomatoes, stock, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika and cayenne. Stir and bring to a low simmer.
6. Simmer uncovered 30 to 45 minutes, until a spoon dragged across the bottom leaves a track that stays open for a second before the chili closes over it. Venison is lean enough that no fat will ever rise to the top, so do not wait for it. If it is still loose, keep going with the lid off. Salt to taste at the end.

Assemble

1. Toast the buns cut side down in a dry skillet until golden. The toast is a barrier, and it is the only thing between the bun and going soggy under the chili.
2. Two dogs a person. Sausage in the bun, a stripe of mustard, cheese on top so the chili melts it, then the chili. Creme fraiche and dill last, so the whole thing does not read as one long note of brown. Eat immediately.

Notes

For seasoning, I always use Diamond Crystal kosher salt. If you use Morton, use half by volume, or just weigh it.

The overnight salt is inactive time and is not counted in prep or cook.

Boudin blanc is an emulsified sausage. Ground venison is around 1 to 2 percent fat, so the cream, the egg white, the butter and the rice are not richness. They are structure, and every one of the four is doing a job.

Cooked rice is the one people skip and it is the one that matters most on a meat this lean. Gelatinised starch holds the water the fat cannot.

160°F is the safe temperature for ground game and it is not a texture target, it is a floor.

Make the chili the day before if you can. It is better cold and reheated than it is an hour old.

The sausage freezes well after poaching, before searing. Wrap each one and freeze up to 3 months, thaw in the fridge overnight, then sear from cold.

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