Okay, so yesterday I found myself staring into the freezer, trying to figure out dinner. Had this pound of ground deer sausage staring back at me. My buddy, who hunts, gave it to me a while back. Kinda forgot about it, needed using up.
First thought was, what the heck do I do with deer sausage? It’s not like the regular pork stuff I usually grab. Leaner, for sure. Didn’t want anything too complicated, you know? Just a weeknight meal.
Getting Started
I decided to just keep it simple. Make a kind of quick skillet hash or maybe a simple pasta sauce. Ended up going the skillet route, less cleanup.
So, I pulled out the sausage to thaw it a bit on the counter while I prepped. Here’s what I grabbed:
- The ground deer sausage (about a pound)
- One yellow onion
- A green bell pepper
- Couple cloves of garlic
- Can of diced tomatoes (the plain kind)
- Some basic spices: salt, pepper, maybe a little Italian seasoning I had.
The Cooking Part
First, I chopped up the onion and bell pepper. Just a rough chop, nothing fancy. Minced the garlic. Easy enough.
Got my big cast iron skillet heating up on the stove. Medium heat. Threw in a tiny bit of olive oil, just because I know deer meat is lean. Then I crumbled the deer sausage into the pan.
Breaking it up and browning it. It cooked pretty fast, didn’t give off a ton of fat like pork sausage does. Had to keep it moving so it wouldn’t stick or dry out too much. Drained off the little bit of fat there was.
Tossed in the chopped onion and pepper right into the skillet with the sausage. Let those cook for maybe 5 minutes? Until they started getting soft. Then threw in the garlic for the last minute, just until you could smell it.
Next, I dumped in the can of diced tomatoes, juice and all. Stirred everything together. Added a sprinkle of salt, a good amount of black pepper, and a shake of that Italian seasoning.
Turned the heat down low, put a lid loosely on the skillet, and just let it simmer for maybe 15-20 minutes. Just wanted the flavors to kind of meld together. The kitchen actually smelled pretty good.
How It Turned Out
So, what did I do with it? Just served it straight up in bowls. Could’ve put it over rice or pasta, but honestly, we just ate it as is with some crusty bread on the side.
It was… pretty good! The deer sausage has a different flavor, a bit richer, maybe? Earthier? But cooking it with the onions, peppers, and tomato really worked. It wasn’t gamey tasting, which I was worried about. The family ate it up, no major complaints.
Overall, a success. Nothing groundbreaking, just a simple way to use that ground deer sausage. Definitely better than letting it sit in the freezer forever. Probably do it again.
