Gina and her brood love to go hunting. There are times of the year when their freezer is full of meat that they have killed, butchered, cut up and packaged themselves. They have developed a favorite recipe using venison and elk meat that they share here for those with the chance to use “the bounties of the hunt”. (If you’re like me beef or pork would be just fine in these recipes.) These dishes freeze well after the fresh meat has been thawed, prepared and cooked.
1 lb. ground sausage (pork sausage- Jimmy Dean or venison sausage)
1 cup celery chopped
1 medium onion chopped
1/2 green pepper chopped
1 c. uncooked (non instant) rice
2 pkg (1 box) dry chicken noodle soup mix
3 1/2 cups boiling water
First brown the sausage. I usually start boiling the water at this point if I have already chopped the veggies. Then add onion celery and pepper to the sausage and saute. (drain the grease ) In your boiling water add the soup mix and just stir it in you can stop the cooking it at this point. (the reason you do boiling water is to dissolve all the chicken bullion in the soup mix other wise you get some spots of really salty seasoned rice and some that is very bland) In a 9×9″ pan (or 9×13″ if you double it) put the rice in the bottom then add the hot soup mix and then spoon on the sausage mixture on top. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 45 min. to 1 hour.
If you are freezing, cover with foil instead of baking. To eat …. thaw overnight then bake at 350 for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Make sure rice on bottom is cooked.