Venison chili....or is it a meat sauce?

I really don't know how to describe this one. I broke out the first of the venison hindquarter meat and wanted to see how it would cook up. I know that you can cut steaks from the hams and quickly pan sear or grill them. I was wondering how much heat/time I had to play with before small strips of this ham would get chewy. It turns out, not much at all. I threw some into a hot pan with some diced onion and, before the onion had even started to sweat, the meat had gone chewy. Well now I know. Stick to steaks and don't go more than medium rare. I didn't want to waste the meat, so I decided to keep going with a really slow cook, until the meat became tender. I added some garlic, Anaheim and jalapeño chiles and a bunch of seasoning to bump up the flavor. When the veg had softened, I deglazed with a little sherry and then added tomato paste. When the tomato paste was mixed in and had started to cook, I added about four cups of beef stock. I reduced the stock by about half and then added a 16oz can of diced tomato and a 16oz can of Pato brand spicy tomato sauce. The sauce was extremely spicy, so I added a couple of tablespoons of honey. This was simmered, uncovered, for several hours, until the meat had become tender and the liquid reduced. The end result was more like a meat sauce than a chili. It was very spicy, but the heat was offset by the slightly sweet notes of the honey. The hot and sweet flavors worked well with the taste of the venison. I served it like a chili size, topped with cheese and with a chunk of sourdough bread to soak up the juice. This would have been just as good on top of a pasta.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images