Yes! You read that right! Wild game is not just for savory dishes!

 Wild game fat is very underutilized, there are actually so many different things you can do with it. My favorite wild game fat does have to go to duck fat, although venison tallow is freaking amazing when cooking venison. 

 I recently headed to Texas to pow wow with my good buddies at Executive Outdoor Adventures. If you don’t know, we have partnered up to bring you the ultimate Wilderness to Table experience. You see hunting is more than just a sport it’s a lifestyle when you choose to hunt for you own protein. And that’s exactly what we are bringing you. You get to hunt, butcher and cook your harvest with me by your side showing you the ins and out of this awesome lifestyle. 

 So, on our last get together I was cooking wild game for the guys, black buck to be exact. But if you know me at all you know how much I love my sweets. So, at the last minute I decided to whip up a batch of my favorite cookie, chocolate chip. But to really show the guys a unique twist I made them duck fat chocolate chip cookies. Duck fat is really awesome when used for baking. If sets up just like butter and gives an umami like bit of flavor to the cookies. In other words, it gives them a certain je n’ais se quoi that regular chocolate chip cookies just don’t have. They are freaking Awesome if you ask me and they are a beautiful example of using parts of the animal that would otherwise just be thrown out. 

 So here it is my recipe for Duck Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies!

*Note: if you don’t have rendered duck fat already, you can purchase duck fat from super markets like Whole Foods or order from Amazon!

Duck Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

 Ingredients

·     2 ¼ cups unsifted Flour

·     1 tsp Baking Soda

·     ½ tsp Salt

·     4 oz. Butter, softened

·     4 oz. Duck fat, room temperature

·     ¾ cup Sugar

·     ¾ cup Brown Sugar, packed

·     2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

·     2 Eggs

·     10 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

·     1 cup Pecans, chopped (optional but delicious as well)

 Preheat the oven to 375F

 Stir the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment add the butter, duck fat and both sugars, beat on medium speed until creamy and light in color. Add the vanilla and eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything gets combined.

 Gradually add the dry mixture to the butter mixture on low speed. Once dry mixture is incorporated and the chocolate chips and nuts if using. Drop by tablespoon onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or Silpat. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown.