New Show Captures Jess Pryles' Enthusiasm, Expertise for Hardcore Carnivore Lifestyle

Rolling down the highway deep in the heart of Texas, “Hardcore Carnivore” television show host Jess Pryles has her eyes on the serpentine roadway in front of her in more ways than one.

During a recent conversation, the Outdoor Channel television personality was making her way westward from her Austin-area home to San Angelo, heading for prime deer, quail, and turkey country a few hours outside the ATX metro region. The road trip would soon find her talking to a group about her favorite topics, meat and the art of turning it into a great meal.

Pryles is a professional carnivore and culinary expert who loves cooking, whether it's outdoors on an offset smoker, pellet grill, charcoal grill, over a live flame, or indoors on the kitchen range. She’s passionate about sharing her expertise on transforming mere ounces of protein into culinary joys that are hard to forget for their flavor as well as the memories made sharing such dinner table fare with family, friends, and those she encounters along the way in her life’s adventuresome journey.

That current journey began deep in the heart of Texas for Pryles, and it continues as she lives in the Austin area with her husband. For some, ATX means live music, for others, it means football, and for still others it means a “Keep Austin Weird!” way of life. For Pryles, however, it simply means great food as well as a Hardcore Carnivore lifestyle that is flavorful and anything but dull.

“I think I fell in love with all aspects of Texan life (when I first visited here), to be honest with you,” she said during our conversation. “I loved Austin. You know, it continues to be (a central part of my life). It's changed a lot, but it's a very vibrant young city full of cool independent businesses.

“You can go two-step at the Broken Spoke that Willie Nelson used to play at. And you can also go, you know, to eat some barbecue or try a cool sushi joint. Like it's sort of this great modern Texas city. And I just found myself easily making friends here and enjoying going out here.”

So much so that Pryles eventually moved from her Australian home to central Texas, but not just because of being able to two-step at a legendary country and western music bar where Willie has crooned a few tunes at.

If the 91-year-old country music star is one of Texas' most cherished legends, so too are the broad culinary experiences found across the state's 254 counties, with meals ranging from big-city eateries to small backwoods Mom-and-Pop operations, and even a Friday Night Lights cookout before the big game.

While Pryles has an appreciation for many forms of Texas cuisine—including a unique meal of grilled axis backstrap with blackberry balsamic sauce—it was one of the state’s other food happenings that drew her permanently from her Melbourne home down under to the Lone Star State land of cowboy boots, 10-gallon hats, and pickup trucks.

“You know, Texas has a certain way (of cooking), a low and slow method of barbecuing most anything, from brisket to ribs to sausage,” Pryles noted. That low-and-slow cooking method has produced a cultlike following in Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, Lockhart, Llano, Lexington, and other hamlets that have barbecue establishments that draw crowds daily to a plume of great-smelling barbecue smoke. In fact, in many towns scattered across the state daily lines are long at prime barbecue establishments and you either get there early with a pile of George Washington’s to spend or you experience the disappointment of seeing the “Sold out until tomorrow!” sign go up.

"When I came to Texas for the first time as a tourist and tried barbecue, I fell in love with it (almost instantly)," said Pryles. "And at the same time, I fell in love with Texas. So I kept coming back, kept eating more, and then eventually got curious about how it was made."

When Pryles returned to Australia, she admits that she couldn't get Texas barbecue out of her mind, something that fueled her search to figure out how to replicate the same culinary experience in her Aussie homeland. And ultimately, it helped propel her on the journey she is on now, as well as sharing it with others.

“I loved to cook," laughed Pryles. "I just, you know, wasn't the world's greatest steak cook. So it was actually in learning more about barbecue that I started unlocking all this stuff about meat.

“Like, I went and tried to get a brisket from my butcher in Australia. It looked nothing like a packer-cut brisket (in Texas). And I just didn't understand why I could ask for a brisket and not get the brisket that I was expecting. And so that just led me down this rapid pathway of learning."

Now, several years later, Pryles has certainly figured it out and is as much an expert, if not more so, than many of the other famous barbecue cooks that have cult-like status in her new home state. And on that journey, Pryles has built her own culinary reputation along with a powerhouse brand that provides the on-camera star power behind Hardcore Carnivore, her new series debuting this fall on Outdoor Channel.

The episodes Pryles and her team are getting ready to share with the Outdoor Channel audience are a weekly deep dive into the exploration of meat and its preparation, regardless of whether the protein comes from a commercial source, a small farm, or the wild during hunting season.

As the show rolls out this fall, many already know the “Hardcore Carnivore” name is synonymous with Pryles, thanks to the food products company that she owns. In fact, on the eastern edge of the Texas Hill Country, Pryles is building her own brand, one that is increasingly in demand online and on the shelves of such retail locations as Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s.

Already a hit in the cooking world, the company’s various seasoning blends—as well as a host of sauces, brines, apparel and food preparation accessories—celebrate the Hardcore Carnivore lifestyle that Pryles has immersed herself in.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking that recipes, food prep tips and spices are all that will air on Outdoor Channel this fall, because at the heart of it all is the journey that Pryles has been on since that fateful visit to Texas years ago. And by sharing her own pathway into the world of meat and cooking it up, the show host is hoping to provide fuel for others who want to move deeper into their own food and cooking experiences.

So what does the new television show promise for Outdoor Channel viewers over the next several weeks? A little bit of everything when it comes to Pryles' food-oriented lifestyle as she, her husband, and friends hunt, gather meat and other prime cooking ingredients, and head for the kitchen or outdoor cooking space to turn protein into unforgettable dining experiences.

Do understand one thing, however. While Pryles loves to hunt and that’s a large part of this filming endeavor, it’s also important to note that this isn’t a show that is only about how to cook wild game.

“This show is about meat,” she said. “It's not just about wild game meat. And that was what was really important to me and why I was so excited to work with Outdoor Channel on this.

“Obviously, there's some hunting in there and certainly some game meat. But most times, as I know and as you know, for (many people), their last meal would be a ribeye steak from a beef cow, which you don't really hunt too much of.

“So I love bringing those worlds together where it's like we can all just be meat lovers and meat eaters together. And that's what we have tried to focus on with the show.”

If the TV show is about meat and cooking it up into a phenomenal meal, it also is about education.

“One part of all of that, I think, is also being honest with viewers when things are suited to a smoker and when things are not,” said Pryles. “For example, it can be exceptionally difficult with a lot of whitetail, especially with what we have here in Texas (lean whitetails), and a desire to add smoke to it.”

Sometimes that desire works out well, sometimes it doesn’t.

“There are certain cuts that you can do that with,” said Pryles, who teamed up with Pitts & Spitts for her own refined take on the traditional style Texas offset smoker, a smoker that is sold out at the moment. ”I like to do it with venison, or other lean cuts. But when I do, I like to do it with a two-part (process). “So one of the best things from a deer, one that I think that a lot of people don't use, are actually the shanks. And I'll throw them in the smoker to get some smoke on them. You know, you only need about three or four hours of smoke to get that flavor, and then I'll pop them into a braise that I can still finish in the smoker, but I'll just throw them into a foil pan with all of my braising liquid. So, you know, I might do a coffee and stout mix or I might do a sort of orange juice and beer (mix) if I wanted to be more Mexican inspired and cook it that way.

“So braising is always a great way to help get that smoke flavor with that still juicy, tender finish on a lot of leaner proteins like venison.” With all of that backstory in place, suffice it to say that Pryles and her family and friends will be sharing the meat cooking process in its entirety and viewers will have a front-row seat for how to secure meat, turning that protein into a delicious meal, and sharing some incredible meals together with those that we love and enjoy hanging around with.

Simply put, it’s a way of life that has drawn many of us to the outdoor lifestyle celebrated daily on the Outdoor Channel, which is now marking 30 years of outdoor television expertise. Among those celebrating is Pryles, who has honed her skills not only through hands-on cooking experiences but also through formal education in the classroom.

"I've always been fascinated by the science behind meat and the different ways it's raised. That’s one of the reasons I completed my Meat Science certificate from University of Iowa," she said. “The Outdoor Channel has given us the incredible opportunity to share our adventures and stories with a broader audience. From the intense hunts to lighthearted moments, we hope to bring something unique and authentic to our viewers."

It promises to be a great time watching, learning, and finding inspiration for our own journeys in the kitchen or in an outdoor cooking space, places we want to cook up a few great meals and share them in a warm setting that we’ll remember for some time to come.

Watch Jess Pryles and her brand-new show on Outdoor Channel this fall and see if you don’t find some inspiration along with the path to a few epic dining experiences. Pay close attention, take a few notes, and you'll soon be on your way to embracing a Hardcore Carnivore lifestyle of your own.

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