Celebrate Mardi Gras with Stalekracker

TikTok’s Wildest Cajun Chef, Stalekracker, Got His Start in a Deer Camp & Puts His Fiery Louisiana Spin on Everything from Crawfish to Venison

Watch enough of Stalekracker’s videos, and you’re gonna start talking funny.

A waiter asks how your food is, and you involuntarily yell beck, “Put it on a cracka!”

Your boss asks if you’re ready for a big presentation, and you strangely respond, “Let’s get it, dude!”

It’s bizarre, but such is the infectious energy that has made former Louisiana State Trooper Justin Chiasson an Internet superstar. With a wild blonde mullet, clever Cajun catchphrases and a whole book of delicious recipes, he’s created an online persona that’s hard not to love. And while he’s mastered everything from blackened redfish to jambalaya, this culinary sensation’s first and everlasting love is whitetail deer.

Stalekracker's Early Dog Days In Deer Camp

Chiasson grew up in the bayous of Louisiana, accompanying his grandfather who worked as a chef in a deer camp.

“We hunted with dogs in the swamp,” he says. “We got dropped off by an airboat on an old cypress stump and we had to sit there all day while they ran dogs. The dogs swim out there and chase the deer out, and if he comes by you get a shot.”

Chiasson’s grandfather prepared the deer and other meat for hunters in the camp, who sometimes numbered as many as 300. This, he says, is where he learned how to be a “big pot cooker,” honing the skills to make meals for massive crowds.

Stalekracker Cracks Into TikTok

His love of hunting and cooking continued through his days as a high school and college baseball player and into a 19-year career in law enforcement. Then in 2020, as he scrolled TikTok like everyone else in the world, he found a niche he might be able to fill. 

“(TikTok) sent me all these Cajun chefs,” he says. “And I was like, ‘I don’t think what they’re doing is what me and my papa used to do down on the bayou.’”

Chiasson made videos of himself cooking and his carefree bayou life, which struck a chord with people stuck in their homes and apartments during the pandemic.

“We out here cooking in the country, shooting guns, riding four-wheelers, and people got addicted to the channel,” he says. “They were in a place where they were tired of watching the news, everybody was doomsday and I’m just here having fun, cooking and drinking. I think a year earlier or a year later it never would have had the traction.”

Since then, Stalekracker’s reach has grown exponentially, boasting 6.3 million followers on TikTok and over a million on YouTube. His videos are pure over-the-top fun, as the ultra-animated chef dons overalls and oversized sunglasses and shows the world how real Cajuns cook, with irresistible catchphrases like “Dat money, Dude!”

Whitetails, Gators & Bull Elk, Oh My!

Chiasson says his newfound celebrity and second career have afforded him a lot more time to spend with family. And even more time to spend hunting everything from alligator to elk.

“Gator hunting is fun, but it turns into a lot of work,” he says, “It’s not like deer hunting, you know, it’s exciting, it’s a rush.  But we get money from the hide and the meat and stuff, so we clean the whole thing, debone it, salt the hides, roll ’em up, and it turns into a lot of work.”

Deer hunting, he says, is a lot less labor intensive, and he’s enjoyed having time to explore hunting in terrain that’s not mostly underwater.

“I got to hunt northern Louisiana where you wear tennis shoes, and then up in the Midwest or the mountains, where you get to sit in a little box and you got your little heater,” he says. “Seeing different aspects of hunting lets you appreciate all of it.”

Recently, Chaisson had the chance to go on his first elk hunt, an eight-day trek through the mountains that netted him 200 pounds of meat.

“We slept in the mountains for eight days, I walked 62 miles to get that elk,” he says proudly. “So we’ve been enjoying the crap out of it.”

Get Your Meat-Cooking Learn On!

Stalekracker is a big proponent of deer meat off-camera too, making everything from spaghetti to deer sauce piquante with venison harvested from the animals he kills. He said he learned the value of using everything—neck meat, rib meat, etc.—from his days in the deer camp. And now, his family doesn’t ever buy beef at the store.

“I got 100% ground deer meat because I like to enjoy that by itself,” he says. “We kill deer and that’s what we eat. So whatever you can do with beef, we do that with ground venison.”

Scroll through Stalekracker’s videos and you’ll find lessons on everything from butchering a deer to preparing it with blackened seasoning and fire rice. And spending an afternoon enjoying his antics will make you a better chef, if nothing else. You just might find yourself talking a little funny afterward.

Hook & Barrel your way into more from Stalekracker by visiting thecajuntwostep.com

Happy Mardi Gras: Stalekracker Makes Monkey Bread

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