Yesterday while thinking about doing some ground beef, beanless chili for the evening I experienced the pleasant coincidence of having Mark Sisson’s new Primal Blueprint Cookbook arrive.
I dug right in and soon came across the simple recipe for Buffalo Chili, for which ground beef can be substituted.
And so I was off an running. A quick check of the ingredients revealed that I only lacked one, a "secret ingredient" of sorts that I’ve never put in chili, but was an interesting and welcome addition.
The basic ingredients are: ground beef or buffalo, bacon, onion, tomatoes, carrot, and beef stock. To this is added fresh garlic and a good number of other spices & herbs, chili powder of course being one of them.
It was super easy to prepare and the book was very clear on how to do it. In all, it took perhaps 30 minutes to get it all done and another 45 minutes to an hour to simmer and reduce the liquid so that it comes out nice & thick.
Here we are at step one of the process with the bacon, onion and garlic going. Click all images for the high resolution versions.
Bacon, Onion and Garlic
I’m over at my office presently and don’t have the book in front of me, but one thing that sold me right off the bat is that in the instructions it said at one point (paraphrasing):
Once the ground meat is done, if there’s not enough fat you might consider adding some saved bacon drippings, lard or olive oil.
How often are you going to see something like that in a modern cookbook?
And here we are at the start of the reduction phase.
Chili
Be careful on the reduction if you want it thick, so that you don’t end up having to add liquid. Remember that when you turn off the heat it’s still going to be steaming off liquid.
While the cookbook is paleo/primal to the extent that the recipes don’t even use dairy, there are some finishing options or suggestions that include dairy. In this case, I used some cheese and sour cream. The finished deal. Be sure to click the image!
Buffalo Chili
You can’t go wrong with this cookbook. So order yours today!
Got mine yesterday. On the weekend I’ll be planning the coming week’s menu from it. If the recipes are as good as the quality of the book itself (and I’m sure they are!) it’ll be a week of nightly treats!
Love the comment about adding additional fat as part of the instructions. Have ordered my copy from Amazon which is still showing as being on pre-order status.
Looks very delicious. I told your mom when we walked past the Dennison Chile, I was going to do a cheat and get some, now I don’t have to. I am going to order the book right now.
That looks awesome. I have owned the book for over a week and have yet to make any recipes… me saying that makes me feel like I have wasted the past week, lol.
I will have to dive in to the book immediately now! I will be buying 2 lbs. of bacon at my local farmers market this weekend so I will have to bake the bacon in the recipe from the primal blueprint :)
I have this on my agenda for the weekend as well. As for the “secret ingredient”, I’ve seen it used at chili cookoffs before but never tried it myself. I do find it adds a certain richness to the dish.
I definitely agree, I am loving the cookbook. Its instructions are easy to understand, and it has some great pictures too! I can’t wait for the User-Created Cookbook next
Looks great, would you mind posting the whole recipe?
Seeing as it is a book that just went on sale and this post was promotional, I’m not going to post the recipe details.