I was recently the recipient of a great gift of fresh bison meat from a very generous friend. The reason I say this meat is fresh is that it is extraordinarily fresh – he had it processed himself from an animal actually on his land. I got several bags of ground meat, so we immediately tried to come up with some basic dishes we could use it in. We decided on some “Texas Red.” Texas Red is just a basic chili with few extras. No beans. We used approximately 2.5 lbs of ground bison, one 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes, one small diced onion, and of course three tablespoons of chili powder.
I used my own mix that I made using ancho chile powder, pasilla chile powder, garlic and onion powder, salt, black pepper, and cumin. Ancho and Pasilla powders are both produced by Spice Islands and can be found in any store that carries their entire offering. I did add half a can of water and approximately 2 tablespoons of Bob’s Red Mill unbleached flour for something to thicken the pot. I cooked it for 4 hours on high in our crockpot. The bison meat made the chili have a sweet flavor and of course the lean meat eliminated the layer of fat usually present in a bowl of chili.