I Heart Texas Chili

I grew up in Texas, and chili is still one of my favorite meals (nachos is number one). Here’s a Texas-style (no beans) chili recipe that is GAPS legal and incorporates organ meats — namely, heart.

It was delicious — and I swear, you can’t taste the heart.

This made just enough for 2 1/2 — a meal for Seth, me and the baby. Now that I know it’s good, next time I’ll double the recipe so we’ll have leftovers.

Texas Chili

Ingredients

Grass-fed beef or bison (1 pound)
Beef or bison heart (1/2 pound)
Chicken or duck fat, beef tallow, lard, or butter, I used beef tallow, which I rendered from my beef stock (3-4 TBS) — where to buy fats
Large yellow or white onion, chopped (1/2)
Garlic clove, smashed or minced (1)
Minced oregano (1 tsp) — I used fresh from my garden, but you could use dried
Ground cumin (1/2 tsp)
Good quality chile powder (1 TBS ) — I got mine at Whole Foods
Large tomatoes (3) — it not in season, you can use peeled whole tomatoes in a can
Tomato paste (1 TBS)
Homemade chicken or beef stock (2 cups) — I used beef stock, here’s a good recipe for beef stock.
Sea salt to taste — where to buy sea salt

Directions

1. Bring a medium saucepan full of water to a boil. Set the tomatoes in the saucepan for 20 seconds. With tongs or a slotted spoon, remove them and place them in a bowl of ice cold water (or under running cold water).

2. Peel the tomatoes, then cut in half. Squeeze each half and scoop out the seeds with your fingers. Discard seeds and chop tomatoes.

3. Cut the beef or bison heart into chunks. Blend in food processor until ground.

4. Heat the fat in the saucepan over medium heat. Add the heart, ground beef or bison, chopped onion, and garlic. Cook until lightly browned.

5. Add the rest of the ingredients except the salt and bring to a boil.

6. Lower the heat and simmer for 1-3 hours (longer if you like — this would actually be wonderful in a crockpot). The longer you simmer, the more concentrated it will become, and the better the flavors will be. If the chili gets too thick for your liking, just add more stock.

7. Season with sea salt to taste.

I served this with buttered warm almond meal bread (made with almond flour, eggs, and butter).

If you’re not on GAPS, you could add beans (black or pinto) to this recipe and it would make a lot more food (just add a little more onion, garlic and spices).

Modified from a recipe by Chef Stephan Pyles, “The New Texas Cuisine” (one of my favorite cookbooks).

Disclosure: cmp.ly/4 and cmp.ly/5

Tagged as: almond flour, almond meal bread, beef heart, bison, books, crockpot, gaps diet, grass-fed beef, organ meats, Recipes, stephan pyles, texas chili, the new texas cuisine