By Greg B. There’s no questioning that I’m a descendant of some carnivorous ancestor.  The vast majority of my diet consists of eating parts of delicious animals, grilled, fried, baked, broiled and also often, raw.  So while I was thinking of chili recipes to make, I initially went to the store with just a sausage/beef thing in mind, but my opinion was changed when presented with the meat selection at Safeway!  I also wanted to make a less bean/veggie recipe and a more traditional red sauce/meat chili this time.  So here is my Chicken, Sausage, Bison chili recipe!

I made some meatballs last week, and experimented with some of the meatballs being made from ground turkey.  They actually came out really well and were very tasty in the sauce, so I felt more adventurous this week with trying ground chicken.  I have never before in my life bought ground chicken, and I figured a chili recipe may be just the opportunity for me to use it and learn about it, while hiding any mistakes among a ton of other flavors!  But when I was in Safeway, I almost also got ground lamb, from a recent discussion about lamb burgers with bleu cheese, but instead I chose to buy some locally produced spicy Italian sausage, ground chicken and ground bison meat.  Here is the full ingredient list.

• 1lb Spicy Italian sausage from Ostrowski’s
• 1lb ground chicken meat
• 1lb ground Bison meat
• 2 cans red kidney beans
• 2 large carrots (sliced however you want to eat it)
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 1 stick celery, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 Habanero (I would recommend 2, this needed a bit more heat)
• 3 cans of stewed tomatoes
• 2 small cans of tomato paste
• 1 beef bouillon cube (or, if you’re into Goya, a packet!)
• Chili powder
• Crushed Red Pepper
• cayenne pepper
• salt, pepper to taste
• 1 Beer, Modelo Especial
• **Optional** sour cream, shredded sharp cheddar

Take the meats in a very large pan and brown them.  Take these out and set them aside once cooked, or at very least, well seared.  Add the vegetables, some olive oil and cook for about 4 minutes on high, before adding a splash of white wine to de-glaze the braising pot.  Add the meats back into the pot and add the canned stewed tomatoes, the bottle of beer, and spices.  Let this come to a simmer and allow it to simmer about an hour.  Before you add the beans and the canned tomato paste, taste the chili to see how spicy it is.  Always remember, it’s easy to add heat and spice to a dish, but removing it requires dilution… and if you add too much heat you run the risk of diluting it and ending up with a watery, spicy chili that just isn’t delicious.  When the dish is about where you want it, add the beans and tomato paste, mix thoroughly, cover and let simmer another 2 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing burns to the bottom.

When you’re ready to eat, I like to serve chili with the option of sour cream as well as shredded cheese.  And voila!  A nice bowl of spicy red chili, low on the beans, heavy with the meats, and this also has a good amount of liquid to go along with the chili, giving you plenty of bread sopping time.  A good and hearty food for the coming cold temperatures of late fall and winter.  If I were to make changes in the future, it would be to break up the sausage into smaller bits, as I left them in large pieces, which makes them difficult for some people to consume.  Otherwise, this came out very well!  Bon Apetite!