Bison Chili
I decided the saga of making vats of bison chili was worthy of its own post...
After lunch, I started on prep work. It took 4 1/2 hours to dice all the veggies, open and drain all the cans, defrost and cook all the bison. In fact that latter was the one thing I failed to properly plan. The 25 pounds of bison we have came frozen in 5 pound blocks. How does one defrost a large, 5 pound block of bison in a kitchen that has a tiny microwave and just one frying pan? The oven! I set it low, put the bison on baking pans, and every few minutes would pull one out and scrape off the thawed meat, return that pan to the oven, pull out the other, scrape more, etc. As soon as I had a quantity of thawed bison, that went into the frying pan for browning. About the time it would finish cooking, the next batch of thawed meat was ready. That took a couple hours just to get through 10 pounds. I decided to make do with that much, and we'll use the rest for burgers or something later in the week.
Next came equally dividing all the ingredients between the two large roasting pans (think crock pots on steroids). The roasters don't fit on my counter, so I had them side by side on the floor. Turned the roasters on for a few hours until everything was hot and bubbly, then switched them off during dinner. After heading home I switched the roasters back on for the night. Wish I could share the amazing aromas in my apartment, it's just fabulous!
Pictures, as promised!
After lunch, I started on prep work. It took 4 1/2 hours to dice all the veggies, open and drain all the cans, defrost and cook all the bison. In fact that latter was the one thing I failed to properly plan. The 25 pounds of bison we have came frozen in 5 pound blocks. How does one defrost a large, 5 pound block of bison in a kitchen that has a tiny microwave and just one frying pan? The oven! I set it low, put the bison on baking pans, and every few minutes would pull one out and scrape off the thawed meat, return that pan to the oven, pull out the other, scrape more, etc. As soon as I had a quantity of thawed bison, that went into the frying pan for browning. About the time it would finish cooking, the next batch of thawed meat was ready. That took a couple hours just to get through 10 pounds. I decided to make do with that much, and we'll use the rest for burgers or something later in the week.
Next came equally dividing all the ingredients between the two large roasting pans (think crock pots on steroids). The roasters don't fit on my counter, so I had them side by side on the floor. Turned the roasters on for a few hours until everything was hot and bubbly, then switched them off during dinner. After heading home I switched the roasters back on for the night. Wish I could share the amazing aromas in my apartment, it's just fabulous!
Pictures, as promised!
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| The ingredients, ready to be transformed. |
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| The spread of prep work in my kitchen. |
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| Mmm...delectable. |
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| The two vats of chili went into the fridge in the morning. |
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| The bases of the roasters, where I had the chili roasting all night. |