Spicy Buffalo Chili A Twist On A Classic Recipe

This spicy chili recipe uses buffalo, or bison meat, instead of the usual ground beef. Buffalo chili is lower in fat and calories than chili made with beef since the buffalo is a leaner animal. A famous legend has it that the all-american chili so commonly found on dinner menus, so regularly served for dinner across the country and so much a part of super bowl sunday traces its roots to indigenous peoples and then to the old west of the 19th century, where cowboy cooks doctored up trail meats, like buffalo, beef, venison, rabbit or even rattlesnake, with spicy peppers to make them more palatable. Another legend tells of immigrants from spain's canary islands to san antonio in the early 18th century who brought the recipe to america. And so chili as we know it was born--one way or the other. Purists say that beans don't belong in authentic chili (since they were not used by the cowboys), but they have become more common than not these days. Chili is made in so many variations that it's impossible to say there is just one way to make it, although beef is virtually always the go-to meat. Rabbit, venison and certainly rattlesnake are pretty much off the list, but buffalo is making a reappearance because of its health benefits.