I would like to share something fairly unconventional for this sort of blog: my favorite chili recipe. It's not exactly rare for a male human to have some kind of go-to ground-beef-based man-chow recipe (especially something meal-preppable like chili), but I consider the creation of this chili one of my crowning culinary accomplishments. Every single component of it has been engineered for healthfulness, to the extent that it is mildly psychoactive and contains clinically relevant amounts of a number of key nutraceuticals. It is also extremely high in protein and terribly delicious. I get tired of repeated foods like most people do, but this is one recipe I can eat most days of the week at least 1-2 weeks a month!
But just as important as the "engineering for optimal nutrition part" is the "building a harmonious whole" part. If I just wanted pure nutrition, I could take various powders and pills and get it. But I think there's something synergistic that happens when you combine thoughtful selection of ingredients and methods with the human sense of global quality.
Below, I have written a decent amount of text about the how and why of this recipe, but don't worry: I'm not going to regale you with bullshit tales about how I got this recipe from my Texan great-godmother's aunt or whatever. No, this piece is purely about the art and science of nourishing cooking.
Some of the benefits you'll get from this recipe
Each serving of this chili provides:
- About 66g protein (comparable to a large chicken breast)
- About 400mg cocoa flavanols (clinically significant for cardiovascular/cognitive benefits)
- Complete amino acid profile with added glycine from collagen
- Prebiotic oligosaccharides for gut health
- Multiple phytonutrients at or above trial-effective doses
- A complete meal with balanced macros that actually tastes amazing
An aside
I'd like to think this piece also can serve as a useful example of how to break down a complex entity into individual parts, optimize them with the whole in mind, and bring them back together. It's also a microcosm of good cooking practices, in that an unusually wide array of cooking skills can be usefully employed, and a microcosm of good ingredient selection and sourcing!
One of the most important things you can do when you're trying to learn a complex topic is to increase the information density of whatever you're using to learn the thing. If you can find or create artifacts that have a very high density of the types of things you're trying to learn, then your recognition and recall rate will be consistently high whenever you engage with that artifact--whether it's a recipe that uses a lot of key skills, or a paragraph of a foreign language that contains a wide number of particularly useful grammatical constructions, or compact codebase that contains various key techniques you want to remember. So if you don't cook that much, you can see this recipe as a mini-lab for cooking skills; if you don't think much about ingredients, nutrition, or sourcing, consider it a mini-lab for those.
But at the very least, it's just a recipe for a very healthy, very hearty meal. So, let's get into it.
Purpose
First, why did I even want to do this in the first place? Why make a chili recipe, instead of some other kind of recipe? What problem am I solving?
Basically, I wanted a recipe that I could easily prepare in advance and that would be as nutritious as possible. I wanted it to have half my daily protein (so 50-75g of protein per meal), some of my daily carbs (I can always add a side of rice for more), and not be too terribly high-calorie. I also needed it to be something I wouldn't mind eating repeatedly. And thus this recipe emerged.
Chili isn't normally construed as a health food of any kind. However it has some unique properties that let it serve as a platform for inserting a wide variety of extremely nutritious ingredients. Because it's essentially a heavily-flavored stew, you can add pretty much anything to it, and many of these things can be packed full of ingredients that have powerful effects on health--anything from invisible liver chunks to a big old pile of raw cacao powder. Chili is also a meal that just naturally includes slots for carbohydrates, protein, and fat, and can serve as a complete meal if you want it to. As such, it seemed like a good potential solution for my needs.
Breaking it Down
To consider how to optimize chili then, let's first break it down to a set of individual components, each of which we can consider separately. These components are as follows:
- Cooking fat: The oil or fat used as the base for sautéing and flavor development.
- Vegetables: The set of vegetables that go into making the base.
- Meat: The meat that is included.
- Broth The cooking liquids.
- Legumes: Generally some variety of beans, although not all chili recipes include this.
- Spices and flavorings: A variety of spices and other ingredients that are stewed together to stew and then finalize the chili.
- Toppings: Self-explanatory.
For each of these items in the list, we'll consider ingredient selection/sourcing and key methods. Finally at the end I'll provide the proportions and the minimal amount of instructions that you need to actually make this. (If you want to skip down straight to that section, you can click the link below).
Click here to skip to the complete recipe
The Fat
Let's first consider the optimal cooking fat. This is an important choice both in terms of how you cook the meal as well as the flavors you want going into it. The fat will be used to cook the vegetables, and if the meat does not render enough fat by itself, it will also be used to cook that.
So what kind of fat should you use for chili? It might seem natural to use something like olive oil for the vegetables and then maybe use ghee or neutral oil for the meat (if anything is needed). But chili is very strongly flavored (ideally), and as such, it can withstand some pretty strongly flavored oils. So, given those parameters we should select the oil with the most nutritional benefits that is still not going to have a negative effect on the chili.
After plenty of kitchen experiments, my clear favorite fat for chili is sustainably sourced red palm oil. The chili's bold flavors mask its mild, carrot-like taste, so you get the nutrition without any off-notes. Nutritionally, red palm oil delivers:
- Vitamin E powerhouse – roughly 70–80 mg of tocopherols and tocotrienols per 100 g––far more than olive oil or nuts. Tocotrienols in particular help curb cholesterol synthesis and combat oxidative stress.
- Pro-vitamin A carotenoids – its trademark orange hue comes from β- and α-carotene, giving up to 15× the retinol equivalents found in carrots.
- Heart-friendly profile – human trials and meta-analyses report that red palm oil leaves lipid panels unchanged or slightly improved compared with other common cooking fats and lowers LDL oxidation; animal studies also show protection against ischemia-reperfusion injury.
- Emerging perks – preliminary research links palm-derived tocotrienols with neuro-protection and anti-inflammatory effects.
If you decide to try it, look for RSPO-certified brands to ensure the oil is harvested outside orangutan habitats.
As a backup, extra virgin olive oil is fine for this recipe and also provides some vitamin E (along with some nice polyphenols).
Use about 1 TBSP per serving (so about 5 TBSP for this recipe). I use about half of this to sauté the vegetables and half to fry the meat.
The Vegetables
Chili customarily includes a base of aromatic and sometimes spicy ingredients. I've added a couple of extra twists to make this even better. I use a couple of onions, some garlic, poblano peppers, several carrots, tomato paste, and then (during the simmering stage) canned tomatoes. Let's go over each of these in turn.
Alliums
Onions provide flavonoids like quercetin (commonly ≈10–30 mg per 100 g, higher in red/purple varieties), while garlic supplies organosulfur compounds that form after crushing. To maximize benefits, press or mince the garlic and let it rest 5–10 minutes before heating to allow alliinase to generate allicin and related compounds. Use strong yellow or red (purple) onions rather than sweet onions for higher polyphenols. I cut these into small dice.
Carrots
I like including carrots in my chili as well. Orange carrots are perfectly fine and rich in beta-carotene. But we're already getting plenty of that from the red palm oil, and it isn't exactly rare elsewhere, so why not use this ingredient as an excuse to get another powerful phytonutrient instead: anthocyanins!
The original carrot was purple; breeding orange carrots is relatively recent, historically. This is a pity, because the older carrots had more nutritional benefits. I use 4-8 medium purple carrots for this chili. It darks the color nicely, adds a touch of sweetness, and also gives roughly 50–200 mg anthocyanins per 100 g fresh weight (typical literature range depending on cultivar). I dice these into the same size as the onions.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are an excellent source of lycopene and potassium. In this recipe, I always use 2-3 TBSP double-concentrated tomato paste as well as two 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes. They're tasty and add a lot to the chili. For a rough sense of contribution: double-concentrated tomato paste often contains ≈30–65 mg lycopene per 100 g, and canned diced tomatoes ≈3–6 mg per 100 g (brand/process vary).
Chilies
Obviously, a chili is not complete without chilies. I use three types here:
- Fresh poblanos and bell peppers, sauteed
- Canned chipotles in adobo
- Dried chilies, which we'll cut the tops off of and de-seed for inclusion into the broth later
Use about 3 fresh chilies for this 5-serving recipe--whatever your preferred mix of poblanos and bell peppers is. It's mostly for flavor, though they do add some vitamin C. Red bell peppers commonly provide ≈120–160 mg vitamin C per 100 g, while poblanos are typically ≈60–100 mg per 100 g. Chop into small dice.
For dried peppers: I usually do 4 ancho, 4 guajillo, and 4 California chilies, which I de-seed and tear into strips. Don't add them to anything yet; just get them ready. Get a couple of chipotles with a bit of the adobo sauce ready as well.
Cooking method
Sauté diced onions, carrots, and fresh peppers in half the fat with salt until softened; add tomato paste to caramelize briefly; add garlic for ≈30–60 seconds; then proceed to meat and liquids.
What are we actually getting from all these vegetables?
Running the numbers on this, we get the following per serving:
- Anthocyanins: The purple carrots deliver 30-240mg per serving (depending on the variety you find). That's a decent percentage of the 80-320mg daily range used in most trials. Purple carrots typically contain 50-200mg per 100g, and we're using 300-600g for the whole pot.
- Lycopene: Between the tomato paste and canned tomatoes, we get 7-16mg per serving, which is right in the sweet spot of what's used in cardiovascular studies (10-20mg/day). Cooking lycopene with with fat actually makes it more bioavailable, so this chili is the perfect delivery vehicle.
- Vitamin C: Even after cooking losses, the peppers still contribute 30-115mg per serving. That's up to half of what you need to saturate your plasma levels (≈200mg/day). Red bells are vitamin C powerhouses at 120-160mg per 100g raw.
- Quercetin: The onions chip in 6-18mg per serving. This is modest compared to supplement doses (150-1,000mg), but it's meaningful nevertheless.
- Allicin potential: If you let that garlic rest after crushing (seriously, do this!), you'll get 6-18mg of allicin equivalents per serving. That's actually comparable to what's in many garlic supplements, though cooking does reduce it somewhat.
The actual benefits are greater than the sum of the parts. While supplement studies test isolated nutrients, here you're getting the full symphony, in a form your body actually evolved to digest and use.
The Meat
Basics
The most common meat used for chili is ground beef. This is fine, though I prefer grass-finished beef for various reasons, many ethical and aesthetic. However, for this recipe, I usually use ground bison. Why?
- It's quite lean, allowing you to control the calorie amounts involved.
- It's guaranteed to be grass-fed and raised on pasture.
- It supports bringing back the almost-wiped-out populations of bison in America.
- It's delicious.
I realize there are a lot of fancy things one could do with various cuts, hand-grinding, or fine-chopping of the meat, but I just use the ground stuff. It works. I add 2 TBSP red palm oil to the pan, add the bison, and fry till it gets browned. If you let it sit for a bit rather than turning constantly, you can get better browning.
But wait! We aren't done yet.
Supercharging with more animal nutrition
Chili is delicious and strongly flavored. That means we can sneak in a few other strongly-flavored ingredients without disrupting the balance. I'd like to make a case for why you should include a bit of liver in your chili.
Liver is underappreciated in modern America. It's one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can find, though when eaten plain takes some getting used to. Here's why you should try to get 100g of it per week:
- It's one of the only (along with other organ meats) good sources of high-dose vitamin A. Plants have beta-carotene which is converted into vitamin A, but this conversion stops after a certain amount. The human body, on the other hand, can benefit from around 10,000 IU a day if vitamin D levels are high. The optimal vitamin A levels change depending on your vitamin D status. If you take 4000 IU of vitamin D (or take a bit less and get a lot from sun), you can usually benefit up to 10K IU of vitamin A.
- Note that this really is only true if you have high vitamin D status, however--if you're deficient in D (or in K2), 10K IU of vitamin A can have negative effects, and you're better off with what you can get from eggs and beta-carotene. 100 g beef liver has 22,000 IU of vitamin A.
- Liver is also very rich in B vitamins, which is useful for energy; and in choline, copper, and selenium, all of which many Americans are deficient in.
I take 4000 IU a day of vitamin D, and so I eat liver to maximize the synergistic benefits of this supplement. I suggest you do too!
In this recipe, after frying the ground bison, I chop 100g beef liver finely and saute this for a few minutes. I then add it to the chili near the end of cooking.
The Broth/Liquid Base
Stews and soups are a great way to get yet another underrated, often rare animal nutrient: collagen (aka gelatin). I fit a pretty decent amount into this chili (about 80g, or 16g per serving). Collagen is useful for a wide range of purposes: It is good for hair and skin, it provides raw materials for joints, and it is very high in an amino acid that counters the toxicity of methionine, which produces toxic byproducts when consumed in excess.
Like other proteins, collagen is broken down into its constituent amino acids during digestion. The benefits of collagen thus come mostly from the particular amino acids it is high in, especially glycine. Glycine is responsible for many of the benefits of collagen, including countering methionine and improving hair, nails, and joints.
I include two liters/quarts of collagen-rich stock (often marketed as "bone broth") in my chili: 1 liter is used to cook the beans, and I use another liter to blend up with the rehydrated dried chilies for the liquid-based cooking stage. This last procedure is as follows:
- I remove the seeds and stems from the dried chilies
- Next, I simmer them in 1 liter of stock for 20 mins
- I then add 1-2 chipotles in adobo and blend all of this in a high-speed blender
- I then add this to the chili at the combination step (when I combine the meat, beans, vegetables, and canned tomatoes)
The Beans
You can use whatever beans you like for this chili; even canned ones will have plenty of benefits. However, to get the most I can out of this meal, I use various heirloom bean varieties and cook them myself in beef broth. Rio Zape is one of my favorites; you can get this from Rancho Gordo or if you're lucky a local farmer's market might have them (I have found them here in the Bay Area). It's good to have canned beans as a backup in case you don't get everything together in time, though; cooking beans takes a while. Here's the procedure.
- I soak the beans for 4-8 hours before cooking, and then discard the soaking water.
- I put the beans in a liter of beef stock, along with a halved onion (each half with a couple of cloves poked in) and thyme. I also add salt at this stage; contrary to the urban myth, this does not increase the cooking time but does make the outside slightly more firm which I prefer (I don't want my beans turning to mush).
- I raise the heat to boiling for 10 minutes, and then simmer for 2-3 hours.
- This next bit is important: I carefully manage the liquid, adding hot water as needed, but otherwise letting the cooking liquid evaporate down so that it's almost gone just as the beans are done. This is easier than it sounds; just taste them once in a while.
The last step--ensuring the cooking liquid is fully absorbed or otherwise used, is important. As with many things cooked in liquids, many nutrients are lost into the cooking liquid, such that if you discard it you'll be missing out on a lot of nutrition. In the case of beans, one important nutrient that is partially lost is the oligosaccharides. These are particularly beneficial for gut/microbiome health. But if you follow my procedure, most will not be lost! Nor will any other water-soluble nutrient (e.g. folate).
Evidence-backed benefits of bean oligosaccharides:
- Prebiotic effect: selectively feed beneficial microbes (notably Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus).
- SCFA production: fermentation yields acetate, propionate, and butyrate that fuel colon cells, strengthen barrier function, and modulate inflammation.
- Bowel function: often improve stool frequency/consistency and reduce transit time.
- Lower colonic pH: SCFAs acidify the lumen, disfavoring some pathogens and favoring beneficial taxa.
- Metabolic spillovers (moderate evidence): SCFAs can influence lipid and glucose metabolism; effects vary by dose and individual.
Note for FODMAP-sensitive folks: soaking and discarding the soaking/cooking water reduces bean oligosaccharides (and thus gas potential), but also reduces these prebiotic benefits; using or absorbing the cooking liquid retains them.
Spices and Flavorings
We're now almost done fitting everything we can into this chili. But we can go further:
- Usage of high-quality spices provides cumulative antioxidant capacity plus specific bioactives
- The addition of high-flavanol cacao will both intensify flavor and will give us clinically significant (!) amounts of cacao flavanols in each serving
Spices
You can flavor your chili with whatever spices you find desirable; however, do ensure that you purchase high-quality, recently-harvested spices. Many compounds and flavors degrade over time. I use the following:
- 1 TBSP cumin seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 clove
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp cayenne or Cobanero chili
- 1 tsp cinnamon
I toast the cumin, coriander, and clove briefly before grinding it and adding it to the chili at the broth stage. The amount of spices here can be increased if desired, and at these amounts is mostly for flavor. However, these spices do have the following benefits:
- Cumin & coriander seeds: aromatic oils and polyphenols that add antioxidant capacity and carminative/digestive properties; useful flavor synergy with legumes.
- Clove: exceptionally high antioxidant capacity driven by eugenol and related phenolics.
- Garlic & onion powders: contribute organosulfur compounds and quercetin; see earlier notes on allicin potential and onion flavonoids.
- Cayenne/Cobanero (capsaicin): activates TRPV1, modestly increases thermogenesis and can reduce subsequent energy intake in some trials.
- Cinnamon: meta-analyses suggest small, dose-dependent improvements in fasting glucose/HbA1c and other glycemic markers (heterogeneous across studies and species).
Cacao
Cacao flavanols are among the most-studied phytonutrients, with evidence for supporting vascular function, modestly lowering blood pressure, improving insulin sensitivity, and improving some aspects of cognition in certain trials. I use cacao with verified and tested flavanol levels (currently Blueprint cacao), and add 5–6 g per serving. To preserve aroma, I stir it in during the last 20 minutes of simmering. I also add 1–2 TBSP vinegar here to brighten the finish.
Each serving contains ≈400 mg cocoa flavanols (CF), which meets/exceeds authoritative thresholds for vascular benefits and falls within RCT dosing that improved flow‑mediated dilation and some cognitive endpoints.
The spice and cacao payoff
Here's what these final flourishes actually contribute per serving:
- Capsaicinoids: That teaspoon of cayenne gives you 0.4-4mg per serving (depends on how hot your cayenne is). It's enough to activate your TRPV1 receptors.
- Cinnamon polyphenols: A teaspoon of cinnamon contributes 26-42mg of total phenolics per serving. Ceylon cinnamon is particularly rich in these compounds, and even this modest amount can help with glucose metabolism.
- Cocoa flavanols: This is where things get really interesting—each serving delivers about 400mg of cocoa flavanols. That's double the 200mg threshold that EFSA recognizes for vascular benefits. In acute studies, this dose improves flow-mediated dilation by 0.5-2.0 percentage points. This amount has also been used in cognitive enhancement studies, though a full 800mg would be better.
Putting it All Together
Ok, so we've gone pretty deep into the individual ingredients and how we optimize each. Brief recap of all the substances we're getting clinically significant amounts of:
- Cocoa flavanols (from cacao): ≈400 mg CF/serving → meets EFSA’s 200 mg/day threshold for endothelial benefits; acute trials show ≈+0.5–2.0 percentage‑point improvements in FMD with suitable matrices.
- Anthocyanins (from purple carrots): ≈30–240 mg/serving (cultivar‑dependent) within common effective trial ranges.
- Lycopene (from tomatoes): ≈7–16 mg/serving, within food‑based trial ranges used for lipid/vascular endpoints.
- Vitamin C (from peppers): ≈30–115 mg/serving (≈15–58% of a ≈200 mg/day plasma‑saturation target).
- Quercetin (from onions): ≈6–18 mg/serving (food‑level contribution vs higher supplement doses in trials).
- Allicin equivalents (from garlic): ≈6–18 mg/serving with rest‑then‑cook handling.
- Capsaicinoids (from cayenne/Cobanero): ≈0.4–4 mg/serving depending on pepper potency.
- Vitamin E (tocopherols/tocotrienols; from red palm oil): ≈10–11 mg/serving with ≈1 TBSP oil.
- Preformed vitamin A (from liver): ≈1,300 µg RAE (≈4,400 IU) per serving from ≈20 g liver (1/5 of 100 g pot addition) — above RDA but below adult UL; ensure adequate vitamin D/K2 balance.
- Collagen/gelatin peptides (from broth): ≈16 g/serving, rich in glycine/proline to complement muscle‑meat amino acid profiles.
- Prebiotic oligosaccharides (from beans, retained by using cooking liquid): support Bifidobacteria/Lactobacillus and SCFA production; soaking/discarding reduces them along with FODMAP load.
Complete Ingredient List
Soffrito
- 2 TBSP red palm oil (RSPO-certified, harvested outside orangutan habitats)
- 2 pungent onions (yellow or red)
- 1-2 poblano peppers
- 4-8 medium purple carrots
- 6-10 cloves garlic
- 2-3 TBSP double-concentrated tomato paste
Beans
- 250-350 g dried beans, pinto, black, or related (I like Rio Zape)
- 1 liter bone broth (look for 10g protein per serving)
- A couple of sprigs of thyme (optional)
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves
Meat
- 3 TBSP red palm oil
- 2 lbs ground bison, venison, or lean beef
- 100g beef liver
Broth/Liquid Base
- 1 liter bone broth
- 4 guajillo chilies
- 4 California chilies
- 4 ancho chilies
- 1 can chipotles in adobo
Tomatoes
- 2 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes (fire-roasted are a nice option)
Spices & Herbs
- 1 TBSP cumin seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 clove
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp cayenne or Cobanero chili
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 TBSP dried oregano
Final Flavorings
- 30g cacao powder, preferably a brand with verified flavanols of ≈400mg per 6g
- 2 TBSP port vinegar
Procedure
I realize this article makes all this seem like a lot, but it only takes around an hour of active cooking (plus 90 mins to stew). You'll do multiple things in parallel:
Step 0: Prepare the beans
Before starting this recipe, it's important to know that if you intend to use dried beans, you should start soaking them about 8-10 hours before you want the chili to be done. I usually do this morning-of. Here's the procedure:
Cover the beans with water and soak for ≈6 hours. Drain, and then put the beans in a pot with 1 liter of bone broth. Chop an onion in half, remove the skin, and stick the cloves into the sides of the onion. Throw this into the pot with the beans and the thyme. Add a couple of three-finger pinches of salt.
Heat to boiling, and let this boil energetically for 10 minutes. Turn the heat to low and simmer with a tilted lid or no lid between 1-3 hours, until beans are soft but still (ideally) have taut skins. As this happens, the broth will evaporate; add hot water as necessary to cover the beans, but try to aim for the liquid being mostly evaporated or absorbed into the beans by the end of cooking.
Note: You could also use 2-3 cans of canned beans if you're in a hurry; these will also be quite nutritious. Include the liquid!
Step 1: Chop and start the soffrito
Bash the garlic cloves with the side of a knife, then remove the skins and press. Finely dice the onions, poblano peppers, and carrots. Heat a Dutch oven or large pot on medium, test the heat by splashing some water into the pan (wait for drops to roll around rather than steaming away).
Add 2 TBSP red palm oil, then the onions. Throw in a pinch of salt to speed softening. Cook until softened, 5-10 minutes.
[Note: While you're waiting for these to cook (5-10 minutes) you could start sautéing the ground meat. You could also start on the dried chilies for the broth.]
Add the poblano peppers and diced carrots. Continue to cook until softened, ≈5 minutes. Make a pit in the center of the soffrito and add in the tomato paste. Stir this and cook until it darkens to brick red, about 2-3 minutes. Add the pressed garlic and mix everything together. If the other steps aren't ready for combining yet, take this off the heat.
Step 2: Cook the ground meat
Heat a skillet and add 2 TBSP red palm oil to the pan. Add in 2 lbs ground bison, crumbling and chopping as it cooks so that you don't have large chunks. Add a bit of salt and occasionally let the meat sit in the pan to get some color, then chop and stir again. Cook until browned to taste.
Step 3: Prepare the broth
De-stem and de-seed all of the dried chilies. Add a liter of bone broth to a small pot and start it simmering. Tear the peppers into rough chunks and add them to the broth to simmer for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
When this is done, add 1-3 chipotles in adobo sauce. Let it cool for perhaps 10 minutes (depending on your blender bottle material--mine is stainless steel rather than plastic or glass, so I don't mind adding it when hot). Blend until smooth. You could also use a stick blender for this.
Step 4: Toast the spices
This could be done in the same pan you cook the meat in, BEFORE cooking the meat, or another pan. Get the pan hot at medium temp, then add the cumin, clove, and coriander seeds. Toast for 30-120 seconds. Cool for a couple of minutes, and then grind with a spice grinder or small mortar and pestle.
Step 5: Combine
Combine the cooked soffrito, the meat, the blended broth, the canned tomatoes, the toasted and ground spices and the other non-toasted spices and herbs (including the oregano). Add in the beans with whatever cooking broth is left. Give everything a good mix, raise temp to bubbling, and then bring it down to a bare simmer (usually just a tiny touch above the lowest temp).
Cook this way, stirring occasionally, for at least an hour.
Step 6: Prepare the liver
You won't add this until the last 10 minutes of cooking or so. While the chili is simmering, soak the liver in milk (if desired) for about 30 minutes, then drain and chop. Heat one more TBSP red palm oil in a pan, and add the chopped liver with a bit of salt and pepper. Cook until browned on the outside. Don't add to the chili yet.
Step 7: Cacao, vinegar, and liver addition
20 minutes before the end of cooking, add 30g raw cacao powder along with 2 TBSP port vinegar. Stir well.
10 minutes before the end of cooking, add the liver and mix well.
Serve & Enjoy!
That's about it! This recipe is great for meal prep and tastes great after refrigeration or freezing. It pairs well with rice or cornbread, and I will often add random toppings like grated cheddar, sliced avocado, or dollops of Greek yogurt. For meal-planning reference, this recipe will produce 6 servings with the following macros:
- Calories: ≈800 kcal
- Protein: ≈66 g
- Carbohydrates: ≈72 g (≈22 g fiber; ≈50 g net)
- Fat: ≈28 g
Estimates assume 300 g dry beans, 2 L bone broth (≈10 g protein per 240 ml), 2 lbs lean ground bison, 100 g beef liver, 5 TBSP red palm oil total, 2 × 14.5 oz canned tomatoes, 30 g cacao, and listed vegetables/spices. Actuals vary with substitutions (meat leanness, oil amount, bean type, broth brand, and yield).
Enjoy and be healthy!
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Typical capsaicinoid content for culinary cayenne is ≈0.1–1.0% by weight (varies by cultivar, processing, and SHU rating). Values derived from spice composition surveys and manufacturer specs.