Once a month in Chicago there is a farmers market in the a nature museum near my place. Luke and I stopped by the other week and picked up some goodies including farm-made butter (to DIE for!), fresh milk, aged goat and cow cheese, veggies and this giant hunk of bison meat.

That’s 6 lbs of farm-raised bison meat. If you’ve never had bison before, it’s the leaner, softer, healthier verson of beef. In fact, I was really surprised to see how healthy bison is:

Since 6 lbs is enough to feed an army, I had my personal butcher (Luke) cut it into steaks. As you can see, bison has very little fat on it.

I cut up some carrots (check out those white ones!) and onions I got from the farmers market for the roast. You can also put in potatoes, but since I’m doing South Beach, I opted out.

Next I mixed two cans of beef broth, two tablespoons of sugar, a package of dry onion soup mix, salt, pepper and some cayenne to give it a kick.

Then I placed the bison, veggies and a bay leaf in the crock pot and topped with the broth mixture.

Everything cooked on low heat for 8-10 hours. If you can’t cook for that long, cook it on low for at least 6 hours and then turn it up to high for the last hour- hour and a half.

The result isn’t the prettiest thing ever, but it sure was tasty!

We couldn’t get over how tender, flavorful and juicy the bison was. It was just as good and regular beef roast, with no where near the amount of fat and calories. I think I’ll be choosing it over beef whenever possible.

Have you guys tried bison? Do you agree that it tastes pretty darn good?

I hope you all had a great weekend!