Week #41: South Dakota - Sioux Falls Chislic Pizza

State:  South Dakota

So I have never been out to any of the Dakotas, so doing a pizza for this state took some research.  I do know that South Dakota is the nation's leading state for Bison and has a strong history of Native America influence in the cuisine.  When researching, I also found out that there is a strong German population that migrated to the Dakotas and Chislic became very popular.  Chislic is a seasoned meat, which could be Venison, Beef, Bison, or lamb. I decided to do a Bison Chislic, so I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

1/2 pound of ground Buffalo meat or steak

2-3 potatoes cut thin

1 pizza crust

1/2 cup of cheddar cheese

1/2 cup of a creamy cheese (optional) - I did a Sarvechio from Italy

2 skewer sticks

Seasoning

1 1/2 tsp. Worchester Sauce

3/4 tsp. Chili Powder

1/2 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder

1/2 tsp. Onion Powder

1/4 tsp. Ground Black Pepper

Meat:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  So for the Chislic, I decided to do ground bison instead of steak.  For the simple reason, that a pound of ground Bison is $10 and Bison steak is $20 a pound.  So, with that said, I went with the ground Bison.  Combine ground Bison, seasonings and Worcestershire sauce together.  Mix well and form into long style meatloaf.  With a teaspoon of olive oil, grease the skewer sticks and gently slide them in the center of the meat mixture.  Cook the Chislic for 20 minutes or so or until meat reaches 160 degrees.  Remove from heat and allow meat to cool.  Cut into small bite size pieces. 

Pizza:

Preheat oven to 450.  Add a layer of olive oil to the crust.  Cook crust until slightly browned and remove from heat.  While the crust is still warm, add a layer of creamy cheese to the base.  Add slices of potatoes to the pizza and spread out evenly. Next add meat pieces on top of the potatoes and then add a layer of cheddar cheese.  Cook pizza in the oven for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Remove from heat and allow pizza to cool before eating.

Pairing:

For this pizza, I wasn't able to find a beer from South Dakota.  However, I was able to find a nice coffee stout to go with this pizza.  I would recommend a stout or imperial ale.  For wine, a Chianti or Pinot Noir would go very well.  Cheers!

Learning Moments:

So, if I could change a couple things on this pizza, I would have gone with the steak and I would have created some type of sauce.  It was a little too dry, so I had to put some extra Worcestershire sauce on it.  The pizza needed some type of sauce, so maybe a cheese sauce would have been great.  With that note, the meat tasted really good and the pizza was almost close to being amazing.  Hope you make a few tweaks and make it your own!  Enjoy!