Guinea Fowl Chilli (Tomato Free)

I don't eat chicken - ever since my days (years) spent as a Food Hygiene Inspector where I saw thousands of them coming down the line....often with tumors, growths and what not. It used to be surprising to me because they were for the most part still quite young.

However, it seems they were very prone to cancers of one sort or another. I never saw this in any other animal to this extent and naturally removed them from my diet. Actually I haven't eaten them since - instead I would tend to go for their wild fowl friends.

I really have come to like guinea fowl which is not related to the chicken, but belongs to the pheasant family. It is a lovely bird and I have written about on here before. Again, like any meat, it is not something we would eat more then 3 or 4 times a year, but when we do we love it.

This past week I had a guinea fowl to do something with and decided to make a chilli with it. Just something a little different and with a lovely combination of flavours. It turned out nicely - I have made this before and everyone has enjoyed it.

To make the chilli - I proceed in steps. First of all I slow roast the guinea fowl in the slow cooker for most of a day or a night. This way it is succulent and tender. I cooked this one in plenty of onions, garlic, sage, salt and pepper.

I take the meat off of the bones and place the meat back into the pot - keeping it on a low heat setting. The guinea fowl had lots of liquid around it so I sprinkled a little spelt flour over top to make a thicker consistency.

In the meantime I soaked some red kidney beans over night to be ready to cook once the meat was done. I always cook my beans in lots of sea weeds - so they are not tough, and the sea weed gets into the meal as well.

In another pot I made a sauce - using carrots, beetroot, sweet potato, squash, sautéd onions, garlic and leek - these were cooked until tender and then blended into a puree. Then I added generous amounts of cumin, coriander, turmeric, pepper, salt and some bay leaves. 

Next I started to assemble everything - the beans went into the slow cooker with the meat and liquid, then the sauce was poured over top of everything. I left it to blend and heat through for about an hour or so and then turned it off. 

Once it had been sitting cooling for the afternoon it was ready - the kids loved it, the guinea fowl adds a rich taste to the rest of the ingredients as well.

April 

Guinea Fowl chilli