If you’ve gone to the effort to chase down an animal, kill it, skin it, and bring it home you simply should eat its heart. Cooked of course. It is a dense meat due to the tight junctions of the myocardial cells giving it a snappy crunch, and heart’s rich flavor lends itself well to bold spices. Cleaning them is easy, just remove the great vessels and anything that doesn’t look like meat. These simple, quickly prepared nachos are perfect for worn out hunters who need a satisfying meal to celebrate their victory in the field.
Serves: 1
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- (1) Big game heart diced
- (1) Yellow Onion diced
- (4) Chile Peppers diced (I used my Rain Forests, but jalapenos work fine)
- 1/4 tsp minced garlic
- 1 TBS of bacon fat
- Tortilla Chips
- Pinto beans (here is a tremendous recipe)
- Mozzarella Cheese
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Method:
- Melt your bacon fat in a heavy duty skillet.
- Salt and pepper your diced heart.
- Add the heart, peppers, onions, and garlic to your skillet and cook until veggies are soft and heart is cooked to preference.
- Arrange the chips on your plate and ladle warm pinto beans over chips, add the heart and veggies, then sprinkle with cheese. I like mozzarella and cheddar.
- Garnish with sliced lime, guacamole, queso fresca and/or pico de gallo.
Straightforward and easy this is a tremendous way to stuff your gullet and revel in the completeness killing your own meat brings. What do you do with hearts?
First of all, Wow, thanks for referring to my bean soup recipe. I’m flattered! Second, we chicken-fry the heart and serve it with cream gravy and garlic mashed potatoes. When my younger junior-deerslayer got her first deer, I promised I’d fry up the heart, I got the call just as I was settling in with a pot of mac-n-cheese, a glass of wine, and a romantic comedy. I grabbed potatoes, garlic, butter, flour, more butter, Tommy’s salt-n-pepper mix, egg, milk, and oil and headed out to the hunting camp (about an hour and a 1/2). Huge celebration….. and the hunters danced!
My mouth is watering just reading about it!
We’ve kept the hearts that we could- if they weren’t shot through. Matt’s grandma and grandpa boil them, then pan fry them. I was worried about toughness myself, and when it comes time to cook one, I was planning to put it in the slow cooker with some onions and seasoning.
Amber, I dig the texture. Its kind of a stiff crunch, and cut small enough is not a hassle to chew.
Reblogged this on homesteaddad and commented:
I’ll have to try this next time.
You will like.
Love it! Will try next time we actually have a heart that isn’t shredded into paste from the bullet!
That’s why I neck shoot now! Less spoilage.
Yep. Kind of hard on little white birds in the snow and a frozen scope!
Oh, I’d never eat a bird if I used my 22. I’m impressed!
I was really hoping to get a deer over Christmas. Was looking forward to trying heart. And liver. And maybe even kidney. Alas, no legal bucks walked in front of my gun. There’s always next year. Until then, I shall dream of your nachos de corazon.
Believe me, I know the pain cooking tag soup. I like liver and heart but each time I’ve begun to save the kidneys the overwhelming urine smell turns me away. Maybe I’m doing it wrong.
Maybe they need to soak in something for a few days to get that smell out?
[…] I read a post recently, from Andy at Tremendous Whatnot, I was reminded of the Deerslayer tradition of preparing a celebratory dinner for the lucky hunter […]
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