Cowboy style is all the rage from fashion to music and my very first cookbook is back, too, with a snazzy new design and some great new wild western recipes!
By CINDA CHAVICH
My clever publisher was totally on trend when he asked me to revisit my very first cookbook for a modern update this year.
The second edition of The Wild West Cookbook: Cowboy Comfort Food (Robert Rose) just landed in bookstores (and at my door), right in the middle of the hottest music and fashion aesthetic for 2024, dubbed "cowboy core".
Thanks to a boost from Taylor Swift and Beyoncé's latest album, Cowboy Carter, the fashion runways are abuzz with cowboy chic styles, from double denim to classic cowboy boots.
"Farm Chic" is riding high and it’s just a matter of time before the enduring flavours of comforting cowboy cooking lands, too, especially as the cosy fall season rekindles cravings for beefy stews, chili, pot pies with biscuits and other warming, stick-to-your-ribs, dishes designed to feed the family, or the crew.
I first wrote The Wild West Cookbook back when I was a newspaper food editor in Alberta and this revised second edition includes all of those western favourites that were part of my childhood on the prairies, from barbecued ribs and baked beans, to fruit pies, spicy cornbread and jelly donuts. Western cuisine has always been influenced by cowboy cooking, whether barbecue and campfire favourites (think smoky Texas-style beef brisket, pulled pork and grilled trout) or basic beans that turn up in everything from chilies and gumbos to bean salads and dips.
There’s lots of cowboy lore and photography in the book, too, both historic and modern — with stories of crusty old chuckwagon cooks (aka Cookie) on the range and indigenous traditions from western First Nations people, including the kind of food that’s popular today in ranch kitchens and rodeo circuits. You’ll find recipes for beef jerky, Prairie Oysters and cowboy “chicken-fried” steak, bean tostadas on frybread and wild rice, smoky Texas-style BBQ beef brisket, southern fried chicken and Gulf shrimp, a reflection of the many kinds of cowboys who populated early western cattle ranches and are part of the rural and rodeo culture today.
It’s a celebration of food from the Wild West, homey and uncomplicated, but with a new refinement. The modern ranch-to-table cowboy cuisine encompasses everything we love about the West, where cowboys (and girls) from Mexico and Texas to Wyoming, Montana and Alberta have sprinkled their culinary traditions throughout the region, alongside the work of trailing cattle along these north-south corridors for more than a century.
So, expect a range of western flavours and ingredients — beef and beans, beer and whisky, chilies and corn — with root vegetables, hearty grains, and indigenous wild foods like berries and mushrooms.
The recipes are some of my personal favourites, collected, developed and tested during my years growing up on the Canadian prairies and working as a food editor in the cowboy- and ranch-centric city of Calgary.
I’ve moved further west in recent years, and now focus my food writing on coastal cuisine, but I still love to fire up my backyard smoker for a rack of ribs or smoky pulled pork shoulder, with baked beans, biscuits or cornbread, simmer a comforting pot of chicken and sausage chiili, or bake some classic prairie desserts, whether bread pudding with whisky sauce, jelly doughnuts or apple berry crisp.
I’m planning to dust off my favourite pair of boots and get into the wild western mood this weekend with a cosy country-style menu. Here are some delicious and doable homestyle dishes to get the party started…..yee haw, y’all!
A WILD WEST MENU:
Smoky Cowboy Quesadillas
Cowboy Beef Jerky
Prairie Beet and Vegetable Borscht
Black Bean Chili
Fluffy Baking Powder Biscuits
Upside-Down Apple Gingerbread
RECIPES:
All reprinted from The Wild West Cookbook: Cowboy Comfort Food by Cinda Chavich (Robert Rose, September 2024)
Smoky Cowboy Quesadillas
SERVES 8 TO 10
The quesadilla, grilled crispy and smoky on the barbecue, is the quintessential Western snack — an idea borrowed from our neighbors south of the border but one that works well in cowboy country everywhere.
8 flour tortillas (plain, whole wheat or jalapeño flavor)
1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil
3⁄4 cup (175 mL) salsa
4 oz (125 g) shredded smoked
turkey or ham or chicken
1 cup (250 mL) shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or combination of cheeses)
1 ripe avocado or summer peach or nectarine, slivered
1⁄4 cup (60 mL) chopped cilantro
Extra salsa as accompaniment
Preheat barbecue
Brush 4 tortillas with olive oil. Place, oiled side down, on a work surface. Divide . cup (175 mL) salsa among tortillas, spreading over surface. Sprinkle with turkey, cheese, avocado and cilantro. Top with remaining tortillas, brush tops with olive oil and press together firmly.
Using a large spatula to lift filled tortillas, carefully set quesadillas on a hot barbecue grill; cook, turning once, until just browned and melted together, about 5 minutes in total. Press quesadillas lightly with a spatula as they cook, to make sure
they hold together. Alternatively, cook quesadillas one at a time in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat, about 3 minutes per side or until golden.
Cut each quesadilla into 6 wedges and serve with extra salsa for dipping.
TIP
Try making quesadillas with various fillings: chilies and asiago cheese; chopped cooked chicken with avocado and Cheddar; spicy tomato salsa, sliced black olives and farmer’s cheese; refried beans, Monterey Jack cheese, avocado or tomato and cilantro. The best quesadillas have just enough filling and cheese to hold together well without being sloppy.
Cowboy Beef Jerky
Beef jerky is a cowboy classic, perfect to stash in your saddle bags but also lightweight pure protein to fuel a wilderness hike.
11⁄2 lbs (750 g) flank steak, cut along the grain into thin strips about 1⁄8 inch (2 mm) thick
1⁄2 cup (125 mL) Worcestershire sauce
1⁄4 cup (60 mL) soy sauce
1 tbsp (15 mL) brown sugar or honey
1 tsp (5 mL) freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp (5 mL) seasoned salt or steak spice (or seasoned meat tenderizer)
1 tsp (5 mL) onion powder
1⁄2 tsp (2 mL) garlic powder
In a zippered plastic bag, combine steak strips, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, pepper, seasoned salt, onion powder and garlic powder. Marinate overnight in refrigerator.
Preheat oven to its lowest setting (about 140F/60C). Lift beef strips out of marinade; arrange on a wire rack on a baking sheet. Discard remaining marinade. Bake jerky with the oven door slightly ajar for 8 to 10 hours, turning beef strips once, or until dry and chewy. Check often; jerky should be dry but should bend without breaking. If it’s brittle, you’ve cooked it too long for snacking but it can still be kept for rehydrating in soups
and stews.
Alternatively, dry the marinated meat in a home dehydrator, following the manufacturer’s instructions.
FROM PEMMICAN TO JERKY
The technique of drying meats for long-term storage has its roots in the Indigenous tradition of making pemmican, a staple food for prairie First Nations, made by drying bison meat over smoky fires, and pounding it together with dried berries and rendered fat, a survival food for long winters.
Today we have ovens and dehydrators to easily make this tasty low-carb and protein-rich snack at home.
Prairie Beet and Vegetable Borscht
Many homesteaders arrived in Alberta before World War One and, until 1930, half of the population was foreign born. Alberta’s population swelled to 374,000 in 1911 from 73,000 in 1901, with British, German, Ukrainian, French, Scandinavian, Dutch and Polish arrivals. This old-fashioned soup was popular with prairie immigrants from the Ukraine, Romania and other parts of Eastern Europe.
SERVES 8
1 tbsp (15 mL) butter
1 large onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, pressed
3 cups (750 mL) peeled and cubed potatoes
1 cup (250 mL) chopped carrots
1 large beet, unpeeled with 1 inch (2.5 cm) of tops intact, scrubbed
1 3⁄4 cups (425 mL) canned tomatoes with juices, crushed
4 cups (1 L) shredded purple cabbage
10 cups (2.5 L) beef stock or water
1 tbsp (15 mL) red wine vinegar
Salt, pepper and paprika to taste
2 tbsp (30 mL) chopped fresh dill
1⁄2 cup (125 mL) sour cream
3 tbsp (45 mL) all-purpose flour
In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add minced onion and garlic; cook 4 minutes or until starting to brown. Stir in potatoes and carrots; cook 3 minutes longer. Add the whole beet to the pot with the canned tomatoes, shredded cabbage and stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook for 45 minutes or until beet is tender.
Remove beet from pot, cool slightly and slip off skin. Chop beet and return to soup. Stir in vinegar. Simmer for 10 minutes to blend flavors. Season to taste with salt, pepper and paprika. Stir in fresh dill.
In a small bowl, stir together sour cream and flour. Whisk into soup to thicken. Heat through but do not boil. Serve immediately.
TIP
For vegetarian/vegan borscht, use water instead of beef broth and substitute cashew cream for sour cream.
Spicy Barbecued Beef Ribs
Big meaty beef ribs are often on a rodeo menu, slow cooked until tender with spicy Texas-style bbq sauce. This sauce is also good for marinating flank steak before grilling.
Cattle opened the wild west, with cowboys trailing herds from Texas to Alberta. Angus, Hereford and other shorthorn breeds are the most prominent breeds in North American cattle herds today, although Texas longhorns dominated the American range between 1865 and 1885.
SERVES 6
4 lbs (2 kg) beef short ribs or big beef side ribs
BBQ SAUCE
1 tbsp (15 mL) canola oil
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
11⁄2 cups (375 mL) ketchup
1⁄2 cup (125 mL) chili sauce
1⁄2 cup (125 mL) strong brewed coffee
1⁄4 cup (60 mL) brown sugar, packed
1 tbsp (15 mL) molasses
1 tbsp (15 mL) Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp (5 mL) liquid smoke
1 tsp (5 mL) hot pepper sauce
1 tsp (5 mL) freshly ground black pepper
Fresly grated or repared horseradish, baked potatoes and beans as accompaniments
Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C)
Cut ribs into pieces. Put ribs in a large roasting pan and roast for 20 minutes.
SAUCE: Meanwhile, in a saucepan heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes or until softened. Stir in ketchup, chili sauce, coffee, brown sugar, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, hot sauce and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 15 minutes.
Drain excess fat from ribs and pour the hot sauce over the ribs. Reduce oven temperature to
325°F (160°C) and bake, covered with foil, for 1 to 1½ hours or until meat is tender. Remove the cover and cook 15 minutes longer, basting ribs frequently with the sauce to glaze.
Serve with lots of horseradish, beans and baked potatoes.
Black Bean Chili
With earthy black beans, smoky chipotle chilies and a good shot of prairie rye whisky, this is truly an outstanding bean dish. Serve it over rice or rolled up in flour tortillas with chopped tomatoes and grated cheese.
SERVES 8
3 tbsp (45 mL) canola oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 tbsp (30 mL) paprika
1 tbsp (15 mL) dried oregano
2 tsp (10 mL) cumin seeds
1⁄4 tsp (1 mL) cayenne pepper
2 tsp (10 mL) salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 canned chipotle chili, chopped, or 1 dried chipotle, rehydrated and chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 can (28 oz/796 mL) plum (Roma) tomatoes, chopped
2 cups (500 mL) dried black beans, soaked overnight in water to cover
1⁄2 cup (125 mL) rye whisky
1 bay leaf
1⁄2 cup (125 mL) chopped cilantro
1 cup (250 mL) shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup (250 mL) sour cream, preferably low fat
Hot cooked rice as an accompaniment
In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes or until starting
to brown. Stir in paprika, oregano, cumin seeds and cayenne pepper; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in 1 tsp (5 mL) of the salt, garlic, chipotles, green pepper and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
Stir in 3 cups (750 mL) water, drained beans, rye whisky and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to
low and simmer, partially covered, for 2 to 3 hours or until beans are very tender.
Stir in cilantro. Season to taste with remaining salt. Serve over rice, topped with a sprinkling of grated cheese and a dollop of sour cream.
Fluffy Baking Powder Biscuits
Cowboy cooks made biscuits on the range right in the flour sack: they made a well in the flour and stirred into it a little soda and bacon grease, then added enough river water to make a stiff dough. The biscuits were hand-formed and cooked in a frying pan or cast-iron Dutch oven over the campfire.
It’s no wonder these cowboy staples got a bad name — they often had the consistency of hockey pucks, earning them names like “paperweights,” “sinkers” or “belly busters.”
MAKES 8 TO 10
2 cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour
1 tbsp (15 mL) baking powder
1 tsp (5 mL) sugar
1⁄2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1⁄3 cup (75 mL) butter
3⁄4 cup (175 mL) half-and-half (10%) or light cream
Preheat oven to 450F (230C)
Baking sheet
In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender to form coarse crumbs. Stir in half-and-half just until moistened. (Do not add extra flour to dough for kneading, since it will already be dry.)
Gather dough into a ball and knead gently.
(Do not overwork or biscuits will be tough.) Pat dough flat to a 3/4-inch (15 mm) thickness and, using a cutter or a floured glass, cut out 8 to 10 circles, about 2 1/2 inches (6 cm) in diameter.
Arrange biscuits 1 inch (25 cm) apart on baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven until golden, about 12 to 15 minutes.
Serve warm with butter and crabapple jelly or use in your favorite shortcake recipe. Makes 12 to 14 biscuits
TIP
Tradition notwithstanding, you want your biscuits to be light and flaky. The trick to perfect biscuits is to handle the dough as little as possible. Mix and roll these quickly and they’ll stay light and fluffy.
Upside-Down Apple Gingerbread
Make sure this cake is still slightly warm when you invert to unmold it from the cake pan. Otherwise, the caramelized sugar and apply layer may harden and stick to the pan.
SERVES 6
1 2⁄3 cups (400 mL) granulated sugar
1⁄3 cup (75 mL) water 2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 2⁄3 cups (400 mL) all-purpose flour
1 1⁄2 tsp (7 mL) ground ginger
1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
1 tbsp (15 mL) cinnamon
1⁄4 tsp (1 mL) ground cloves
1⁄4 tsp (1 mL) salt
1⁄2 cup (125 mL) shortening
1 egg
3⁄4 cups (175 mL) buttermilk
2 tbsp (30 mL) molasses
Preheat oven to 350F (180C)
9-inch (23 cm) round cake pan
In a heavy saucepan, stir together 2⁄3 cup (150 mL) of sugar and water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until deep amber in color. Pour into cake pan and arrange sliced apples over bottom of pan, overlapping to form a neat pattern.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, remaining sugar, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
In a small bowl, beat egg with buttermilk and molasses; stir into dry mixture. Pour batter over apples in pan and bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until firm to the touch. Cool slightly on rack.
Run a knife around edge of warm cake and invert onto serving platter. Cut into wedges and serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
GET THE COMPLETE RECIPE COLLECTION:
By Cinda Chavich
Robert Rose, 2024
This is not my first rodeo but this was my very first cookbook — originally published back in 1998 — and it's fun to have this new edition, complete with lots of authentic cowboy, rodeo and ranch photos, both historic and contemporary, and a bright new design!
All of the original, homestyle dishes that made this a best seller are still there — plus some tempting new additions, easy well-tested recipes for both accomplished cowboy cooks and greenhorns. Enjoy!
Available from your favourite bookstores and online booksellers
across Canada and the US
©CindaChavich
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