Pulled Bison in a Bun

Ingredients:

• 1 – 1.5 kg bison chuck roast
• 1 package dry onion soup mix
• 1/3 cup water *
• ¾ cup vinegar *
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup ketchup *
• 1 pound bread dough (to make buns)
• 1 egg (optional) to brush on top of the buns
• ¼ cup milk (optional) to brush on top of the buns

Method:

*I tried putting 2 cups of thawed frozen tomatoes (substitute tinned tomatoes) in the blender and adding the puree at the start of the cooking, only adding ¼ cup of water and ½ cup of vinegar, and cut back the ketchup to ¼ cup. This ended up too sweet, so I added 1/8 cup of vinegar after I’d pulled the meat apart. Next time I’ll leave out the ketchup.

• Place a frozen or thawed bison chuck roast in a slow cooker, or heavy casserole dish or heavy saucepan. Remove any string holding the roast together. Brown, if desired.
• Pour water and vinegar over the roast. Sprinkle 1 package of dry onion soup mix on the roast. Put the lid on and cook on low (if doing in the oven, 200^oF) for 7 hours.
• Using 2 forks, tease the meat apart into individual fibres. If there is a bone or any fat, remove these and discard. Sprinkle brown sugar and ketchup onto the pulled meat, stir thoroughly, and cook 1 hour more.
• 1 - 2 hours before bison is finished cooking, make up a pound of bread dough (we have a bread machine that mixes the dough for us; you can use thawed frozen dough, if you like).Let the dough rise once, then remove from the bread maker and flatten out so that you can cut 3 inch squares of dough, place these on a greased cookie sheet. Put one or two teaspoons of the pulled bison into the centre of the square and fold up all the corners in such a way that the meat is totally enclosed with dough. Place the buns on the cookie sheet in a warm place and let the dough rise (about half an hour).If desired, brush the tops of the buns with an egg & milk mixture.
• Heat the oven to 350 ^oF and cook the buns for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot or cold.