Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Peruvian Style Buffalo Heart

Had this with beef or llama heart quite a bit in Peru, it is almost a national dish and is a nice blend between European and native influences.

Clean heat of all veins and connective tissue. For beef it usually gets cut into strips or cubes, for llama deer and others I prefer to peel it in a spiral slice like if you were peeling an orange and wanted just an inch wide continuous peel.

Here is the general marinade recipe:
3 cloves garlic peeled
1 tablespoon cumin seeds or 1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 cup aji panca paste or 2 canned chipotle peppers with 1 tablespoon of their juices
3 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
About 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus oil for basting
Salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 pounds beef heart

I usually add some red wine and black pepper, sometimes pisco or tequila. Use this for about 30 minutes to an hour as the vinegar can dry the meat if longer than that. This works well for any red meat and for dove breast too. On dove I add bacon and jalapenos usually. Cook with a hard sear but still bright pink in the center. Over cooked and it will be like your worst memories of school cafeteria liver and onions.

These are served with a Chili Aji amarillo or yellow chili sauce, sometimes just chili's or others with vinegar and spices. Add some of the marinade to more chili panca and paprika for a red sauce,

Usual side dishes are boiled corn and potatoes boiled and then grilled. Have a Pisco sour before and either a good red wine or IPA with this and I bet you will be doing this one again.

I like the sound of that !

One of my favorites. This elk heart was marinated withe cumin a little bit of lime and salt. Then grilled.

I got a couple beef hearts in the freezer.......

I've got another one in the freezer. Maybe this weekend! It does take a fair amount of trimming.

We cook a fair bit of deer heart.....but had been struggling to come up with an idea for these beef hearts.


Was gonna boil like a tongue and grind for sandwich meat.



This sounds way better.

One of the more uniques on here in awhile.

Need to find that aji panca paste.

My middle daughter is into eclectic foods like this. I'll challenge her with it see what happens.

Perfect !!!!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

At a boy !

The chilis are what makes it unique. Here is some info. https://blog.allspiceonline.com/blog/aji-panca-and-aji-amarillo-sunny-chiles-of-peru/

You can improvise the Panco with Chipotle and Paprika but not the same. The Chili Amarillo can be a mix of yellow Anaheim, manzano, caribe and habenero but if you have all those then you probably have access to the real thing. Amazon has both types in jars.

Also forgot to mention these are brochettes or kebobs on skewers. The typical antichucho is meat only, if onions tomatoes or other things are cooked on skewers they are done separately.

you can transplant the recipe, but not the ingredients

Looks good. I’ll give it a whirl.

I have done a balsamic marinade and hot sear the last couple times I’ve cooked it.

Yes I improvise at the deer camp and may use balsamic and worchestshire with some chili , cumin and oregano. Like it when we have a cold morning while quartering the deer and will throw some heart on the grill to snack on while we work. Practically none leaves the camp unless we get four or more deer at once.