What is Chislic?
A South Dakota Tradition
Originally, it was strictly Lamb or mutton, but we’ve come so far! It’s expanded to beef, goat, venison, chicken, or pretty much any meat that floats your boat. We have a restaurant in Sioux Falls devoted to all things chislic, and they’ve listed pheasant, fish, and bison on their menu. They have many different sauces and rubs to try, but I’m old school and tend to stick with garlic salt.
Growing up, my dad and brothers used to go deer hunting, and guess what we got to have a LOT of when they’d bag a few?
Fried meat (on a stick)
Traditionally, Chislic is meat served on a skewer but it’s not required to use a skewer. We just throw it on a plate and use toothpicks to serve ourselves. The old tradition was to serve it with saltine crackers, but now many places offer fries or any other side dish available.
Other Fun Facts about Chislic
I looked up the History of Chislic and found this article if you’d like more facts. https://heritagehallmuseum.com/blog/f/the-history-of-chislic
Chislic (or Shashlik, according to the article) was brought to the Dakota Territories in the late 1800’s. The German immigrants are the ones who came up with frying the meat, rather than grilling it. Absolute GENIUS!
Chislic is the best reason to never leave South Dakota!
Making Chislic:
It’s so easy! Cube up some meat (lamb, beef, venison, whatever you want) and drop it in a fryer to your desired doneness. Throw some garlic salt on there and grab a toothpick! Delicious! I have friends that use their air fryer and are just as happy with that method. I’ve used the Dutch Oven to fry it, as well. You can grill the cubes, but we call that (steak) tips, rather than Chislic. It’s fine, you do you.
More on Chislic
Because Chislic is Officially (since 2018) the South Dakota State Nosh, the SD Chislic Festival was born. Chislic and beer go together like cookies and milk, so the festival is obviously very popular in the southeastern part of the state!
We like to make it at our house pretty frequently. We tend to stay with beef at our house these days. Sometimes I use stew meat, but I’ve cut up steak and even roast before to make it. We use our deep fryer, but I’ve used the Dutch oven and the air fryer, in the past as well.
We like to stick to garlic salt and pepper, but the options are limitless! Many people like a dipping sauce, such as BBQ sauce or Ranch, but I don’t need any of that. Though I have been known to use steak sauce on occasion.
Really the best part of this simple food is that you can have it as a snack OR make it a meal!
