Crossword Genius

Meat with chilli yankee finds fair in NY (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

carney

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'fair in ny' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.

'meat with chilli yankee' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'yankee' could be 'y' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.) and 'y' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'carne' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'finds' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for carney that I've seen is " Butter up".)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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