Batch-Cook Chili, Dried Six Ways
One pot of chili at home, dried and split into six bags. Cook once in October, eat it all season.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 138
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 60 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 75 min
- water
- 475 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Basecamp
- Bikepacking
- Winter / snow
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Extra-lean ground beef | 1 1/2 lb | 93/7 or leaner; fat is what makes dried meat go rancid |
|---|---|---|
| Onion | 1 large, diced | |
| Garlic | 4 cloves, minced | |
| Canned black beans | 2 cans (15 oz each) | rinsed and drained |
| Canned diced tomatoes | 1 can (28 oz) | drained, juice reserved |
| Tomato paste | 6 oz | |
| Chili powder | 3 tbsp | |
| Ground cumin | 1 tbsp | |
| Smoked paprika | 2 tsp | |
| Salt | 2 tsp | |
| Instant refried bean flakes | 3 cups total | 1/2 cup per bag, added dry after drying |
| Corn chips or olive oil | 1 oz per serving | carried separately, added in camp |
Method
- At home: brown the beef, breaking it fine. Drain off every bit of fat and blot the pan with a paper towel. Fat left behind shortens the shelf life more than anything else here.
- Add the onion and garlic, cook until soft. Stir in the tomato paste and spices and let them cook a minute in the dry pan.
- Add the beans and drained tomatoes plus about a cup of the reserved juice. Simmer 20 minutes until it is thick, not soupy.
- Spread the chili thin on lined dehydrator trays, no more than a quarter inch. Dry at 145°F for 8 to 10 hours, until the beans are hard and nothing is tacky. An oven on its lowest setting with the door cracked works, slower.
- Break the sheets up and divide into six bags. Add 1/2 cup of bean flakes to each bag. Seal and store in the dark.
- In camp: boil 475 ml of water, dump in one bag, stir, kill the heat.
- Cover and wait ten minutes. Stir once at the halfway mark or the flakes clump against the bottom.
- Crush the corn chips in on top, or pour in the oil, and eat.
Batch cooking is a home-kitchen idea that transfers to the trail almost unchanged: cook once, portion, store. The only difference is the storage medium. A freezer is not available at 9,000 feet, so the pot goes into a dehydrator instead. Everything else about the logic holds. One evening of work at the stove covers six dinners, and the marginal cost of the seventh and eighth is nearly nothing.
Drying works here because the chili is already cooked through and already broken down. The beans and beef rehydrate fast because they were simmered soft first. The bean flakes are the insurance policy: they pull up whatever water the chili does not, so you get a thick bowl in ten minutes instead of a watery one in twenty. Lean beef is not a health choice, it is a shelf-life choice. The calories come back from the chips or oil at camp, where they will not go off in a pack.
Packing
Bags stack flat and ride anywhere. Vacuum-sealed with an oxygen absorber they hold a year; a plain freezer bag gets you a couple of months. Label with the date, because dried chili all looks the same in March.
Variations
- Skip the beef and use a cup of dried textured soy protein rehydrated into the pot. That version is vegan.
- A packet of instant mashed potato instead of bean flakes turns it into a thicker, blander, higher-calorie bowl.
- Dry a batch of rice alongside it and carry a half cup per bag for a heavier dinner.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/how-to-save-time-money-batch-cooking