Captain Knox's Surf-and-Turf Camp Chili
Beef, canned salmon, and oysters in one pot. A 1984 crock pot recipe rebuilt for a fire and a Dutch oven.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 44
- protein
- 46 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 90 min
- total time
- 110 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Ground beef | 2 lb | rides in the cooler; cook it the first night out |
|---|---|---|
| Mushrooms | 8 oz | sliced, or 1 oz dried and rehydrated |
| Onion | 1/2, diced | |
| Canned salmon | 15 oz | drained, bones crushed in |
| Canned smoked oysters | 8 oz | packed in oil, oil and all |
| Tomato sauce | 1 small can (8 oz) | |
| Diced tomatoes | 14 oz can | |
| Kidney beans | 1 can | drained |
| Whole green chilies | 6 oz can | chopped |
| White sugar | 1/2 cup | |
| Brown sugar | 1/2 cup | |
| Chili powder | 1/4 cup | |
| Hot mustard powder | 1/2 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tbsp | |
| Cayenne | 1/4 tsp |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want steady low heat for over an hour, not flame.
- Set the Dutch oven over the coals and brown the beef with the onion and mushrooms. Pour off most of the fat but leave a spoonful.
- Stir in the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, beans, and chilies. Scrape the bottom so nothing sticks.
- Add both sugars and all the spices. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
- Fold in the salmon and the oysters last, oil included. Stir gently so the fish stays in pieces.
- Lid on, rake most of the coals aside, and hold it at a bare simmer for at least 90 minutes. Stir every 15 minutes and scrape the bottom each time.
- Taste before serving. This one runs sweet and hot; more salt is usually what it wants.
This came off a crock pot recipe from 1984, and the original ran eight to twenty-four hours on low. A Dutch oven over spent coals does the same job in ninety minutes if you keep the heat low and stir often enough that the sugar does not scorch on the bottom.
The fish is the strange part and it is the point. Canned salmon dissolves into the sauce and thickens it; the smoked oysters and their oil are where the smoke and most of the richness come from. Add both at the end, because anything that simmers hard for an hour turns to paste. A full cup of sugar against a quarter cup of chili powder is not a typo either, and it is why this needs more salt than you expect.
Packing
Premix the sugars and spices at home in one jar so you are not measuring nine things by the fire. Cans and jar in a bin, beef in the cooler on the bottom.
Variations
- Skip the oysters and it is still a good chili. Skip the salmon too and it is an ordinary one.
- Cut both sugars in half if you do not want dessert-adjacent chili.
- Overnight in the cooler and reheated the next night, it is better. The original cook was right about that.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/captain-knoxs-ivory-coast-special-chili