Chili Chip Casserole
Ground beef, canned chili, corn chips, and cheese baked under coals in a dutch oven.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 58
- protein
- 28 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 40 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
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Lean ground beef | 1 lb | lean matters, there is nowhere for grease to go |
|---|---|---|
| Canned chili | 1 can (about 15 oz) | with or without beans |
| Corn chips | 1.5 cups | Fritos or similar, the sturdy kind |
| Cheese | 1 cup, grated | cheddar, colby, American, or a mix |
| Onion | 1/4, chopped |
Method
- Get coals going. You want a 12-inch dutch oven at about 350F: for frying, put nearly all the coals underneath.
- Chop the onion and grate the cheese while the coals burn down.
- Brown the beef with the onion in the oven, breaking the meat apart as it cooks. Pour off the grease if there is a pool of it. A little left behind is fine.
- Add the chili. Stir it up to a boil, then let it simmer five minutes.
- Stir the corn chips through the chili. Scatter the cheese over the top.
- Move coals to a bake setup, roughly a third under and two thirds on the lid, still about 350F. Lid on, 20 minutes.
- Lift the lid when the cheese has melted flat and the edges are bubbling.
This is a scout-camp dutch oven standby, and the reason it holds up is that only one ingredient is perishable. The chili and chips are shelf-stable, so the cooler is only carrying beef and a block of cheese.
The corn chips go in late on purpose. Twenty minutes under the lid softens them into something closer to a dumpling than a chip, which is the texture you want. Stir them in at the start and they dissolve completely.
Everything happens in the one oven, so cleanup is a scrape and a wipe. Lean beef is worth the money here since drained grease has nowhere to go at a campsite.
Packing
Beef rides in the cooler, bottom, next to the ice. Cheese goes in as a block and gets grated at camp, since pre-grated dries out and clumps. Chili can and chips live in the dry bin.
Variations
- Spoon it into soft tortillas instead of bowls.
- Doubling works, but only go to 1.5 cups of cheese, not 2. More than that just makes a rubber lid on top.
- A 10-inch oven takes about two thirds to three quarters of everything, same heat and same time.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/ccc_casserole-2325.asp