Cornmeal Chili
Ground beef chili thickened with cornmeal, cooked in a dutch oven over coals.
- calories
- 540
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 49
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 55 min
- total time
- 65 min
- water
- 950 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
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Ground beef | 2 lb | keep frozen in the cooler until cook night |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 1 quart | |
| Chili powder | 4 tbsp | |
| Dried oregano | 1 tbsp | |
| Ground cumin | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tbsp | |
| Cayenne pepper | 1/2 tbsp | |
| Tabasco | 1 tsp | |
| Minced garlic | 1 tbsp | jarred is fine and keeps |
| Canned chili beans | 1 can (15 oz) | do not drain |
| White cornmeal | 1/3 cup |
Method
- Build a bed of coals and set a 12-inch dutch oven over them at frying heat, around 375°F. That is roughly 25 coals underneath.
- Brown the beef in the bare oven, breaking it up as it goes. Pour off the fat.
- Add the water, spices, Tabasco, garlic, and the beans with their liquid. Bring it to a boil.
- Pull most of the coals out to drop the heat to a simmer, near 225°F. Lid on, 30 minutes, stirring every so often.
- Sprinkle in the cornmeal while stirring so it does not clump. Simmer uncovered another 15 minutes until it thickens.
- Taste for salt. It gets hotter as it sits.
Cornmeal is the whole point. Camp chili made with a quart of water runs thin, and you cannot simmer it down for an hour over coals without burning the bottom. Stirring cornmeal in at the end takes fifteen minutes to pull the liquid together, and it adds a faint corn sweetness that plays against the cayenne.
This one stays car-camping food. Two pounds of raw beef needs a cooler, and the canned beans are heavy. The beans go in with their liquid on purpose, since that starch is doing half the thickening before the cornmeal ever shows up. Cut the coals hard after the boil. A dutch oven holds heat long after you pull it off the fire, and chili scorches fast at the seam where the wall meets the base.
Packing
Measure the chili powder, oregano, cumin, salt, and cayenne into one small jar at home. The beef rides frozen at the bottom of the cooler and thaws by dinner. Cornmeal goes in its own bag so it stays dry.
Variations
- Swap the beef for two cans of drained lentils or a bag of textured vegetable protein rehydrated in the water. Skip the browning step.
- Cut the cayenne to a teaspoon if you are feeding kids, and pass the Tabasco at the table instead.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/cornmeal_chili-1246.asp