Dutch Oven Chili con Carne with Dark Chocolate
Beef, beans, and beer in a cast iron pot. The chocolate is not a garnish.
- calories
- 760
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 54
- protein
- 52 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 45 min
- cook
- 120 min
- total time
- 165 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
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Beef chuck | 2.5 lb | cut into small cubes at home |
|---|---|---|
| Ground pork | 14 oz | |
| Chorizo | 14 oz | sliced into coins |
| Onions | 3 medium | |
| Garlic | 2 cloves | |
| Fresh chiles | 4 | |
| Tomato paste | 7 oz | |
| Dark chocolate | 4 oz | 70% or higher, chopped |
| Beer | 500 ml | |
| Malt beer or dark soda | 300 ml | |
| Canned red beans | 3 cans | drained |
| Chili powder | 2.5 tbsp | |
| Cumin seed | 2 tsp | |
| Dried oregano | 1.5 tbsp | |
| Ground tarragon | 3/4 tsp | |
| Sugar | 3/4 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | 3/4 tbsp each | |
| Worcestershire sauce | 3/4 tbsp | |
| Vinegar | 3/4 tbsp | |
| Dried parsley | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Build a fire and burn it down to coals. You want a bed you can shovel from, not flames.
- Set the Dutch oven over coals and brown the chorizo first. Its fat is the cooking fat for everything after.
- Add the beef cubes in batches. Crowding the pot steams the meat instead of browning it. Pull each batch out, then brown the ground pork.
- Drop in the chopped onion, garlic, and chiles. Cook until the onion goes soft, then stir in the tomato paste and let it darken for a minute.
- Return all the meat. Add the spices, sugar, salt, pepper, Worcestershire, and vinegar. Pour in both beers.
- Lid on, coals underneath and on top. Hold a low simmer for about 90 minutes. Check every 20 and stir the bottom.
- Add the drained beans and the chopped chocolate. Another 30 minutes, lid on, until the chocolate is gone and the sauce coats a spoon.
This is a car camping meal and it is honest about that. Two hours of coal management, a cooler full of raw meat, and a pot heavy enough to be its own workout. There is no trail version of it worth writing.
The chocolate is doing structural work, not dessert work. Cocoa solids are bitter and tannic, which is exactly what a pot of fat and tomato paste needs to stop tasting flat after the third bite. Add it at the end so it melts into the sauce rather than scorching against the iron. The vinegar is there for the same reason from the other direction.
The dietary tag is gluten-free only in spirit: check your beer, since most of it is barley. Use a gluten-free beer or broth if that matters to anyone eating.
Packing
Cube the beef and slice the chorizo at home, then vacuum seal both. Premix every dry spice into one jar so camp is pour-and-stir. Meat and beer ride in the cooler; beans, paste, chocolate, and spices go in the dry box.
Variations
- No beer? Use beef broth plus a splash more vinegar. You lose some depth, not the dish.
- Swap the chuck for cubed venison if someone in camp hunts.
- Leftovers reheat into breakfast under a couple of eggs.
https://petromax.de/blogs/bbqpit/chili-con-carne-im-dutch-oven