No-Bean Chili, Dutch Oven
Beef, bacon, and six jalapenos. No beans, no filler, one pot of coals.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 8 oz
- cal / oz
- 53
- protein
- 32 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 70 min
- total time
- 90 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
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Lean chuck roast | 2 lb | cut into 1-inch cubes at home |
|---|---|---|
| Bacon | 8 strips | |
| Onion | 1 large | chopped |
| Garlic | 6 cloves | minced |
| Jalapeno peppers | 6 | seeded and chopped; leave seeds in if you want it hotter |
| Chili powder | 4 tbsp | |
| Cumin | 1 tbsp | |
| Oregano | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | 2 tsp | |
| Canned chopped tomatoes | 1 can (20 oz) | do not drain |
Method
- Get a 12-inch dutch oven up to about 350F over coals. Fry the bacon until it is crisp, pull it out, and leave every bit of the grease behind.
- Brown the beef cubes in the bacon fat in batches. Crowding the pot steams the meat instead of browning it. Add the onion and garlic to the last batch and cook until the onion goes soft.
- Return all the meat to the pot, stir in the jalapenos, and let them cook a minute.
- Add the chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt, and the whole can of tomatoes with its liquid. Crumble the bacon back in and stir.
- Pull coals until the pot sits near 300F. Lid on, cook one hour. Stir every twenty minutes and check that the bottom is not catching.
- It is done when the beef gives under a spoon. If it is soupy, cook the lid off for ten minutes.
No beans means nothing is soaking up liquid, so the tomatoes and the fat have to do the thickening on their own. That is what the hour at 300F is for. The chuck breaks down slowly and the connective tissue turns the liquid into something that coats a spoon. Rush it and you get chunks of tough beef sitting in tomato juice.
The bacon grease is not a garnish, it is the cooking fat for two pounds of lean meat. Do not pour it off. Six jalapenos sounds aggressive but seeding them takes most of the heat out; leave the seeds in a couple if the group wants it to bite. This one needs a cooler, so it belongs at a car camp or a basecamp, not in a pack.
Packing
Cube the beef and mix the four dry spices into one bag before you leave. Beef and bacon ride in the cooler, bottom layer, on ice. The tomato can and spice bag go in the food bin.
Variations
- Swap the chuck for 2 lb of ground beef and cut the cook time to 35 minutes.
- No cooler: use two 12 oz cans of roast beef or freeze-dried ground beef, skip the browning, and simmer 20 minutes.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/no_bean_hot_chili-1304.asp