Trail Chili Spice Base
Seven pantry spices, premixed at home, so camp chili is one bag and one boil.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 104
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 17 min
- water
- 600 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
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Bikepacking
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Chili powder | 4 tbsp | the backbone of the blend |
|---|---|---|
| Ground cumin | 1 tbsp | |
| Cayenne pepper | 1/2 tsp | drop it entirely for a mild pot |
| Garlic powder | 1 tbsp | |
| Onion powder | 1 tbsp | |
| Ground black pepper | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Instant refried bean flakes | 3/4 cup | per serving, at camp |
| Dried tomato powder or flakes | 2 tbsp | per serving |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | per serving |
Method
- At home, shake all seven spices together in a jar until the color is even. That is the whole blend.
- For each dinner, bag 2 tbsp of the blend with the bean flakes and tomato powder.
- In camp, boil 600 ml of water and pull the pot off the heat.
- Dump the bag in and stir. Give it three or four minutes to swell and stop looking like soup.
- Stir in the oil and eat. Add water by the splash if it goes past thick into solid.
The store packet is mostly the same seven spices plus filler, and it costs several times as much per pot. Mixing your own at home also means you control the salt, which matters when the rest of the meal is already salty instant food.
The trail version leans on the blend doing all the flavor work, because the base is instant refried bean flakes and tomato powder rather than simmered ground beef and canned tomatoes. Those rehydrate in minutes off the heat, so you spend one boil instead of twenty minutes of fuel. Two tablespoons of blend per serving is heavier-handed than the pound-of-beef ratio; dried starch swallows spice.
Packing
Keep the master jar at home and carry only what you need in quart freezer bags, one bag per dinner. Spices lose punch in a clear bag on a sunny pack lid, so use an opaque stuff sack.
Variations
- A foil packet of chicken or a handful of dried beef crumbles turns it into a meat chili.
- Corn chips crushed on top do the work of cornbread.
- Instant masa or potato flakes thicken a pot that came out too loose.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/homemade-chili-seasoning