Chilli con carne is a wonderful one-pot dish. It is known as THE campfire dish made by cowboys! To me it brings back memories of John Wayne, sitting all alone next to his campfire, (with his horse, of course) and opening a tin of beans and a tin of tomatoes and mixing it with some meat, to cook the perfect Chilli Con Carne!
I use to make Chilli Con Carne quite often in the 80’s. At that stage you could buy tinned Chilli beans, and I used that for my chilli con carne. I also used cubed beef and never minced meat. The recipe that I used at that stage was the following:
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon of butter in a pot on the stove. Brown 125g of cubed bacon, 500g cubed beef, 2 chopped onions and 2 cloves of garlic in the butter-oil mixture. Add 125ml water, 1 x 400g tin of chilli beans, 1 x 400g tin of whole peeled tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and sauté very slowly for 2 hours.
For some or the other reason I stopped making this delicious dish when my children was young, firstly because I thought they should not eat chillies and secondly because I thought they won’t enjoy the beans.
Luckily VG asked me to make this about a year ago and now it serves regularly on our menu and even my son loves it! I have adapted the recipe completely and now use minced beef for this. This specific version is the chilli con carne, covered with some partially cooked sliced potatoes and baked in the oven! Real delicious winter food!
- 45ml olive oil
- 30ml butter
- 800g beef mince
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 45ml minced chillies
- 5ml sugar
- 1 x 800g tinned tomatoes
- 2 x 400g beans in tomato sauce
- 20ml smoked paprika
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 6 potatoes, peeled and halved
- 180ml cream
- extra smoked paprika to sprinkle over
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
- Grease a large oven-proof baking dish or 4 individual baking dishes.
- Heat the olive oil and butter in a deep pot over the stove and fry the mince until browned.
- Add the onions, garlic, chillies and sugar and fry for a couple of minutes until fragrant.
- Add the tinned tomatoes, beans and smoked paprika. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and simmer slowly for an hour.
- In the mean-time boil the potatoes in salted water for 20 minutes until just tender but still firm. Remove from heat and cool down.
- Spoon the mince mixture into the prepared baking dish or individual baking dishes.
- Slice the potatoes into slices and cover the mince mixture with the slices. Pour the cream over and sprinkle some smoked paprika.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in a pre-heated oven.
looks about ready for me to come over for a taster
if you substitute dry chillies for fresh, how much would you need?
Dried chillies are more concentrated, so I would suggest 20ml! Thanks for the visit!
Love the John Wayne reference
Chili is one of our favorites, it’s great for camping as well.
Great idea to add the potato topping, thanks.
It is a really great camping recipe, to make on the fire!