Frito Pie is a Texas delicacy, popular at county fairs and considered good tail-gaitin’ eats. This Frito Pie recipe an easy treat to make – a 10 minute prep and then let the delicious texas chili simmer an hour on the stove. Rip open a package of Fritos, pour it on and eat straight out of the bag.
Why This Frito Pie Recipe Is So Good
- An easy to prep and delicious treat!
- The kids will love it!
- A rich and flavorsome chili.
- Great for a BBQ or summer party.
Ingredients For This Frito Pie Recipe
- Fritos
- Ancho, chipotle, pequin chilies
- Cooking oil
- Onion
- Cumin, oregano, cinnamon, cloves
- Ground beef
- Lime juice
- Shredded cheese
- Salt & pepper
How To Make This Frito Pie Recipe with Texas Chili
- In a bowl, soak the ancho and the chipotle chilies in 1 cup of hot water for 10 minutes.
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the cooking oil over medium heat. Add the onions and brown for 3 minutes. Throw in the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. Place the onions and garlic in the blender.
- Add the soaking chiles with the water into to the blender. Add in the pequin chilies (no need to soak these). Add in cumin, oregano, clove, cinnamon, salt, pepper. Blend until smooth.
- In the same large pot (as step 2) – cook the ground beef, stirring occassionally until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the chili puree and 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil then turn the heat to low and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring occassionally.
- Taste and adjust seasonings, if needed. (At this step I added an additional teaspoon of kosher salt and more black pepper). Stir in lime juice. Serve over Fritos and top with shredded cheese.
Customize Your Frito Pie
The recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks of 2011 – Lisa Fain’s Homesick Texan Cookbook – slightly modified to shave off a few minutes of the hands-on involvement in the recipe.
You can customize this recipe any way you want, including adding a can of Rotel diced tomatoes, a can of beans or using ground turkey, but there’s one thing you don’t want to change: use dried chiles instead of just chili powder.
Lisa’s recipe calls for dried ancho, chipotle and pequin — though I only used ancho and chipotle (couldn’t find pequin). The dried chiles will last forever in your pantry and all you need to do is rehydrate them in water and add them in the blender along with dried oregano, ground cumin, clove and cinnamon. This homemade chili base that has so much more depth and flavor than just ground chili powder.
Plus, you can have fun with some toppings, like sour cream, guac, salsa and top with a sprinkle of green cilantro!
What To Serve With This Frito Pie Recipe
Serve with a side of Collard Greens, another recipe from Lisa. You could also go for a simple garden side salad or a broccoli salad, and of course a creamy coelslaw never goes amiss!
Top Tips For This Frito Pie Recipe
- Add all the ingredients except the fritos to a slow cooker in the same order and cook on high for 2 hours,
- You can make the chili ahead of time and freeze/refrigerate, then just reheat and add to frito bags.
- Adjust the heat to make it more kid friendly, if you like!
- Serve with a simple side salad or collard greens
Check Out These Other Delicious Tex Mex Recipes
- Pressure Cooker White Bean Chili Frito Pie
- Grilled Fish Tacos with Corn and Pepitas
- Skirt Steak Tacos
- Club Med Salsa Mexicana and Guacamole
Have you tried this Frito Pie recipe? Feel free to leave a star rating and I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
Frito Pie Recipe with 1 hour Texas Chili
Ingredients
- 6 dried ancho chilies stems and seeds removed
- 2 dried chipotle chilies stems and seeds removed
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil bacon grease or lard
- 1 onion roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves chopped
- 4 dried pequin chilies
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt (1 teaspoon table salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 2 big bags Fritos or individual snack-sized Fritos at least for each person
- 8 ounces shredded cheese
Instructions
- a bowl, soak the ancho and the chipotle chilies in 1 cup of hot water for 10 minutes.
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the cooking oil over medium heat. Add the onions and brown for 3 minutes. Throw in the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. Place the onions and garlic in the blender.
- Add the soaking chiles with the water into to the blender. Add in the pequin chilies (no need to soak these). Add in cumin, oregano, clove, cinnamon, salt, pepper. Blend until smooth.
- In the same large pot (as step 2) - cook the ground beef, stirring occassionally until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the chili puree and 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil then turn the heat to low and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring occassionally.
- Taste and adjust seasonings, if needed. (At this step I added an additional teaspoon of kosher salt and more black pepper). Stir in lime juice. Serve over Fritos and top with shredded cheese.
