Campfire Chili

Making chili when it is still summer hot isn't what most people would do.  However, when we go camping, we like to make this chili that we call Campfire Chili because we reheat it over the campfire. Yes, that's right, we make it at home and bring it in containers to the campsite.  

Tips for Cooking This Chili

The first tip is to make it at home!  This chili tastes even better the second day after the flavors have had a chance to blend together.

Cut your vegetables into a small dice.  Not teeny, but small enough that you can reheat it quickly and scoop it with crackers or Frito Lays Scoopables.

Saute the veggies a little bit starting with the hardest vegetables first: carrots, peppers, onions, garlic, zucchini, and then the tomatoes.  This will give the hardest veggies a little longer cooking time.

How to Make Campfire Chili

Heat oil in a skillet.  Use any oil you like, we tend to use butter or olive oil.  Add in your vegetables just like I mentioned above and let them cook a bit to soften.  Add in all the other ingredients and allow to simmer for at least 20 minutes but no more than an hour.  Add water or beef broth if the chili gets too thick.  Let it cool down for about 15 minutes, then fill your containers.  Store it in the refrigerator.

Substitutions

Instead of using the burnt ends, use one pound of ground beef and one-half pound of sausage.  We like a mild sausage in our chili.

Use diced chili tomatoes instead of regular canned tomatoes.

The adobo sauce is very spicy so feel free to leave that out if spice isn't your thing.  You will not need to replace it with anything.

You can substitute yellow summer squash for the zucchini.  We take out all the seeds before we saute it so that it doesn't get mushy.

The Recipe