Texas · Main
Texas Frito Pie
- Easy
- 45 min
- roughly 3 of 4 for cost
Leads with a warm current of chile, richness that coats and comforts, settling low and earthy.
Ingredients
- 1 bag corn chips (Fritos)
- For the chili: 500g ground beef, 1 onion, 2 tbsp chili powder, 1 tbsp cumin, 400g crushed tomatoes, 400g pinto beans, 500ml stock
- 200g cheddar, grated
- Diced onion, jalapenos, and sour cream
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
Allergen screen
Found: dairy
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Brown the beef with the onion, add the chili powder and cumin, and cook 1 min. 1 min
- Add the tomatoes, beans, and stock and simmer 40 min until thick. 40 min
- Split a bag of corn chips down the side, or pile them in a bowl.
- Ladle the hot chili over the chips.
- Top with cheddar, onion, jalapenos, and sour cream and eat straight from the bag.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Searing: the hard crust 141 recipes
- The pan keeps a hard, steady sizzle from the moment the food lands and does not fall quiet; silence within the first half minute means the pan lost its heat and the surface is now steaming rather than browning.
- It releases itself when tested: slide a thin edge under and it lifts without tearing. Anything that grips the pan has not formed a crust yet and is not ready to be moved.
- Deep even brown across the whole face, edge to edge, when it is turned under the light: no pale ring left around a browned centre, and no black patches that taste bitter on their own.
- The pan floor carries a dry browned layer that dissolves and lifts the moment liquid hits it: not a wet grey film, and not black flecks that stay put and stay bitter.
- Cut into it: the browned band is thin, a few millimetres at most, sitting straight on top of correctly cooked interior; a thick grey collar under the crust means the heat was too low for too long.
Where it goes wrong The pan was not hot enough, or too much went in at once, so the food released its water and sat in it: the surface goes grey and steams, it sticks when moved, and the crust that eventually forms arrives over an interior already cooked through.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec
- Also Right
- Tempranillo (Rioja Reserva)
- From the Taps
- Amber ale
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water, make room
Tannin binds to seared protein and fat: each bite softens the wine, each sip resets the palate: the steakhouse equation.
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