Chili-Fritoque

Sort of a precursor to nachos, chili-fritoque is a great appetizer made with broken tortilla chips, chili con carne and pinto beans, topped with cheese and jalapeños.

Pronounced free-TOKΕ-ay, this dish is found on the World War II–era menu of the Original Mexican Restaurant in San Antonio. It was founded in 1899 and sadly closed in 1960. (There another restaurant by the same name now used by permission of the Farnsworths, the restaurant’s owners.) 

The original recipe included just beans but there was also a version called chiltoque with chili con carne instead of the beans. You know I had to take it one step farther and use both. As I was writing up this post, I google searched Chili-Fritoque and I'm not the only one who made this good decision.

Personally, why would anyone order just beans and cheese or just chili and cheese when you could add all three to this tasty corn chip dish? 

Chili-Fritoque

The recipe is adapted from The Texas Cookbook by Arthur and Bobbie Coleman, published in 1949.  For the chili con carne, homemade is always better than canned. I use this recipe here: Classic Chili con Carne. An oldie but goodie. 

Ingredients

2 cups or 360g cooked pinto beans (canned are fine but rinse them!)

2 cups or 540g chili con carne

2 cups (or more) broken tortilla chips (I'm a fan of more.)

2-4 small dried red chili peppers

1 cup or 113g grated cheddar or American cheese

For serving: sliced jalapeños 

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. 

Use a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle to grind your dried chili peppers finely.

Mix the beans, chili con carne and ground chili peppers together in a large bowl. 

If you are baking all the chili-fritoque servings at once, mix in all the broken tortilla chips. 

If not, separate the mixture and the broken chips and only mix the chips into the portions that you are ready to bake and serve. Place the chip/mixture in individual baking dishes.

Divide cheese evenly, sprinkling a fair share over each one. 

Bake in your preheated oven just long enough to melt the cheese and heat the beans and chili through, about 10-15 minutes. You can broil right at the end if you’d like the cheese to brown a little. Top with a few slices of jalapeño. 

Serve with extra chips and a spoon for scooping, if desired. 

Enjoy! 

Tomorrow is National Corn Chip Day so my Sunday Fun Day friends and I are sharing recipes that will help you celebrate this foodie holiday. Check out the links below: 

• Chili-Fritoque from Food Lust People Love
• Frito Corn Salad from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Onolicious Furikake Chex Mix from Culinary Cam
• Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken and Frito Casserole from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Spicy Korean Chicken Fritos from Palatable Pastime
• Vegetarian Mexican Tortilla Soup from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Vegetarian Nachos from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Walking Tacos/Tacos in a Bag from Sneha's Recipe

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Classic Chili con Carne

This Classic Chili con Carne is made with ground beef, smoked bacon and tomatoes, and flavored with onion, chili powder, cumin and chili peppers. It's a warming bowl of comfort. 

This is the chili con carne I cook to make Frito pies or to serve on chili dogs. It's easy but rich with the addition of the smoked bacon. 

Classic Chili con Carne

The dark chili powder I use is the McCormick brand and is a mix of spices, including salt. Read your label and adjust the salt if your brand doesn't include any.  

Ingredients
1lb or 450g ground beef
2-3 slices thick smoked bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, minced
4 tablespoon dark chili powder 
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 can (14 oz or 400g) finely chopped tomatoes plus half a can water
1 teaspoon sugar
1-3 red chili peppers
Salt to taste – depends on your chili powder (see note above)

Method
Brown your ground beef over a medium high heat. Add in the chopped bacon and fry until the bacon is a bit crispy.

Add in the minced onion and cook with the bacon and beef until it gets soft and translucent.

Spoon in the dark chili powder, along with the extra teaspoon of ground cumin.

Pour in the can of chopped tomatoes plus half a can of water and one teaspoon of sugar.

Add fresh red chili peppers to taste, removing the stems first.

Simmer the mixture, lid on, for at least half an hour or longer if you have the time. Salt to taste. Some chili powders are heavier on the salt content than others so, as mentioned previously, depending on your brand, you may not need much more. Or any!

This is great served over Fritos for a classic Frito pie or on top of Mexican Cornbread Waffles like these guys: 

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