Campfire Cowboy Chili & Cornbread

It felt so nice to get back outside and cook over the fire! Jill and I have been eagerly waiting a soft, flaky snowfall to film and photograph a campfire recipe. While I had big dreams of cooking over the fire all autumn long, life got away from us. When we woke up this morning, the snow was falling so softly outside in big beautiful flakes, and it was a lovely 30° F without any wind. We knew it was the perfect morning to cook outside!

I had some beef in the fridge waiting to be turned into something delicious, and we decided to throw together a pot of chili. Yum! I love making chili. It is such an experimental soup. It’s a perfect winter meal, too, as you can use up a lot of the delicious summer vegetables that you preserved like canned tomatoes, peppers, and the like.

Our cooking site was blanketed in a lovely dusting of snow. The woodpile was looking magnificent, though we realized that we may need to cover it in tarp fall if we plan to use it over the winter. We love our woodpile for the warm season, and I wish that we had a fireplace or wood stove to utilize it during the winter months!

I had lots of help from the farm cats making this meal. They seem to get into all sorts of trouble around here, and they had no problem knocking over a bowl of shredded cheese right into the snow! We currently have six cats that live in a little heated cathouse on our covered porch, and they are happily fed home cooked meals.

Winter cooking outdoors is something entirely new for our family. I know there are many countries and cultures that are rich in the tradition of cooking over an open fire. For my family, it is something only slightly familiar from our days of being active in the Girl Scouts, more so for my mom and my grandma. For me, this is still a fresh concept, something that I hope becomes like second nature to me.

I love finding old-fashioned methods for life that can be enjoyed slowly and simply. I cannot imagine having to cook like this all of the time. It is a full on job, not just the cooking, but all of the prep work to even begin! Of course, if we were truly living in the nineteenth century and forced to cook outside, I am certain that we would be under a cooking fly, or a covered area so that there was no snow.

One thing that I did really enjoy about cooking by the fire in this weather was having a built-in refrigerator everywhere I turned. It was so nice to just sit my bowls of cheese, beer, and beef in the snow and let them stay chilled. It was much nicer to cook today than when it was in the 90s over the summer!

As for the chili, this recipe is absolutely fantastic. It’s a great flavorful chili with a bit of a kick! If you prefer a less spicy chili, I suggest leaving out the jalapeno pepper. I like a mild chili myself, and this one has the delicious flavor of a hamburger. It’s yummy!

The cornbread recipe is actually from our new cookbook, The Prairie Kitchen Cookbook, available on June 13, 2023. You can pre-order it here!

I hope that you enjoy this recipe, whether you cook it outside or over the stovetop!

xoxo Kayla

Campfire Cowboy Chili

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Yield: 10

Author: Kayla Lobermeier

Prep time: 30 MinCook time: 30 MinTotal time: 1 Hour

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp salted butter or 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 red bell peppers, diced
• 1 jalapeno, seeds and veins removed and minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 lbs ground beef 90/10
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1/2-inch chunks
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp cornmeal
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
• 2 28 ounce cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 15 ounce can chili beans, drained
• 1 15 ounce can spicy chili beans
• 2 15 ounce cans black beans, drained
• 12 ounce light beer

Instructions

1. Heat a large cast iron pot over a low flame campfire. Melt the butter and cook the onion, celery, bell pepper, and jalapeno until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 1-2 minutes.
2. Stir in the ground beef, browning it on all sides before crumbling. Cook until the meet has fully browned. Stir in the sweet potato. Season everything with the chili powder, cocoa powder, cornmeal, brown sugar, paprika, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, salt, and pepper.
3. Add the tomato paste and stir in to coat all of the ingredients. Top with the crushed tomatoes and bring the chili to a boil. Stir in the chili beans, spicy chili beans, and black beans. Stir in the beer and bring the soup back up to a boil. Spread out the coals of the fire and cover the pot, letting the chili simmer until the sweet potatoes are softened, about 20-25 minutes.
4. Chili tastes the best when it has been cooked over low heat for several hours. At this point, the chili can be served as a thinner soup. Otherwise, let it continue to simmer for about 2-3 hours.
5. If you would like to make this at home, follow the same directions over your stovetop. Otherwise, this can be made in the crockpot. Place all of the ingredients into a large crockpot and cook on low heat for 6-8 hours or high heat for 4-5 hours.
6. Serve hot with a side of cornbread.