Admittedly, chili isn’t likely something someone would think about if they’re craving a meal in August.

However, we’re still in prime camping season and chili is a great camp dinner. As Sweetwater County’s hunters are already thinking about hunting season being around the corner, why not include a tasty beef chili on the list of camp meals?

Texas Chili

The following recipe came from YouTuber Max Miller, who focuses on historical recipes on his channel, Tasting History with Max Miller. According to Miller, this recipe dates back to the late 1800s. Of course, when someone talks about Texas-style chili, you’re not going to find any beans in it. What is surprising to me is the lack of other vegetables here – things like peppers or even corn. One major alteration I made to the recipe is substituting tallow with butter because I couldn’t find beef tallow in the previous instances I’ve made this chili. It still turns out to be tasty, I promise. However, I recently learned tallow can be purchased locally, so I’ll likely make this chili as it was originally intended and write a short update sometime about how it tastes. I’m sure it will be good.

What you’ll need:

• 2 pounds of beef
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1/4 cup tallow (I replaced this with butter because I couldn’t find tallow)
• 2 tablespoons lard
• 1 cup of mined onion
• 3 cups of hot water
• 3 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic

Start by cutting the beef into small cubes, then mix it with the tallow (or in my case, butter) and salt. Melt the lard in a pot over medium heat, then cook the onions for about five minutes, stirring so they won’t burn. Add the meat and continue cooking, stirring frequently. Once the meat changes color, continue stirring every few minutes until the juices cook away. Add the hot water, chili powder and garlic and stir to combine everything and bring the chili to a boil. 

Lower the heat and simmer uncovered between 1 hour and 1 1/2 hours. If needed, add more water to avoid burning the chili if it reduces too much.

Once the meat is tender, you can serve the chili.