I know, we're already into the 3rd week of the season, but I have the Superbowl on my mind each week, which makes me think of party food.
So many choices, but a lot of Sundays to make some good grub.
Let's make some bacon chili cheese fries, shall we? Mmmmmm....
You have a couple of choices to make. Homemade fries or frozen? Homemade chili or canned? I did homemade for both.
The fries:
potatoes, I use your standard cheapo bag of potatoes
oil, I use canola
You can peel your potatoes or not, whatever you prefer. Cut your potatoes into the thickness of fries you like and put them in a bowl of water as you cut them. (They'll brown if they are exposed to air.)
These can sit while you throw together a pot of chili.
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
4 cans of tomato sauce, give or take (or whatever style of canned you like; crushed, diced...)
chili powder
cayenne
salt
salt
This is really easy and shouldn't take more than maybe 10-15 minutes.
Brown your hamburger and drain. Back into the pot it goes and dump everything else in, including a palmful (you might even add more) of chili powder, and start off slowly with the cayenne if you get my drift. As far as the tomato sauce goes, you can add as much or little as you want to make it thicker. Adjust the seasonings to your taste and let it simmer.
The toppings:
BACON. Fry it until nice and crispy, then drain and crumble it. (Might need two packs to allow for nibbling!)
Cheese (cheddar, pepper jack, colby jack...)
Sour cream
Cayenne
Back to the fries:
Heat the oil to 300° It will initially jump higher, but when it starts to cool down make sure you keep your temp between 325°-350° (I know, my oil was way too hot. I let it come down before frying.)
This is really important; with a clean dish towel, dry the potatoes batch by batch as you fry them.
water + oil = bad
The size of your pot will determine how many fries are in each batch. For a Dutch oven you can probably put 15-20. I used a smaller pot so I would use less oil and it could be deeper, and did around 10 fries at a time.
Fry until they're golden brown. There's not really a time frame, just watch them. Do not walk away!
Salt when they're on the draining rack.
Put it all together!
Park yourself
and
enjoy!
Some extra tips:
Extra fries can be...
fridged and microwaved, but they'll be soggy.
fridged and baked and will be less soggy.
frozen, then baked like frozen fries you'd buy from the store. (freeze separately on a tray then put in a ziploc.)
Chili leftovers are delish, but can also be frozen in individual servings or a family sized freezer ziploc. When you put it in the freezer lay it flat so it thaws evenly later and fits better in your freezer.
Wow, now I'm really hungry. Until next time!
GO HAWKS!
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