Camp Oven Chilli Con Carne

A mild chilli with rice and toppings for a whole camp, cooked in a large camp oven.

Serves

12

Prep

30 minutes

Cook

1 hour 30 minutes

Cooked on

Camp oven, Gas stove

Dietary

Gluten free if the stock and spice mix are gluten free; Contains dairy (toppings)

Ingredients

Chilli

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 onions, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 red capsicums, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1½ kg beef mince
• 2 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp chilli powder, leave out for a very mild chilli
• 3 cans diced tomatoes, 400 g each
• 3 cans red kidney beans, 400 g each, drained and rinsed
• 140 g tomato paste
• 500 ml beef stock
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• salt and pepper, to taste

Rice

• 1 kg long-grain white rice
• 2 L water
• 1 tsp salt

Toppings

• 500 g grated cheddar
• 500 ml sour cream
• 3 avocados, diced, just before serving
• 1 bunch coriander, chopped, optional
• 2 limes, cut into wedges
• 2 packets corn chips

Method

Before you start

Use a large (12-quart or bigger) camp oven, or two smaller ones with the ingredients split between them. Light the fire about an hour before you start cooking so there’s a good bed of coals. Have a shovel, heatproof gloves and a lid lifter ready, and keep younger members back from the coals while the oven is moved.

Chilli

1. Sit the camp oven on a bed of coals and heat the oil. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until soft.
2. Add the garlic, capsicum and carrot and cook for another 3 minutes.
3. Add the mince a handful at a time, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, and cook until it’s browned all over. If there’s a lot of fat, spoon some off into a tin to cool (never pour it onto the fire).
4. Stir in the cumin, paprika, oregano and chilli powder and cook for a minute until they smell toasted.
5. Add the tomatoes, beans, tomato paste and stock and stir well. Bring it to a gentle bubble.
6. Put the lid on and rake the oven to the edge of the coals, so it simmers rather than boils. Cook for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes and scraping the bottom so it doesn’t stick. Add a little water if it gets too thick.
7. Stir in the corn for the last 10 minutes. Taste, and season with the salt and pepper.

Rice

1. While the chilli simmers, rinse the rice in a colander until the water runs mostly clear.
2. Put the rice, water and salt in a large pot with a tight lid. Bring it to the boil on a gas stove.
3. Turn the heat to its lowest setting, put the lid on and cook for 15 minutes without lifting the lid.
4. Take the pot off the heat and leave it covered for 5 minutes, then fluff the rice with a fork.

Serving

1. Set the toppings out in bowls along a table, with the rice first, then the chilli, then the toppings, so the line keeps moving.
2. Have a leader serve the chilli from the camp oven, as the pot and lid stay very hot.
3. Squeeze lime over the top and add corn chips on the side.

Leftovers

Cool leftover chilli quickly by spreading it out in a shallow container, and keep it in an esky with plenty of ice. Use it within a day, reheated until it’s steaming hot all the way through. Don’t keep leftover rice: cooked rice left warm can make people sick.