When I was growing up, apparently we didn’t eat a lot of the traditional home cooking that are familiar to friends. Among the “traditional family meals” that are a mystery to me has always been Frito Pie. Can of chili, covering Fritos with cheese and onions sounded both fascinating and terrifying. However, it fascinated me enough that I decided to try it with some extra chili as a way to creatively use some leftovers.

I looked up some Frito Pie recipes online, but they were almost all identical. It involved a bed of Frito chips, layered with chili, cheese and onions.

This was tasty, and an interesting way to use chili. However, the Fritos at the base ended up a bit stale, so next time (and there WILL be a next time) I’m going to try crushing the Fritos and make a more solid base. Overall, though, using homemade chili in this recipe made it really, really tasty!

CONFESSION: My secret to my chili isn’t shortcut at all. In fact, it’s a gigantic pain, but it makes it so much better. I grind my own very lean meat.

From there it’s hard to say. My chili’s never really the same twice, though I follow the same steps. Brown the meat with plenty of onions and garlic and lots of Penzey’s chili powder, some cumin and chipotle pepper, and plenty of canned tomatoes. Add diced poblano peppers for spice and simmer on very low heat for several hours. I serve it with diced white onion, sour cream and shredded cheese and have been told more than once it’s the best around. I don’t know about that, but it’s good stuff.

But seriously, if you have the means, grind your own meat. We grind chicken, turkey and beef with our KitchenAid Food Grinder Attachment, and it really makes all the difference.