Frito Pies at the Campsite

We love this easy to customize dish for a quick meal that can feed a bunch of hungry campers!

This popular dish at sports venues, fundraisers, state fairs, and all sorts of other places are a perfect dish to serve at the campsite, especially if you have a crowd. Typically made with a meat chili served over corn chips (traditionally Fritos hence the name), they can also be made with taco meat (which would be called a Walking Taco). It is such an easy meal to prep by making the meat at home in advance. Then you just reheat the meat at the campsite and allow each hungry person to build their own with a variety of chips and toppings you have set out.

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What we love about Frito Pies:

• Make the meat in advance
• Use whatever chips you like
• Customize with your favorite toppings

The Ingredients for Frito Pies:

• Chili or Taco Meat
• Corn chips of some type
• Your favorite toppings (cheese, salsa, sour cream, jalapenos, etc.)

The Process for making Frito Pies:

1. Make chili or taco meat (or both) at home
2. At the campsite, reheat the meat or chili
3. Either place chips in a bowl or cut open the side of a small bag of chips
4. Place a scoop of chili or meat on top of the chips
5. Add whatever toppings you prefer
6. Enjoy!

FAQ and How to Customize:

Q: What is a Frito Pie? What is a Walking Taco? What’s the difference?

A: Frito pies are traditionally chili on top of Fritos and covered in your favorite toppings while Walking Tacos would be some taco meat on top of tortilla chips and covered in your favorite toppings. They are considered a classic fair food and are a great way to feed a crowd.

Q: Do we have to use Fritos or tortilla chips?

A: Definitely not! We see plenty of people making these using bags of Doritos if that sounds good to you. We would not recommend bags of potato chips because they would get soggy too fast, but Sun Chips should be sturdy enough. If you don’t want to use chips, some other alternates might be rice or couscous or pasta. I wouldn’t call these Frito Pies or Walking Tacos, but I would still consider them delicious.

Suggested Appetizer(s):

We love all sorts of homemade salsas and dips such as Spicy Bean Salsa, Grilled Corn and Black Bean Salsa, or Guacamole.

Suggested Side Dish(s):

With a make ahead dish like this, you could spend more time and effort at the campsite making a side dish such as Cilantro Grilled Corn, but we would recommend something like our Mexican Corn Salad plus a green and/or fruit salad for simplicity’s sake.

Suggested Dessert:

What would you like to eat? We think Campfire Cones are a great option especially as each camper can customize their cone to their liking.

Equipment Needed:

• Pot to reheat the chili or taco meat
• Spoon to ladle it onto chips
• Serving utensils for toppings       
• Heat resistant gloves: If you are going to be working around a fire, at some point you will probably get burned. These gloves can help prevent that.

More Tex-Mex Recipes to Enjoy:

• Cast Iron Camping Nachos
• Foil Pack Tex Mex Chicken
• Pie Iron Tasty Tacos

Don’t forget lots of fun toppings to go along with your Frito Pies and Walking Tacos!

We love to have lots of toppings to meet everyone’s tastes on hand when we serve these. There is always salsa and shredded cheese. Usually, we also have jalapenos and sour cream. And sometimes we also have guacamole. What would you serve with your meal? Tag us on Instagram @campinganswer and let us know!