Chili Frito Pie

Chili Frito Pie is a fast, gloriously cheesy dinner built from crunchy corn chips, warm no-bean chili, and a creamy cheese sauce with diced tomatoes and green chiles. It comes together on the stovetop and in the microwave, needs no oven, and feeds hungry people before anybody has time to get dramatic.

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Chili Frito Pie

The Dinner Plan is Open, Heat, Layer

Some nights you have the energy to chop, saute, simmer, and make a respectable little production out of supper. Other nights, everybody is hungry right now and you need dinner to understand the assignment. This easy Chili Frito Pie is for that second kind of night. We are opening packages, warming things up, piling them into a dish, and getting on with our lives.

I ate a whole lot of chili Frito pie as a kid, and I turned out relatively okay. That is the level of reassurance I can offer here. This is not pretending to be health food or a fancy casserole. It is crunchy, cheesy, warm, salty comfort food that gets people fed with very little effort. Sometimes that is exactly what the table needs.

The Cheese Sauce Does the Heavy Lifting

The base is a three-pack of ready-to-serve cheese sauce. All three pouches go into a saucepan, because restraint has left the building. I stir in a drained can of diced tomatoes and green chiles, then warm everything over medium-low heat until the sauce is smooth and hot.

The tomatoes and chiles are optional. I like the little bit of tang and heat they bring, but I am not coming to your house to supervise your Frito pie. Leave them out if your people are suspicious of green things, use a milder variety, or pick the level of heat that makes sense for your table. The important part is keeping the heat gentle so the cheese sauce warms without scorching.

Why the Two Layers Matter

You could put corn chips in individual bowls and spoon the warm toppings over them. That would save a dish, and I support that decision. When I am serving everybody at once, though, I like building the whole thing in one casserole-style dish. The trick is making two layers instead of dumping every chip on the bottom and every bit of sauce on top.

Start with about half the bag of original corn chips. Add half the warm cheese mixture and half the hot no-bean chili. Then do it all again. That second layer means you get chips, cheese, and chili throughout the dish instead of digging through a dry basement of corn chips to reach the good stuff. It also gives the top plenty of texture, especially when you serve it right away.

Use the Chili You Actually Like

I use canned no-bean chili because it is quick and because beans are not invited to this particular party. The brand is your business. Heat it in a microwave-safe bowl while the cheese sauce is warming, then give it a little stir before layering. There is no reason to turn two canned ingredients into a science project. We just need everything hot and ready to meet the chips.

Finish the top with sliced green onions if you like them. They add a fresh bite and a little color, which is nice when the rest of dinner is various shades of orange and brown. Or leave them off. The pie is still going to do exactly what it came here to do.

Serve it Before the Crunch Wanders Off

This is a serve-it-now dinner. The chips are at their best while they are still crisp around the edges and just starting to soften under the warm chili and cheese. Put the dish in the middle of the table, hand everybody a bowl, and let them dig in. No oven, no long wait, and no apology for using shortcuts.

That is the whole spirit of this recipe. Feeding hungry people matters more than proving you can make every component from scratch. On a busy school night, a game night, or one of those evenings when your motivation has packed a bag and left town, this Chili Frito Pie gets dinner handled.

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Serves people

Ingredients

1 three-pack ready-to-serve original cheese sauce 3 individual pouches
1 can diced tomatoes and green chiles drained (optional)
1 can prepared no-bean chili
1 9 1/4-ounce bag original Fritos corn chips
Sliced green onions to taste

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Equipment

Medium saucepan
Microwave-safe bowl or large measuring cup
2 1/4-quart casserole or serving dish

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Matthew Bounds, creator of Your Barefoot Neighbor, warms up cheese for his Chili Frito Pie

Matthew Bounds, creator of Your Barefoot Neighbor, adds cheese to a hearty bowl of Chili Frito Pie

Matthew Bounds, creator of Your Barefoot Neighbor, adds no-bean chili to a hearty bowl of Chili Frito Pie

Instructions

Add all three cheese sauce pouches to a medium saucepan.
If using the diced tomatoes and green chiles, drain them well and stir them into the cheese sauce.
Set the saucepan over medium-low heat. Warm the mixture, stirring occasionally, until it is smooth and hot.
Transfer the no-bean chili to a microwave-safe bowl or large measuring cup. Microwave until hot, stirring as needed.
Spread about half of the corn chips across the bottom of the serving dish.
Spoon about half of the warm cheese mixture over the chips, followed by about half of the hot chili.
Repeat with the remaining corn chips, cheese mixture, and chili.
Top with sliced green onions to taste.
Serve immediately while the chips are still crisp around the edges.

Notes

The diced tomatoes and green chiles are optional. Drain them before adding them so the cheese sauce does not get watery.
For individual servings, divide the chips among bowls and spoon the hot cheese mixture and chili over each one.
This dish is best assembled right before serving. Keep the hot components separate until the table is ready so the chips stay crunchy.

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