Cowboy Bacon Chili Cheese Fries
This Chili Cheese Fries Recipe is flavorful and decadent. The bacon is the added flavor bonus. Use any type of french fries that you want. 
Chili Cheese Fries Recipe
Hold on tight, you’ll be pleased to know that these chili cheese fries are fresh, home-made, hand-made and fried with only the best yukon gold potatoes and grape seed oil. No need to sneak through the drive-through to satisfy your greasy cravings. You can do that in the sacred privacy of your own home.
Cardiologists will probably hate us for this recipe and what they’d call Early Death Chili Cheese Fries. But for those of us who want who want to indulge in something special and lathered in rich love, we call it Holy Shit Chili Cheese Fries. Better yet, we’ve cowboy’ed ’em up made them in the style of thick, rustic-cut potato wedges and added a spicy kick to the chili. The sky is the limit.
Bacon. Ground Brisket and Top Round. Beer. All cooked together with sweet onion, garlic, spices, and BBQ sauce. It is one hell of a chili.
We love a little heat in our chili, so it’s an addd option to the recipe. Homemade Sriracha sauce is a regular part of our pantry, our chicken wings usually get the spice treatment, and we often indulge in our Viet mother’s make-you-want-to-cry spicy Bun Bo Hue soup.
Second version: Eat more chili with your potatoes!
We’ll vary on how lazy or meticulous we are feeling in making our fries. Going all out, we’ll make them the Les Halles method of soaking, drying, soft frying, then crisp frying the little pa-taters. If we are feeling lazy, then we’ll just slice, dry, and fry. Either way, we nearly always use yukon golds and either grape seed oil or peanut oil for frying. Gives it that special touch.
You only live once, so don’t hold back. The joy from the occasional indulgence easily offsets the caloric vice-filled meal. At least in our book it does, just don’t tell the doctor! So what is everyone else’s favorite wintertime indulgence? Share your favorite undoing!
Rock On,
-Todd and Diane
Bacon Cowboy Chili Cheese Fries
Ingredients
Bacon Cowboy Chili
- 2 lbs (910g) Ground Beef , combination of top round and brisket is our favorite
- 6 strips (227g) Bacon , diced
- 1 large Sweet Onion , diced
- 4 cloves Garlic , crushed
- 1 cup BBQ Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
- 2 teaspoons ground Cumin
- 2 teaspoons Paprika
- 1 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked Black Pepper
- 1/2 teasspoon kosher salt , or to taste
Additional Ingredient for Chili Cheese Fries (choose as many or few as you like)
- 1 pound fries , cooked
- 1 cup shredded cheese , or as much as you want
- 1 cup caramelized onions
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup sliced green onion
- extra bacon
Instructions
- Heat a large sauce pan (preferably cast iron) over med-high heat. Add bacon and cook until crisp. Add ground beef, onions and garlic cook until beef is nearly cooked through and browned, stirring occasionally.
- Add BBQ sauce, chili powder, ground cumin, paprika , brown sugar, fresh cracked pepper and salt. Stir to combine, bring to a simmer, then lower heat to keep at a gentle simmer. Cook for about 20-30 minutes. If the chili is too thick add about 1/4 cup of water (flavors will develop more with the longer cooking time but isn't a requirement).
- Serve the chili warm with fries & other favorite additions. Or use chili as a base or alongside - tortilla chips, crusty bread, in a quesadilla, over a sausage dog or burger, as a pizza sauce, with pasta.
These look amazing! Love, love, LOVE! And I agree, we all deserve a little indulgence once in a while! 🙂
“such angelic eating needs to be balanced by the occasional sinful indulgence and french fries are at the top of our list.” Amen.
Holy shit indeed. That just might be the most extravagantly delicious plate of food I’ve ever seen. Thank you thank you thank you. This will be getting cooked and eaten here in my part of the world A LOT.
OMG these look so amazing. Will be making. And soon! Especially as I’ve just discovered I can buy Masa in Brisbane now. mmmm.
and i drool. this would be one of my top spurge foods of all time, and you’ve created quite a nice batch.
Looks delicious! Cheesy fries are the ultimate comfort food for me!
When I saw that picture, well you had me at the image… let alone the recipe… wow. It might be a heart attack on a plate… but everyone has to let go every once and a while… this would be my while… great photos and recipe, thanks!
deana- it’s definitely a treat to have and if it’s not on a regular basis, then it’s not a heart attack on a plate!
omg these look so delicious!!
This just goes to show that homemade versions of favorite foods are superior! These chili cheese fries look amazing :).
Is it ever too early in the morning for these? I’m hungry now!
Lael- these chili cheese fries are perfect for breakfast! go for it!
Shhhh…. I’ll let you in on a little secret!! Any cardiologist worth their salt would say “in moderation, this is just fine – just don’t have it every week, ok??”
At least, that’s what my dad’s cardiologist used to say and he is right – everybody SHOULD splurge now and then and if you are gonna splurge, oh man THIS is what you are going to want to splurge with!!
Can’t get over that deep color of the chili!! I’m making some chili tomorrow (not as decadent as yours but…) will try adding masa to it and I bet it will be awesome!!
Quick question – since you are using brisket and round, do you grind your own meat or do you ask the butcher to do it??
nancy- we grind it ourselves, but on occasion if we’re rushed, then we’ll our butchers to grind it. We like to grind it ourselves because we like our grind thickness better.
I need this in front of me right now and every day hereafter. LOVE.
Looks delicious, even after Thanksgiving and all the over indulgence of the last weekend!
love the creativity! and the pics! rock stars in my book, for sure!
Looks very very good! Like the second version!
Man…I can NOT let my husband see this!