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.
I had to laugh at your cardiologist comment. How true though as my blog is devoted to good health from a layperson’s point of view. However, I always confess our sins and yes, my family occasionally eats “junk” food. Thinking of making chili cheese fries for our Superbowl party so I googled it and found you guys.
WOW. I came upon you by accident through Pinch My Salt. As a Canadian on the west coast, chili cheese fries are not part of the common vernacular BUT DAMN this is the first thing to get me motivated to cook for NFL playoffs (go Green Bay!). Despite all the blogs and email subscriptions starting to promote Superbowl menus and my own personal quest for some kind of tv food inspiration I was coming up with … alot of nothing that seemed even remotely exciting. But now THE SEARCH IS OVER!! Can’t wait to get started- just need to decide whether to double or triple the chili recipe for NFL-sized guys who will be with me. Two pounds really only makes 4c?
Thankyouthankyouthankyou!
Love the enthusiasm over the debauchery!
We kind of eyeballed the end volume but that should be pretty close to 4c. There isn’t much adding to the volume other than the ground meat and onions. But this chili had a hefty kick and needed to be tamed by mass quantities of potatoes so even 4c goes fairly far. For the big boys, I’d start with tripling it. It keeps pretty well, so maybe make a batch a few days ahead, make a judgement call on if you need more and go from there.
Hafta admit I love watching GB’s defense attack and swarm right now. After they got Hawk then Mathews Jr a few years ago, I loved watching them develop into a fierce LB core.
Got the BBQ sauce done – it amazing and complex even at first taste, I’m interested to see how it develops over time – and you got the perfect zing. (Amen) Ground beef and bacon are browning now – I bet this will have a kick! I hadn’t thought through just how much spice that is – thanks for the heads up in the huddle. Got lots of potatoes standing by. (Thank goodness I can see the tv from the pan tomorrow!)
OK – that was awesome fare! Everyone went back for seconds! I don’t know if I will bother with the double-fry fries again – they were great but took FOREVER it seemed, certainly much longer than Tony B indicated in his instructions – but I’m new to deep-frying so maybe it was me. That said, the bbq sauce was great, the chili even better. Thank you for an amazing menu for an amazing game. Now… what else have you got on here that I can use for next week’s game? Time to start searching!
We don’t bother with the double fry half of the time either. Especially when the chili is going on top.
The Pack rocked it! Can’t wait till next week.
You might want to give the Sriracha chicken wings a try. One our our favorites and might be right up your alley.
Thanks for the feedback. Glad you loved it!
Sinfully delicious! Those cheese fries are spectacular!
What a great perfect its look delicious i will make them soon. Thank you very much.
I’d never get any chili cheese fries at any fast food joint because they are made with substandard ingredients and little care. But if you do everything by hand at home and with love…
I’d eat that.
Second version for me … 🙂
Diane n Todd, dropping by after long …but wow ! As always you guys never fail to leave me envious and hungry. Muah … love ya !
In Québec we are known for our Poutine: fries, gravy, cheese curbs but I tried not to eat them too often. I have seen many variations of poutine like foie gras poutine but never seen one like yours. That would be a winner I am sure in my house. I would devour this dish. 🙂
Sinfully delicious! Those cheese curls are spectacular!
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!
Oh. My. God. Is this heaven or what?? I’m not a huge french fry fan (shocking, I know), but when they’re homemade like this, I’m definitely down. And the chili?! Just wow!
Are you kidding me? This dish looks ridonkulous! And I just got out of my human nutrition class, too! I’d still eat a big skillet of these 🙂
I think the only place to really fully enjoy such a dish is at home, surrounded by copious napkins, away from the judgmental eyes of the public as one hurts oneself on this! In fact, I might go so far as to suggest fully sequestering oneself in a private room at home and not sharing with family is the best way to proceed. At least, that’s what I’d do. Fabulous work!
The tummy ache I would have after eating these fries would be well worth it:)
My Cardiologist would be having a fit if he knew I was even looking at this, but… what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him, right. I have to tell you that there is a step in the recipe that is missing. There is a final step. 2 laps around the block. I’m getting my running shoes on now.
You make your own Sriracha? How rock-star cool are you guys? You are also very, very naughty for posting a recipe like this. My butt is already mad at you. These sound and look amazing…worth every dang calorie!
oh dear. potatoes in any shape or form is my undoing and these are no exception. i seriously need to take up skiing, jogging, tennis, basketball . . . SOMETHING to justify these beauties . . . or i could just make ’em and eat ’em!!!
Looks amazing. Very un-Thanksgiving!!
The snow has been coming down for the past 24 hours and I can’t think of anything that would taste better in the frigid weather than a bowl of these fries. Bring on that smoky heat!
Wow, didn’t know fries could get any better. I could eat a plate full of this!
Oh my goodness…I think these might be my new wintertime indulgence! The chili sounds fantastic…bookmarking now!
Even after a weekend of gorging, these still look good to me. More than good.
I should be full from Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon, but I would dive into a plate of these right now, no question.
Screw the doctors – they eat worse than any of us. At least these potatoes are fried!with love & great ambition. Nice chili too, smoky bacon & fatty ground beef are a sultry pairing for the chilly days ahead. This is ski country food – bookmarking this for Telluride! xo
HELL YES! (D, I see a recurring theme here… spicy with fried potatoes. These may be somewhat problematic to take with us into the backcountry though.)
Oh drool. This is right up my alley.