15 hours ago, TdeV said:If you were to make a Frito Pie, Shel, how would you make it?
First of all, I wouldn't use Fritos. I quit eating Fritos in 1958, and pretty much stayed away from corn chips and Frito-like products until discovering TJ's corn chips a couple of years ago. I like both of TJ's versions, and depending on whom I was feeding, I'd use one or the other.
I'd fry up some ground beef with diced onions, add some herbs and spices depending on mood (I could see Rancho Gordo oregano Indo and my own blend of dried chile powder [Ancho, Guajillo, Pasilla Oaxaca for example] and which corn chips I was using. I'd add drained, diced fire roasted tomatoes packed with citric acid to help them retain shape and texture, a can of TJ's green hatch chilies or, if on hand, some very finely diced jalapeño. I'd use Whole Foods 365 spiced (or not) black beans, shredded cheddar or maybe pepper jack cheese. I'd adjust the moisture content with Bonafide organic beef bone broth.
I'd layer the dish with chips, meat mix, chips, cheese, etc., rather than mix everything together, and then pop the whole mess into the oven to brown a little. The top layer would be cheddar, even if using pepper jack, and maybe some broken corn chip pieces would be rained across the final cheese layer. I'd probably cook the casserole in the Fat Daddio 3" deep 9 x 13 pan. Nice pan, good for taking to a pot luck and feeding a crowd.
Except for the bottom layer of chips, which would be spread out over a very light layer of sauce to form sort of a bottom crust, the layers of chips would be spread thin so they'd not clump together too much and make eating the casserole just a little easier and more pleasant.
Anyway, I'm just riffing on an idea or two. For a dish like this, the recipe is often cupboard dependent, but generally I'm pretty well stocked.
Hope this gives you what you're looking for.
