Texas Straw Hat
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Also called Frito Pie, these Texas Straw Hats are an easy meal that are satisfying and quick for weeknight prep! Top with your favorite toppings and enjoy!
Today I’m bringing you another easy ground beef recipe. Don’t you just love recipes that use the words “easy” and “ground beef”? For me, that spells food for the masses! This one is also easy to tailor to what you have on hand so don’t go out buying special ingredients if you don’t already have them. Feel free to add drained diced tomatoes or tomato sauce in lieu of the tomato paste, leave out the thyme if you like, and just add a little extra chili powder. Cook it until it is nice and thick for layering and you’ve essentially just made yourself a Frito Chili Pie.
Check out some of my other easy meals like Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas, Fiesta Taco Salad, Easy Skillet Chili Bake, Easy Taco Soup, and Instant Pot Beef Barbacoa Tacos.
Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Texas Straw Hats:
- ground beef
- chili powder
- tomato paste
- onion
- pepper
- thyme
- salt
- fritos
- cheese
Quick tip! Sometimes I make the meat up and then just pop whatever is left in the fridge so throughout the week if anyone is hungry they can just heat up some meat and toss it on some corn chips! It’s kinda like my pizza rolls, gives you some time off from cooking later 🙂
Helpful Kitchen Tools
How to Make Texas Straw Hats:
Brown your beef and onion together.
Use this amazing Ground Beef Chopper while you brown your meat. This is one of my very favorite cooking implements. It makes browning ground beef SO much easier, AND is under $5!
Another quick ground beef tip: Usually I have my beef all browned and in the freezer and just take out a bag to use in order to cut out this extra step
Drain your grease off good and add tomato paste…
then add Salt, Pepper, Thyme and Chili powder.
and Worcestershire sauce.
and pour in your water.
Stir all of that up good and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally.
How to Serve Texas Straw Hats:
Serve hot atop corn chips! Top with your favorite toppings. Some of our suggestions are:
- cheese
- sour cream
- tomato
- avocado
- lettuce (make it a taco salad and add a yummy dressing!)
- your favorite salsa
- guacamole
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 6 ounce can tomato paste
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp thyme
- 1 c chopped onion
- 1 c water
- 1 tsp Worcestershire
- 2 c shredded cheddar cheese
- corn chips
Instructions
- Brown beef and onion in a skillet. Drain off grease. Add all other ingredients except corn chips and cheese. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve atop corn chips, topped with cheese.
I found your blog on twitter and really like it!
I am from Texas and have been eating Frito chili pie for as long as I can remember. At Texas high school football games you they pour the chili in the little bag of Fritos and top with cheese! It was so fun eating out of a chip bag with a fork. This is one of my favorite all time football foods.
It was funny to get to this post because we’re actually doing a nacho night today…hmmm, gotta go convince everyone to try this recipe.
Christy, when I lived in St. Louis one of the surrounding towns of Kirkwood had a Green Tree Festival, One of the booths from the local high school sold bags of Fritos with the meat poured into the bag on top of the Fritoes and topped with the cheese and stuck a fork in it!
This looks good and it’s my kind of recipe. Easy and fast. Although I will have to leave the onions out. Me and onions don’t like each other! Love your website. 🙂
Hi, Christy,
Thanks for posting your Grandma’s version of Texas Straw Hats. My mom taught school in Lubbock, Texas and one day she came home with the recipe (received from one of the other teachers) and made it for supper. This was some time back in the sixties. My sweet Daddy, little brother and I loved it! Then I learned to make Texas Straw Hats, too, and just about burned us out on it.
Nowadays, we call it Frito Pie and it is served in the school cafeterias, parties, festivals, etc. Dressing it up with refried beans, sour cream, guadacamole, and Pace picante sauce really makes it good.
By the way, out in West Texas, a Jack-a-lope is a very common sight…especially if one has had too much to drink! LOL!
Love,
SandyTX
Temple, TEXAS
YEEHAW!
Hi Christy. I’ve never heard the name Straw Hat, but variations of this abound in Texas. Kids, teens, and tailgaters love a single serve frito bag split down one side with beef toppings and cheese and dieters top a tossed green salad with beef and cheese (no chips or a few on the side, and the combination of cold, crunchy salad and hot beef is great).
A famous local barber shop has trophies on all the walls, native animals and a few from foreign parts, like a full size bear standing on its hind legs. Among the deer and antelope heads is a “jackalope” (jack rabbit with antlers) that is very realistic. Everyone looks and everyone smiles.
Did you ever wonder why old fashioned barber shops turn their customers so their backs are to the mirror before they start cutting? Beauty shops would never get by with that!
I love the recipe and the quote! 🙂 I’m looking forward to seeing you on Ellen and the food network, these are my goals for this month. 😀 Beautiful first segment, by the way.