Cloudland Canyon Chili

I made and dehydrated this Cloudland Canyon Chili recipe for a camping and hiking trip at Cloudland Canyon State Park in North Georgia. It’s a trail-tested beef and bean chili with extra vegetables for texture, deeper spices for richer flavor, and just enough cayenne heat to keep things interesting.

Once you have a basic chili recipe down pat, it’s easy to tweak the spices—especially the cayenne pepper—to match your own heat preferences, from pleasantly warming to tongue tingling. Using one teaspoon of cayenne pepper, this version lands comfortably in the middle—perfect for sharing when one person likes chili hot, but not too hot, and the other likes it warm but still adventurous.

Cloudland Canyon Chili Overview

Lean ground beef is combined with dried breadcrumbs before cooking. The added starch helps dehydrated chili rehydrate to an excellent texture in trail meals.

Diced vegetables are cooked first, followed by browning the ground beef in the same pan.

Seasonings are added gradually throughout the cooking process to build flavor.

Beans, diced tomatoes, and tomato sauce are added after the ground beef is fully browned.

Chili simmers for about 20 minutes.

Cloudland Canyon Chili Recipe

Servings: 3–4, about 6 cups total.

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground beef (454 g)
½ cup ground dried breadcrumbs (50 g)
1 16-oz. can light red kidney beans (454 g)
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (411 g)
1 cup tomato sauce, unseasoned (8 oz. / 227 g)
1 Tbsp. tomato paste (17 g)
1 Tbsp. ketchup (17 g)
1 tsp. concentrated bouillon paste *
1 tsp. cooking oil
½ large sweet onion (150 g)
1 large red bell pepper (150 g)
3 stalks celery (100g)
4 cloves garlic (10 g)
1 cup water (240 g)

Dry Seasonings:

2 Tbsp. chili powder
1½ tsp. smoked paprika
1½ tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. cayenne pepper **
1 Tbsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
⅛ tsp. ground peppercorns

Ingredient Notes:

* The concentrated bouillon paste used in the recipe was from the brand, Better than Bouillon, sold in the USA. I used the vegetable type, but the beef variety could also be used. If concentrated bouillon paste is not available, substitute a dry bouillon cube.

** Cayenne pepper is the main heat driver in the recipe. Start off with half-a-teaspoon and add more to taste as the chili simmers.

Preparing Cloudland Canyon Chili

Vegetables

Wash the red bell pepper, celery, and onion to remove dirt, and then dice them into small pieces as uniformly as possible. Mince the garlic and set the vegetables aside.

Diced onion, celery, red bell pepper, and minced garlic.

Dry Seasonings

Mix all the dry seasonings together in a small bowl. Use half-a-teaspoon of cayenne pepper at first, then add more while the chili simmers if you desire more heat.

Ground Beef

Pull the ground beef apart into pieces and work in the dried breadcrumbs and a tablespoon of the dried seasonings.

Form the seasoned ground beef into a ball and set aside to let the spices infuse into the beef.

After ten minutes, pull the “meatball” apart into pieces again.

Form ground beef and breadcrumbs into a ball for a 10 minutes.

Beans

Empty canned beans into a colander and rinse off liquid.

Cooking Cloudland Canyon Chili

Vegetables

Add one teaspoon of cooking oil to a cold pan and set heat to medium-high. Add the onion, celery, red bell pepper, and garlic sequentially, stirring continuously.

Stir in one tablespoon of the dry seasonings, one teaspoon concentrated bouillon paste, and one tablespoon tomato paste while the vegetables cook.

Add small splashes of water as needed to prevent scorching.

Cook until the vegetables soften, about 10 minutes total.

Ground Beef & Beans

Add the ground beef and another tablespoon of the seasoning mix to the vegetables and continue stirring continuously on medium-high heat until the beef is browned inside and out, about 10 minutes total.

Add the beans after the meat is browned, stirring for another few minutes to let the flavors meld.

Ground beef after browning with vegetables.

Tomato Ingredients and Water

Add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, ketchup, and water to the pan, plus all remaining dry seasonings.

Bring to a light boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on the pan.

Adjust seasonings to taste and add extra splashes of water if needed.

Cloudland Canyon Chili with tomato ingredients added.

Serving Suggestions

We love topping this chili with sour cream and grated cheddar cheese.

If not serving immediately, this chili is easy to dehydrate into delicious trail meals.

Dehydrating Cloudland Canyon Chili

Spread chili thinly on nonstick dehydrator sheets or silicone trays.

Dehydrate at 135°F (57°C) for approximately 10 hours or longer until no moisture is present.

Stir the chili around on the trays two times during dehydration to ensure even and thorough drying.

Check for moisture hiding in any larger pieces of ground beef, tomatoes, and peppers by pulling them apart.

Chili will be almost crumbly when completely dry.

Store dehydrated chili in an airtight container at home until ready to portion into individual servings for the trail.

Yield:

Six cups of cooked chili weighing 1460 grams yields 4½ cups of dried chili weighing 396 grams.

Trail Portion Planning:

A hearty single serving is 1½ cups (135 g).

A larger serving that will fill a 24 oz. food jar (excellent for sharing) is 2 cups (180 g).

Rehydrating Cloudland Canyon Chili

Chili is easy to rehydrate using a 1:1 dried chili to water ratio. If you pack 1½ cups of dried chili for a trail meal, rehydrate it with 1½ cups of water.

Combine dried chili with water in a pot and bring to a boil for one minute. Turn off stove and wait 15–20 minutes with the lid on the pot before serving.

Alternatively, add boiled water to dried chili in a thermos or Mylar bag and wait 20 minutes up to several hours if using a thermos food jar.

In the photo below, two cups of chili (180 g) were added to a thermos food jar with two cups of boiled water in the morning. The chili was fantastic four hours later. We added grated cheddar cheese when we opened the thermos for lunch in front of a waterfall in Cloudland Canyon State Park.