(NEXSTAR) — It may be a Texas classic and you may like to consider it a Texas creation, but the origin of the Frito Pie — the cheesy, crunchy county fair treat — is not so cut-and-dry. In fact, Texas is in a long-standing rivalry with another state for birthplace bragging rights.
The Texas traditions of high school football & Frito Pie are inexorably linked. Learn more about the portable chili snack that’s a Lone Star favorite.
Fall in Texas is a special time of year. It brings with it respite from the relentless heat of the summer, the promise of homecoming and over the top mums, but most importantly, fall in Texas means football. And high school football, traditionally played on Friday nights, means Frito Pie is back.
As with other great Texas food traditions like Chicken Fried Steak, the precise and exact origins of Frito Pie are unknown, lost to the ages like sparks escaping from a campfire in the West Texas desert. If you’re not familiar with Fritos, they’re little rectangular strips of corn chip, and as the name of the dish suggests, they’re a non negotiable ingredient. The rest of Frito Pie has little to nothing to do with actual pie, be it sweet or savory. A bag of Fritos is cut open, chili is ladled on top, and a healthy dose of cheese crowns the dish- and that’s all there is to it. Sour cream, onions, hot sauce and jalapenos are all optional extras.
Given this, I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that Frito Pie was invented out of convenience – both for the ease of a handheld, self contained meal, and the simple assembly of a warm dish as the weather turns cool, which requires nothing more than scooping the State Dish of Texas out of a crockpot, into a waiting bag. Just make sure your don’t put any beans in your chili – that’s considered treason in this state.
It’s cheap, comforting and uniquely Texan, and it’ll keep you warm as you sit in the cold bleachers and root for the home team. And I’m pretty sure Riggins would have eaten at least one after the game…
That’s right. Frito pies are still a mainstay at football games. Sometimes they aren’t served in the bag anymore—after all, it’s hard to open one of those miracle plastic bags of Fritos with your hands these days—but even in a Styrofoam container, it’s the same old Frito pie. Fritos smothered with chili is a greasy, spicy delight. How can you beat that? Add some shredded cheese. Add some strong onion.
When I first began to contemplate the Frito pie, I called a friend in Chicago. She had never heard of it. I tried San Francisco. My friend out there had no clue as to what I was talking about. I tried a close friend in New York who eats out constantly and also studies food. He said there was no such thing in his experience. He wanted to know how it was done. I told him that you slit a bag of Fritos lengthwise and just ladle in the chili. He said he would try it, but I don’t have much hope, even though it is possible to find Frito pie in some New York restaurants. Television news host Linda Ellerbee remembers the Frito pies of her native state with such nostalgia that she coaxed a New York eatery into including the dish on its menu. And a New York restaurateur, Calvin Holt, is so proud of his gourmet chili pie casserole (complete with sour cream, Monterey Jack, and cream cheeses) that he spurred the Uptown Versus Downhome Chili Pie Challenge, whose results should be known by Thanksgiving. Still, Texas remains the best place to savor Frito pie in a big way: In October the Odessa Chuck Wagon Gang cooked up a twenty-foot-long, ten-thousand-pound Frito pie as part of the Permian Basin Oil Show.
Have you ever seen Texas from an airplane on a Friday night in the fall? Down in the flat darkness are a thousand bright oases of brilliant lights with green rectangular fields in the middle. If you could fly low enough, you might see boys running up and down the field, slamming into one another, and girls cheering them on. You might see fans sitting on hard bleachers, raising their fists in the air and shouting. And you might see any of these people—or all of them for that matter—eating Frito pies.
But don’t take my word for any of this. Sometime this fall, when the weather is crisp, go out to a rural football game, the farther west the better, and pay a dollar for a Frito pie. The lady in the concession stand will tell you that she made the chili herself, and the hot bag of Fritos will warm your hands. The team will score, and you’ll gobble down the pie with a plastic spoon and never forget it.
Frito pie is a marriage made in heaven. You know why? Because corn and chili powder go together. They’ve probably gone together since the Maya, and they go together today. That’s the secret of Tex-Mex cuisine. Corn and chili are complementary flavors. But that’s not the whole story. Fritos are salty and absorbent. If you want to get technical, Fritos absorb grease, and good chili has a lot of grease. Furthermore, the Frito retains its crispness even when chock-full of grease. Try chili on top of potato chips, if you don’t believe me. In fact, try chili with Doritos or Tostitos or any one of the other dry corn chips. It won’t do. The Frito has integrity. And look—frito, a Spanish word, means “fried.” I’m sure they fry Fritos in the purest of vegetable oils nowadays—lard help us—but the idea remains the same.
Gordon Ramsay Makes a Frito Pie Trackside in Texas | Scrambled
FAQ
Is Frito pie just a Texas thing?
Where did the Frito pie originate?
Is Fritos from Texas?
What is a Frito pie slang?
What is a Frito pie?
Frito pie is a dish popular in the Midwestern, Southeastern, and Southwestern United States, whose basic ingredients are chili, cheese, and corn chips (traditionally Fritos, hence the name). Additions can include salsa, refried beans, sour cream, onion, rice, or jalapeños. There are many variations and alternative names used by region.
Why is Frito pie so popular in Texas?
But regardless of its true origins, Walsh argues that Texas helped the dish achieve notoriety: “Frito pie owes its popularity to Texas high school stadium concession stands where it’s made by tearing open the bag of chips and ladling in all of the options in the condiment holder,” he tells Eater.
Did the Frito pie originate in Texas or New Mexico?
(NEXSTAR) — It may be a Texas classic and you may like to consider it a Texas creation, but the origin of the Frito Pie — the cheesy, crunchy county fair treat — is not so cut-and-dry. In fact, Texas is in a long-standing rivalry with another state for birthplace bragging rights.
Who invented the Frito pie?
As is the case with many iconic dishes, the exact where and when of the Frito pie’s invention is heavily disputed. As Houston-based food writer, author, and Texas culinary expert Robb Walsh explains, New Mexicans claim it was invented in the 1960s at a Woolworth’s in Santa Fe by a woman named Teresa Hernandez.