Hearty Cheeseburger Chowder

Year five ends. The pandemic year. The year that took the cookout and the hugs and the Sunday mornings at Roberto's grill and replaced them with porch drops and FaceTime and the terrible quiet of a house that should be full. The year I cooked more meals than any year of my life — for my family, for the firehouse, for the hospital, for the neighbors, for the elderly, for anyone who was hungry and alone and needed to know that someone had thought about them.

The numbers: approximately 400 meals at home. Ninety-two porch deliveries to my parents. Sixty hospital meal deliveries to Banner Desert. Fifty-seven community meal deliveries through the neighborhood program. Four firehouse cooking program modules taught, twenty-four firefighters trained, six new stations approved for expansion. Zero competitions entered. Zero Sunday cookouts (until March 14th). One vaccine. One hug. One return to the fire.

What the pandemic taught me: I already knew that food brings people together. I did not know that food can hold people together when they are apart. The containers on the porch, the meals at the nurse's station, the stew in the Tupperware driving to Tucson — none of it was cooking in the traditional sense. It was not about technique or flavor or presentation. It was about presence. It was about saying, with a pot of green chile stew: I am here. I see you. I have not forgotten you.

The restaurant dream survived the pandemic. The spreadsheet is at $61,000 in savings (up from $43,000 at the start of 2020). The cooking program is expanding. The competitions will return. The social media audience grew during the pandemic because people were home and hungry and looking for connection, and my Instagram — the backyard, the smoker, the family — offered a version of the life they missed.

Roberto survived. Elena survived. Jessica survived. Sofia and Diego survived and grew and learned and cooked. The crew at Station 19 survived — no COVID hospitalizations, no losses. We were lucky. We were careful. We showed up.

Year six begins. The world is opening. The grill is hot. The table is growing. The fire passes from Roberto to me to Sofia to whoever comes next. Just show up. Keep showing up. That is all there is. That is everything.

Of all the things I cooked that year — the green chile stew, the porch drop tamales, the hospital trays — it was a big pot of cheeseburger chowder that I kept coming back to, because it traveled well, reheated without losing anything, and landed like a warm hand on the shoulder no matter who was eating it. I made it for the crew at Station 19 more times than I can count, and I made it for neighbors who hadn’t left their houses in weeks. It’s not a glamorous recipe. It doesn’t need to be. It just needs to show up — and that year, showing up was the whole point.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs ground beef (80/20)
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2-inch cubes
3 cups low-sodium beef broth
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup diced dill pickles
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and black pepper to taste
Sour cream and sliced green onions, for serving

Instructions

Brown the beef. In a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef, breaking it apart as it cooks, until no pink remains, about 8 minutes. Drain excess fat, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pot.
Soften the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium. Add the butter, diced onion, and garlic to the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent and softened, about 5 minutes.
Build the base. Sprinkle the flour over the beef and onion mixture and stir to coat evenly. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes to eliminate the raw flour taste.
Add broth and potatoes. Pour in the beef broth, stirring to lift any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add the diced potatoes, smoked paprika, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork-tender.
Add dairy. Stir in the milk and heavy cream. Reduce heat to low and let the chowder come back to a gentle simmer, about 3 to 4 minutes. Do not boil after adding the dairy.
Melt in the cheese. Remove the pot from heat. Add the shredded cheddar one handful at a time, stirring after each addition until fully melted and the chowder is smooth and creamy.
Finish and season. Stir in the diced pickles. Taste and adjust salt and black pepper as needed. Serve hot, topped with a dollop of sour cream and a scattering of sliced green onions.

Nutrition (per serving)

Hearty Cheeseburger Chowder — The Pot I Kept Coming Back To