17 cowboy recipes

Cowboy cookies loaded with old-fashioned rolled oats and semi-sweet chocolate chips, made big-batch style with butter, dark brown sugar, and three eggs. Hearty, chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that hold up in lunchboxes.

Cowboy pintos are a hearty vegan bean pot: dried pintos slow-simmered with tomatoes, onion, carrot, celery, thyme and cilantro until creamy. Spoon it over rice or barley for a stick-to-your-ribs meatless bowl.

Spaghetti tossed in a beefy bacon-and-beer tomato sauce with sirloin, fire-roasted tomatoes, hot sauce, and Worcestershire, topped with sharp cheddar and crispy bacon bits. A 35-minute weeknight rodeo.

Cowboy chili with ground beef, pinto beans, stewed tomatoes, beef stock, and a classic chili-cumin-oregano spice trio. A no-frills cattle drive bowl, cooked low and slow.

Thick, chewy cowboy cookies loaded with rolled oats, chocolate chips, and brown sugar. This big-batch recipe makes 4 dozen rugged drop cookies with crispy edges and a soft center.

Seafood gumbo built on a butter-flour roux with shrimp, okra, tomatoes, chili powder, and Worcestershire, served over rice with filé powder. Where Louisiana bayou meets Texas ranch country.

Hot cowboy beans: pinto beans simmered low and slow with salt pork, ham hock, onion, jalapeños, and chili powder. A Texas chuckwagon classic that gets better every day.

This recipe is from my father-in-law Ed Stang. He just dumped in whatever goodies are on hand; they always taste great.

Chunky sirloin steak soup with salsa, mixed vegetables, white beans, and fresh spinach in a beefy broth. A filling 35-minute soup that brings Southwestern heat to the supper table.

Ranch-style pinto beans slow-simmered with ham hock, chili powder, cumin, and oregano. A cowboy classic that works on the stovetop or in a crockpot.

Rattlesnake and beans simmered with ground beef, pinto beans, stewed tomatoes, jalapenos, and garlic. A Southwestern cowboy chili with bragging rights, ready in under 30 minutes.

Spicy Western slow-cooker beans combining pinto beans, red kidney beans, lentils, smoky bacon, and chili powder with tomatoes and cumin. Cowboy-style beans with a peppery kick.

Hearty Dutch oven rump roast braised low and slow with pinto beans, tomato sauce, peppers, and onions. This cowboy-style one-pot beef and bean dinner feeds a hungry crowd.

Cowboy cookies (hundred cookies) loaded with crisp rice cereal, oats, coconut, and nuts in a chewy brown sugar dough. The classic everything-cookie that bakes 100 to a batch for cookie tin gifting.

Skillet macaroni barbecue: elbow pasta simmered one-pot with stewed tomatoes, barbecue sauce, sweet corn, peppers, onions, and melted cheddar on top. A vegetarian weeknight skillet dinner that tastes like a cowboy diner plate.

Big-batch Texas-style chili with 5 lbs of rough-ground beef and pork simmered in beer, sour mash whiskey, jalapenos, and a heavy hand of cumin. No beans. No compromise. Pure cowboy heat.