Cincinnati Chili Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between Cincinnati chili and regular chili? ›

Traditional red chili often includes cumin, paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder, though it's not limited to these spices. Cincinnati chili, on the other hand, has a sweeter edge with spices like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice. Some recipes also use cocoa powder.

Cincinnati chili has a flavor all its own

The unique spice blend, texture, and toppings are the three elements that set Cincinnati chili apart from the rest. According to Simply Recipes, many soup and stew dishes get their flavor from the caramelization that occurs when you sear the protein featured in the dish.

The Seasonings: Chili powder and cumin are required for almost any chili recipe, but in Cincinnati chili, you'll find spices like cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and possibly nutmeg, paprika, and/or oregano. Worcestershire sauce is also a standard ingredient.

Tom Kiradjieff used the sauce to modify a traditional dish, speculated to have been pastit*io, moussaka or saltsa kima to come up with a dish he called "chili spaghetti." He first developed a recipe calling for the spaghetti to be cooked in the chili but changed his method in response to customer requests and began ...

Answer: Nope, according to Dann Woellert, author of "The Authentic History of Cincinnati Chili."

Yes, Skyline Chili puts cinnamon in their chili. It is such a unique seasoning blend in this type of chili with cinnamon, allspice, clove, and sometimes even cocoa powder! What is the difference between Skyline Chili and Cincinnati chili? The difference is just in the name, really!

American diners were already familiar with chili-topped Coney Island hot dogs, but the Kiradjieff brothers put their own spin on it, adapting a Mediterranean stew spiced with cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon, and adding chili powder along with other spices they'd grown up with.

-1 large brown/yellow onion (I have seen these called both brown or yellow, just don't use white onion. Red onion is good too, but it gives the chili a different flavor.)

Just over a decade after Skyline Chili came on the scene, four immigrant brothers from Jordan bought a restaurant called Hamburger Heaven from a former Empress employee. Once they noticed that their chili was outselling their burger offerings, they renamed their restaurant Gold Star Chili.

The chili at this Cincinnati institution can be served plain, 3-way, 4-way, 5-way or 6-way. Learning the lingo didn't take long for Guy Fieri. He ordered the 6-way, which includes everything: chili, spaghetti, beans, onions, cheese and fried jalapeno caps.

Who made the original Cincinnati chili? ›

Macedonian immigrant Tom Kiradjieff began serving this sort of "chili" on top of hot dogs at his restaurant, Empress (named for the burlesque theater next door to his original hot dog stand).

Cinnamon. The beauty of ground cinnamon is that it brings a warmth to your chili, without being spicy. It works well with other flavors commonly found in chili (like tomato, cumin and chile powder) so you only need a little bit to achieve the desired balance.

Skyline Chili is unique in that it is not chili con carne, the meat dish that originated in (and is the state dish of) Texas. Instead, Cincinnati chili is a sauce usually used over spaghetti or hot dogs, containing a unique spice blend that gives it a very distinct, sweet-and-savory taste.

Use All-Purpose Flour or Cornstarch

"Transfer some warm liquid [from the chili] to a separate bowl. Whisk in the flour or cornstarch, then slowly stir it back in the pot," advises Wofford. Bring the mixture back to a boil, which will "activate" the ingredient, instantly thickening the dish.

Skyline Chili is unique in that it is not chili con carne, the meat dish that originated in (and is the state dish of) Texas. Instead, Cincinnati chili is a sauce usually used over spaghetti or hot dogs, containing a unique spice blend that gives it a very distinct, sweet-and-savory taste.

As one of the few restaurants in that part of town serving Cincinnati-style chili, the brothers set out to follow their own recipe and make their Chili truly unique.

Cincinnati chili was made famous by the Lambrinides brothers, the creators of Skyline Chili in Price Hill in 1949, which has become the iconic version of the dish. There are now more than 100 locations of Skyline across the Cincinnati area, and as far away as Florida.