Cincinnati Chili Recipes

Hi I’m Betty. Welcome to Betty’s Kitchen. Today we’re making Cincinnati Chili. You may’ve heard a Cincinnati Chili or you may not have. If you have not heard about it, you’re probably in for a surprise because is going to contains something that you’re probably not expecting.

It’s not the Texas style chili. It’s not even what you might calling Home stlye chili where I have something like—I think its called family favorite chili that I’ve posted and it’s sort of like Texas chili but not really.

This chili originated from a Greek man who lived to Cincinnati. And in 1920 he came up with this recipe that has been known since then the chili but he called it spaghetti chili. So he got one ingredient although I’m not – in spaghetti. He added Middle Eastern flavors to the chili.

So it’s going to be much different from just what you’re expecting of a lot of onion, garlic, chili powder and cumin. It’s going to have those things but it’s going to have some many additions that you're not expecting that you’re really be surprised. And I think personally so if you try it.

You maybe intimidated about trying it if you’ve not heard of it. It’s very well known in our region. We lived 100 miles from Cincinnati. It’s known in the Cincinnati area and Ohio, also in Kentucky and Indiana. It is made by Gold Star Chill and also Skyline Chili. It actually is sold in grocery stores around here. You can buy Cincinnati chili. So, it is an item that is known and it’s regional for us. I know that you might be interested in it so let’s get started.

We’re starting with two pounds of ground beef. You can see that one pound sitting in here, and the other one just kind of it—the way bought it in a container like this. It’s very lean. I’m going to put this on the stove and brown this up.

Now that ground beef— just half way done and turned it down so I can talk to you for a moment. I’m going to add in three cloves of minced garlic. Now this is a clove and you know has the skin on it so you have to remove the skin and you want it very finely minced so I’ll put that in and then I took two onions this size. And each onion chopped came up with one cup so I have two cups of chopped onions. I have my ground beef and vegetables round up so I'm going to turn this off and bring the pot over so I can show you how to mix this together.

Now let me show you what I’m going to add. This is going to be very interesting I think. We have one 15 ounce can of tomato sauce. Now, I know this comes in various sizes but you need 15 ounces so— have you can get 15 ounces, put that in. Then from a Campbell’s condensed soup or something similar, you need beef broth but you only need one cup. So I still have some left in that can, I’m not using that fro this recipe. One cup of beef broth is going in.

Moving down the line, we are actually going to use some chili powder for our Cincinnati Chili, two tablespoons of chili powder. Now here’s where it gets funky. You have Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. Not many, two tablespoons that you put them in your chili. Next we have some white vinegar. I need two tablespoons. I poured two tablespoons in here that goes in the mixture.

And moving down the line, we have honey. Choose whatever type of honey that you like, you’ll need two tablespoons. It’s nice and lovely with two tablespoons because if you try to remember this recipe, it will not be ad hard fro you to do. So I’m just going to scrape that out and try to get all of that goodness. That sweet honey is going to add to the flavor. You know, not a several of these spices and additions are kind of sweet so be expecting that. Do not be too surprised when you take a taste of it. That’s our honey.

And next we have Pumpkin Pie Spice which you— have you ever have thought that will be in your chili? You need one tablespoon of that. And then you need some salt for this. We need just one teaspoon of salt just regular iodize salt and then we have— coming up next, we have Ground Cumin and you need one teaspoon of ground cumin. And then we got couple more things to go.

Here we have something that you might not always have in your pantry. It’s cardamom. With onion a little bit but it’s crucial to this recipe, one half teaspoon of cardamom. And then out last ingredient that we put into this mix is cloves, ground cloves and you need one quarter of a teaspoon. Put that in. Now, what I’m going to do once some of that stuck— come back, get along.

What I’m going to do is stir this around and then I’m going to put it on the stove and heat it up. And when it comes so boil, I’m going to cover it with the lid and then I will simmer it for one hour and I’ll be back with you then.

Our Cincinnati Chili is done and I’m going to serve it up. And the serving of it is probably the most interesting part. What you do is cook Fettuccine noodles or you might use spaghetti if you prefer and you just cook them according to the package directions. This is a one pound package— I'm sorry. It’s the 12 ounce package and I had one that I used half off so id use the other half right here and it’s cooked to the part where it’s al dente. It means it is a little chili.

What I'm going to do is serve it over onto a serving dish and spread it out a little bit and make a mist for what’s coming later. And that's got a good portion for this potion.

Now, the Cincinnati chili is sitting right here so I'm just going to later present it. it looks gorgeous and I hope that some of you who never had this will be brave and try it because I know it sounds a little scary with some of the ingredients are in it but most of people around this area think it’s really a delicacy, really a great food.

So just bring out some of this and put it on the top of those noodles so either of Fettuccine or spaghetti, your preference, but a nice good portion of chili covering the top. Now it could be serves like this and that would be called two-way chili. But we have some other options, there such a thing as three-way chili.

To create that, we take some sharp shredded cheddar cheese and I have some sitting out here. Just put what you fee like on top of this and I've got it in my hands here and sprinkle it’s a little easier. So you have a layer of sharp cheddar cheese that shredded and that is called three-way chili. Its got three layers there and that’s a spice called three way.

Now we have four-way chili. You take an onion about this size, chop it up, you get this much and let’s just spoon out some chopped onions. This is raw onion. It’s a white onion and those are kind sweet so that’s good. Put this much or so as you like and that is four-way chili. Count the layers, one, two, three, and it is four-way chili.

Now there is such a thing as five-way chili. In the five-way chili, uses Kidney Beans. Now, I didn’t these. You do not have to heat them. But for me if it’s going to be a hot dish, I like everything hot.

I did train them and I washed off all the juice because I think it looks a little better so I’ll produce this right, use your own judgement on that. If you want to leave the juice in there, you may but we’re going to add these red kidney beans to the top then it becomes five-way chili. Now, let me remove some of this stuff and I’ll show the final dish with the way it’s actually set. Our last component to Cincinnati chili is crackers. And there is one particular type of cracker you must use and it’s the Oyster crackers.

The oyster crackers are used because they will stay crispy all the way through the eating of this fill. To use salt in or some other kind, they will have a tendency to soak up some the juices and they will be all soggy. So we’re finished with putting the oyster crackers on and this is Cincinnati chili.