Cincinnati Chili

Addictive! Chili, spaghetti and copious amount of cheese - what's not to love?

I grew up in Northeastern Ohio, so didn't really experience Cincinnati Chili until I went to college at Ohio State (THE Ohio State University, IYKYK). My apartment was behind a Skyline Chili and the love affair began. After OSU, I moved to NYC before finally settling in New England, so I went many years without my guilty pleasure. About 5 years ago, I was trying to recreate another staple from my college days, Texas Straw Hat, when I found some recipes for Cincinnati Chili. I tried a few, made some adjustments and this is where we are. A lot of ingredients, but you probably have most of them in your pantry and it's easy to put together.

I have a hard time explaining it to folks around here, but when they try it, they're hooked. While the traditional is served over spaghetti, it also makes a great topping for hot dogs - or wieners, as they're known around here.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/a42428_f1587b24c6f54c879e935494dbb1d1d0/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Cincinnati Chili in 35 seconds

Warm spices and options!

At Skyline, you can get it as a 3-way (spaghetti, chili, cheese), a 4-way (add chopped onions or beans), or a 5-way (all of it). Or, as I mentioned, a mini hot dog instead of the spaghetti. It also has oyster crackers, but I guess they don't count those.

Recipe makes about 8 servings, but it's pretty rich, so I usually wind up freezing half of it to have when the craving next hits.

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List of Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef

• 1 small onion - grated

• 12 ounces tomato paste (2 small cans)

• 16 ounces tomato sauce (2 small cans or partial big can - the medium is 15oz)

• 2 tablespoons chili powder

• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon garlic salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

• 2 bay leaves

• 2 cups water

• 1 tablespoon vinegar

Putting it together

• 1 box of angel hair pasta

• 16 ounces shredded cheddar cheese

• oyster crackers

• (optional) red beans

• (optional) finely chopped onion

  
  

Everything starts cold

In a large pot, combine the beef, grated onion, tomato sauce and paste, all the spices (not the vinegar, yet), and 2 cups of water. Mix until combined, no lumps. Grating the onion makes it literally melt into the chili and starting with cold beef gives you the fine texture we're after.

Then turn the burner on medium low and simmer, covered, for 2 hours. You're looking for a strong simmer, just shy of a boil, so adjust per your stovetop.

Time to add the vinegar

After about 2 hours, add the vinegar and simmer, partly covered, for about 30 more minutes. While the chili is finishing, prepare the pasta and grate the cheese.

Put it all together - Cincinnati Chili style

Pile a heap of spaghetti on the plate, top with a generous amount of chili, beans/onions if you want, and more cheese than you think you should. Top with oyster crackers and a dash of hot sauce if that's your thing (it's a bit spicy already).

To eat - don't twirl! You want to cut into the mound and get a forkful of everything. Be careful, it's messy.

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Tips & Notes

• I used 80/20 ground beef, but you can sub in any ground meat you like. I've made this with ground turkey and ground chicken and it barely changes the taste, it's just less greasy.

• I like the texture of angel hair with this, but I think the original might be regular spaghetti. Use what you like.

• Refrigerate any leftover chili for 3-4 days. I mix a little olive oil into the leftover pasta and pop it into a zipper bag in the fridge.

• If you know you won't finish it, the chili freezes really well. I use a freezer bag and put it in the fridge to thaw the day before I use it again.

• Cincinnati Chili is also yummy served with corn chips, in a taco salad or in a burrito with lots of cheese.

  
  
  
  

Parting Thoughts

I don't know what makes this so cravable, but it is. I sometimes dream about it. Maybe it's the unexpected warm spices (cocoa, chives). Whatever it is, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Please comment below if you try this. Do you like it traditional, or do you jazz it up even more?

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