Cincinnati Chili
More comfort food and once again, I’m bringing you a recipe based on my Chili Season Blend, Cincinnati Chili.
This recipe is essentially David’s Chili, but we upped the game with our leftovers and created Cincinnati Chili. Cincinnati-style chili is Mediterranean-spice meat sauce used as topping for spaghetti or a hot dog. According to Wiki, in 2013 Smithsonian named it one of “20 Most Iconic Foods in America,” imagine that!
The ingredients in Cincinnati Chili are similar to your typical American Chili, ground beef, tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, but it also includes spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove and unsweetened dark chocolate. For our version, again we used David’s Chili as a base and added some cinnamon, allspice and clove. I hope you enjoy and cheers🍻🍺!
THE DIFFERENT “WAYS” TO SERVE CINCINNATI CHILI
- 2-Way: Chili served over spaghetti.
- 3-Way: Chili served over spaghetti with finely shredded cheddar cheese.
- 4-Way: Chili served over spaghetti with diced onions and finely shredded cheddar cheese.
- 5-Way: Chili served over spaghetti with warmed canned red kidney beans, diced onions, and finely shredded cheddar cheese. I think we went 5-way, more or less 😉!
Cincinnati Chili
Ingredients
- Spaghetti, cook according to directions
Chili
- EVOO, for cooking the ground beef
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 1 large white onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 12 oz crushed tomato sauce
- 1 small can stewed tomatoes
- 1 can kidney beans, drained
- 3 TBSP Chili Seasoning Blend, see the link in the notes for the spices included
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ⅓ tsp ground allspice
- ¼ ground cloves
- 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar
- 1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
- Salt & pepper, for seasoning
Instructions
- In a large pot begin by warming some EVOO on medium heat.
- Once the oil is warm, add the onions and cook until translucent.
- Once the onion becomes translucent, add the ground beef and cook on low heat. Salt & pepper, as desired.
- Once the ground beef is cooked, add the garlic and cook for a few minutes.
- Drain the beef mixture to remove the extra grease and oil and return the mixture to the pot.
- Now add the tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes and kidney beans and cook on medium heat for a few minutes
- Once the tomatoes begin to bubble, add your chili spice blend, cinnamon, allspice, clove, apple cider vinegar and Worcestershire.
- Cover your pot and simmer the chili on low heat for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
- Midway through the cooking, remove the lid from your pot and taste the Chili and season as needed with salt & pepper. A splash of fish sauce or oyster sauce will help enhance the flavors within the pot!
- Serve warm atop the cooked spaghetti and top your Cincinnati Chili as you wish, cheers🍻🍺!
Notes
- Check out my Chili Seasoning Blend Post for the spices needed.
