Topped with a mound of shredded Cheddar, Cincinnati chili looks like spaghetti with meat sauce, though more brown in hue than red. You'd expect to eat it in a bowl with a spoon, but it's served on a plate with a fork. And unless you hail from Ohio, you probably wouldn't recognize it as chili. So, is Cincinnati chili even chili?
What Makes Cincinnati Chili Different?
Cincinnati chili and traditional red chili (chili con carne) both consist of a tomato base, ground meat, and chili powder. 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.
Another key difference: Cincinnati chili has a thinner consistency that makes it more like a sauce than classic chili. Indeed, it's served as a sauce over spaghetti and hot dogs. Hot dogs topped with Cincinnati chili (plus mustard and chopped onions) became known as coneys or cheese coneys, as Coney Island vendors inspired the combination. You can find coneys throughout the Midwest.
The Origins of Cincinnati Chili
As its name suggests, this chili originated in Cincinnati, Ohio. In The Authentic History of Cincinnati Chili, Dann Woellert traces the original recipe to two brothers, Tom and John Kiradjieff, who immigrated from Macedonia in northern Greece in the early 1920s.
The Kiradjieffs opened a restaurant called Empress Chili Parlor in 1922, invoking the name "chili" because Americans were familiar with the dish, Woellert says. Indeed, chili parlors began cropping up all over the United States after the 1893 Chicago world's fair introduced many to the Texas-born dish.
The Kiradjieff brothers, however, didn't base their chili on the Texas staple. Instead, their recipe drew on the Mediterranean and Slavic influences of their native Macedonia. Their creation resembles moussaka, a casserole-like dish that layers eggplant or potatoes with tomato sauce and ground meat, which is popular in Greece, the Balkans (bordering Macedonia), and the Middle East. It's also similar to Greek pastit*io, baked pasta with ground meat.
The spices in Cincinnati chili (like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice) are also a testament to the dish's Macedonian roots. But Cincinnati chili's use of chili powder sets it apart from moussaka, pastit*io, and other dishes from the region.
What Is Skyline Chili?
You may also hear Cincinnati chili called Skyline chili. This moniker actually comes from a Cincinnati restaurant, Skyline Chili, that got its name for its spectacular view of the city's skyline. In 1949, Nicholas Lambrinides, an immigrant from Greek Macedonia who worked at Empress, opened his own chili parlor to sell his take on the dish.
Eventually, franchises opened throughout Ohio and the neighboring states of Indiana and Kentucky. And to accommodate Ohioans who move south to retire, a handful of Skyline Chili locations have opened in Florida. Skyline Chili's main competitor, Gold Star, has also branched out as a large chain with locations in Indiana, Kentucky, and Florida.
How to Order Cincinnati Chili
Order like a Cincinnati local by knowing your lingo. You can get your chili one of five ways.
- Two-way: spaghetti and chili
- Three-way: spaghetti, chili, and cheese
- Four-way onion: spaghetti, chili, cheese, and onions
- Four-way bean: spaghetti, chili, cheese, and beans
- Five-way: spaghetti, chili, cheese, beans, and onions
How to Make Cincinnati Chili
If you don't live near a chili parlor, you can easily make Cincinnati chili yourself with our Authentic Cincinnati Chili. The recipe comes from home cook Melissa Hamilton's mother, a Cincinnati native. Chef John's Cincinnati-Style Chili will also walk you through making the dish at home.
Related:
FAQs
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.
What is unusual about Cincinnati chili? ›
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.
What is Cincinnati chili made of? ›
Raw ground beef is crumbled and boiled in water and/or stock, then tomato paste and seasonings are added and the mix simmered for several hours to form a thin meat sauce. Cincinnati chili is always seasoned with cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cumin, nutmeg, and chili powder.
Why is Cincinnati chili so good? ›
In the Cincinnati region, chili is done differently. In place of chunks of meat and sizeable beans, you'll get savory soupiness and creative accoutrements like spaghetti, hot dogs and mustard. In place of an overtly tomato-y base, you'll taste hints of cinnamon, cloves, allspice and maybe even chocolate.
What makes Skyline Chili different? ›
Why is Skyline Chili so popular? This dish has a Mediterranean influence in flavor so it is really unique! It has the traditional chili powder and cumin but also cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. Skyline Chili has perfected their recipe so well that it is even sold in grocery stores.
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.
Why does Cincinnati chili have spaghetti? ›
Originally, Cincinnati chili was just chili spaghetti. It was based on the Greek saltsa kima, which is meat sauce on pasta.
How to eat Cincinnati chili? ›
The people of Cincinnati enjoy their chili spooned over freshly-made pasta and topped with a combination of onions, shredded cheddar cheese, refried beans or kidney beans and crushed oyster crackers. If you choose ” The Works,” you are eating what they call Five-Way Chili.
What does cinnamon do for chili? ›
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.
What is 6 way Cincinnati 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.
Texas: Chili Con Carne
Chili con carne is the original chili. Call it Texas red, traditional red, or bowl of red, but don't even think about adding beans if you want to cook chili like a true Texan.
What kind of cheese does Skyline Chili use? ›
IT'S SKYLINE TIME. Our secret-recipe chili with beans and onions topped with shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream.
Is there cinnamon in gold star chili? ›
While measurements are unknown, the recipe most likely contains three common Greek spices (nutmeg/mace, cinnamon, cloves) plus a balance of sweet (coriander, cardamom, anise, ginger, allspice), spicy (garlic, chili powder, paprika, cumin) and herby (oregano, thyme) ingredients.
How to thicken up cincinnati chili? ›
Make a cornstarch slurry: Mix together 1 tablespoon each of cornstarch and cold water, stirring well to remove any lumps. Then, stir the slurry into your chili and let it simmer for another 10 minutes to fully thicken.
Can you eat Skyline Chili by itself? ›
One-way: Just a bowl of chili. Order it like that if you want, but you're missing out. And no one calls it a "one way." Two-way: Chili plus spaghetti.
What is a fun fact about skyline chili? ›
Skyline began as a lone chili parlor on Glenway Avenue. This restaurant overlooked the Cincinnati skyline, inspiring the name of the parlor. Lambrinides ran the restaurant with his five sons, and the chili he developed was neither a traditional Greek nor Mexican dish known to other areas of the United States.
How are you supposed to eat skyline chili? ›
They realize that the only correct way to eat Skyline chili is by using the edge of the fork to cut down vertically through the cracker-cheese-chili-spaghetti mass, so that every bite is a small yet perfectly proportioned combination of spaghetti, sauce, cheese, and a cracker or two.
Does Skyline put chocolate in their chili? ›
Answer: Nope, according to Dann Woellert, author of "The Authentic History of Cincinnati Chili." For the 2013 book, Woellert spoke with the owners of all the local chili parlors – Skyline, Gold Star, Pleasant Ridge and Price Hill, to name a few – and they all confirmed chocolate was not an ingredient in their recipes.
