Cinfully Good Chili
Submitted by dazc
Cincinnati-style 5-way chili spiced with cinnamon, chocolate, cardamom, and allspice. Served over spaghetti and topped with kidney beans, raw onion, and melted cheddar.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
10 minCOOK
30 minREADY
40 minIf you’ve never had Cincinnati chili, buckle up. This isn’t your typical bowl of red.
Ground beef simmers in a fragrant sauce built on cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cardamom, and a secret weapon: grated unsweetened chocolate. The warm spices give it an almost Middle Eastern depth that catches you off guard in the best way.
Serve it the classic 5-way: a bed of buttered spaghetti, a ladle of thick chili, a scattering of kidney beans, chopped raw onion, and a mountain of shredded cheddar that melts into everything.
Go 3-way (just spaghetti and chili) or 4-way (add beans or onions) depending on your mood.
Pro Tips
- Grate the chocolate on a microplane so it dissolves completely into the sauce. No chunks.
- This chili should be thick, not soupy. If it starts looking dry during the simmer, add a splash of tomato juice rather than water.
- Don’t skip the oyster crackers on the side. They’re non-negotiable in Cincinnati.
- The flavor deepens overnight. Make a double batch and reheat the next day for even better results.
Ingredients
Directions
- Sprinkle ½ teaspoon salt in a large sillet. Heat to medium and add the meat, the first two chopped onions that appear first in the recipe, the garlic.
Cook until Meat is browned but still soft.
- Add tomato sauce, ketchup, water and vinegar. When mixture boils, add the rest of the salt, the remaining spices and herbs, the honey and chocolate.
Adjust seasonings, adding more salt if it needs perking up, more cumin for a more strident chili flavor, more cinnamon and mace if you want it more aromatic, more cardamom for more band and more chocolate for more body.
- Cover and simmer on very low heat for about 1 hour, stirring dry.
It should be a thick sauce.
Discard bay leaf. 4. For 5 way chili(use small oval plate if available), layer spaghetti on the plate, top it with chili, then with a sparse layer of kidney beans andamp; then choped, raw onions. Pat on the cheese while the chili is still hot and serve immediately, with oyster crackers on the side. You may, if desired, omit either the beans or onions, or both, for 3-way chili or 4-way chili.
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