Cincinnati chili and I go way back. Ok, like three years ago, but it’s been three wonderful years. For those who don’t know Cincinnati chili is a bean-less chili made with two unusual ingredients: cinnamon and chocolate. It’s served over long pasta with a ton of cheese on top. You can also get the three-way which includes raw onions or the four-way which has raw onions and beans.
When I first started at my job in 2007 my office was across the hall from a girl who was from Cincinnati. When she left a few months after I started working, she invited me and another girl, who went to college outside of Cincinnati, over to her apartment for Cincinnati chili.
This was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing. Not wanting to be rude I went despite the fact that I didn’t eat red meat at the time, I don’t like sweet savory foods, and I’m not a big fan of spaghetti (meaning long pasta, not pasta in general).
I’ll be honest and say that when I first tired the chili I wasn’t a huge fan, but the more I ate the more I liked it.
A few months later I accompanied the girl who went to college outside of Cincinnati, my friend Liz, to a NYC bar where they have “Cincinnati night” which consists of serving the famous chili, some type of ribs, and Graeter’s ice cream (and maybe one other thing, I can’t remember).
Fast-forward to the fall of 2008 and Liz and I entered a casserole cooking competition. We decided to make a Cincinnati chili casserole. Since we didn’t have the chili seasoning packets we had to work from scratch. We tried a few different recipes, but we finally settled on one that we liked.
While I can’t find any pictures of our actual casserole I did find a few of the event.
We didn’t win, but we had a lot of fun and I was happy to have a fairly authentic Cincinnati chili recipe. I made the recipe a few more times, but then the chili kind of fell by the wayside.
Fast-forward some more, to 2010, and my trip to watch tennis in Cincinnati. Of course I went for the tennis, but the chance to try real Cincinnati chili, from an actual Skyline restaurant, was too good for me to pass up.
Heaven.
I didn’t really think about Cincinnati chili again (as much as I love it it’s not something I can imagine eating often) until I saw Heather post about it.
After looking over the recipe she linked to, Saavy Eats’ healthy version I was intrigued by the idea of using kidney beans rather than red meat.
Last night I decided to try it for myself. I based my recipe on the original All Recipes one my friend and I used two years ago, but instead of ground beef I used kidney beans and instead of beef broth I used vegetable broth.
The end result?
Better than I ever could have imagined.
I did a blasphemous thing and put the chili on the bottom of the bowl (I had to warm it up in the microwave), then elbow pasta (I really dislike long pasta and I have a ton of other kinds that my mom gave me), then raw onions, then cheese.
I also mixed it together, another thing you don’t normally do.
Really, I encourage everyone to go make some. The texture and flavors were perfect. In fact, I might say this is the best thing I’ve ever made.
Thankfully I had plenty leftover to freeze for the future.
Vegetarian Cincinnati Chili (vegan if you don’t add the cheese to the finished product)
Adapted from Marbalet’s Cincinnati Chili I
Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 cans kidney beans drained and rinsed
1/4 cup chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 bay leaf
1/2 (1 ounce) square unsweetened chocolate
3 cups vegetable broth
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
Directions
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent.
2. Add kidney beans and cook until warm.
3. Add chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, allspice, cloves, bay leaf, chocolate, vegetable broth, tomato sauce, cider vinegar, and red pepper. Stir to mix well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove the bay leaf. Serve over hot, drained pasta. Top with raw onion and shredded cheddar cheese.
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