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.
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FAQs
Its name evokes comparison to chili con carne, but the two are dissimilar in consistency, flavor, and serving method; Cincinnati chili more closely resembles Greek pasta sauces and spiced-meat hot dog topping sauces seen in other parts of the United States.
How is Cincinnati chili different from 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.
What's the difference between chili and skyline chili? ›
Skyline Chili is unique in that it is not chili con carne, the meat dish that originated in (and is the state dish of) Texas. Instead, Cincinnati chili is a sauce usually used over spaghetti or hot dogs, containing a unique spice blend that gives it a very distinct, sweet-and-savory taste.
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.
Why does Cincinnati chili have spaghetti? ›
The Mediterranean influence is a result of Macedonian immigrants inventing the dish. Woellert says the origins of Cincinnati chili can be traced back to a small burlesque theater called The Empress where, in 1922, several Macedonian brothers started serving chili on top of spaghetti, labeling it "chili mac."
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.
Can you eat Cincinnati 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.
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.
Does Cincinnati chili have chocolate in it? ›
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.
What gives Skyline chili its flavor? ›
It's mostly just a bunch of spices already in your cupboard at home. Chili powder, ground cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, and cayenne pepper are par for the course, by a little ground cinnamon, allspice, and cloves add a new flavor dimension that sets Cincinnati chili apart. Chocolate: Yes, chocolate.
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.
What kind of onions does Skyline Chili use? ›
-1 large brown/yellow onion (I have seen these called both brown or yellow, just don't use white onion. Red onion is good too, but it gives the chili a different flavor.)
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.
What is the difference between Cincinnati chili and regular chili? ›
Classic chili is closer to a stew than a soup, while Cincinnati chili is closer to a soup than a stew. Since Cincinnati chili is a topping, it's normally of a thinner consistency. The Ohioan dish is often compared to Greek pasta sauces or meat sauces used to top hot dogs.
What is the Greek dish in Cincinnati chili? ›
It turns out that Cincinnati chili is actually a New World adaptation of Greek pastit*io. Greek immigrants opened the Empress restaurant in Cincinnati in 1922 and began serving the deconstructed pastit*io. It became such a huge hit that other restaurants run by Greek immigrants began making their own versions.
What is it called when you put chili on spaghetti? ›
Cincinnati Chili was first served in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1922. It is traditionally served on a bed of spaghetti piled high with cheese, beans, ground beef, onions, and oyster crackers. It is sweetened up with very unique flavors to chili like chocolate, cinnamon, cloves and allspice.
What makes Skyline Chili unique? ›
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 competition chili and regular chili? ›
First of all, competition chili will contain a lot more spices and seasonings than eatin' chili. Eatin' chili may contain beans, but competition chili won't contain beans or any other substance considered filler; i.e., macaroni, rice or oatmeal.
What kind of beans are in Skyline chili? ›
Description: This classic Cincinnati dish starts with a foundation of spaghetti noodles coated in Skyline's secret blend of seasonings. A heaping spoonful of kidney beans goes on next, followed by Skyline's "original, secret-recipe chili," some chopped onions and a heaping mound of finely shredded aged cheddar.
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.
