Cincinnati chili
Ohio’s famous chili, fine-textured and gently spiced with cinnamon and a little chocolate, piled on spaghetti under a mountain of cheddar.
- 90 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 6
- About $2.60 a serving
- 660 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped, divided
- 1½ lb 85/15 ground beef
- 1 beef bouillon cube, check the box: most cubes make 2 cups each
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can tomato sauce, 8 oz
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp chocolate chips
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 12 oz spaghetti
- 2 cups shredded cheddar
From your pantry
- 2 cups water
- 2 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 bay leave
- 1 tsp salt
Each serving has about 660 calories, 39 g protein, 53 g carbs and 32 g fat, and costs about $2.60 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No tomato sauce? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No spaghetti? Fettuccine works.
- No shredded cheddar? Cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese or Monterey Jack cheese works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the onion. Keep a quarter of it aside for the topping.
Finely chop. Finely chopping means cutting food into small pieces, a little bigger than minced, about the size of a lentil. Small pieces spread their flavor through the dish and cook quickly.
How you’ll know: Nothing is bigger than a lentil, and the pile looks like confetti rather than paste.
Put the raw beef, water and bouillon cube in a large pot and break the beef into tiny pieces with a whisk or potato masher until there are no clumps. over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Dolly’s tip: This is the Cincinnati way: simmering the beef instead of browning it gives the chili its fine, saucy texture.Stir in the rest of the onion, the garlic, tomato sauce, tomato paste, spices, chocolate, vinegar, Worcestershire, bay leaf and salt.
Turn the heat to low and uncovered for 1 hour, stirring every 10 minutes, until thick and saucy.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Low heatTimer: 60 min
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
When the chili has about 15 minutes left, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the spaghetti until , then .
Al dente. Al dente is Italian for “to the tooth”: pasta cooked until tender but with a slight firm bite in the center. It holds up in sauce and keeps softening a little after you drain it.
How you’ll know: Bite a piece a minute before the package time: tender, with a slight firm bite in the middle and no crunch.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
High heatTimer: 10 min
Spoon off any fat from the top of the chili, pull out the bay leaf and taste for salt.
Pile spaghetti on each plate, ladle chili over, and top with a big mound of cheddar and a sprinkle of the saved onion.
Dolly’s tip: In Cincinnati that’s a “four-way.” Add kidney beans under the cheese and it’s a five-way.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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