Cincy Chili Pizza

When I first met my husband he talked about two things: pizza and Cincinnati style chili. Luckily for him I was able to see past his food obsessions. I quickly realized that in order for our relationship to prosper I would have to learn to share his love of all things Cincinnati chili. So the next time I flew home to visit my family in Seattle we stopped at the Goldstar chili in the Cincinnati airport. Since that time I have eaten Goldstar, Skyline, Dixie (from the can) and some mom and pop place on the way to Cincinnati. As hard as I tried to resist loving Cincinnati style chili I have grown to appreciate it almost as much as my husband. Since that time, our family has expanded to include our two boys and they have followed on the chili tradition, my oldest son's first finger food was a Skyline chili cheese fry, and he fell in love. Given that my whole family loves Cincinnati chili as much as they do I have learned to experiment with recipes. I have made Cincinnati style chili from scratch on the stove, crockpot, with lamb, beef, and (my favorite) Cincy Chili Pizza. My husband and I first started making this recipe a couple of years back and it is delicious! Here's the recipe:

• One can of Cincinnati Chili
• Shredded mild cheddar cheese to taste 
• French fried onions to taste
• Pizza crust (I linked to the recipe I normally use)

I have never tried putting rinsed canned kidney beans on this pizza, but I'm sure that it would also be delicious. To prepare the pizza follow the following steps:

Open the jar of chili. Drain off all the fat from the top of the can. Most of the time this is approximately 1/4 of the cans contents. Spread out your pizza dough into a rectangle on a 11 X 13 inch baking sheet. Make sure to roll the dough out so it touches all corners. Alternately this recipe will also work with a round pizza shape if you prefer. Spread the entire contents of the Cincinnati chili onto the dough. Top with shredded cheddar cheese. I normally bake my pizza on a baking sheet placed on a pre-heated pizza stone, but it you don't own one it works fine without. Let bake at 425 degrees for approximately 20 minutes. Open the oven and spread the French fried onions over the entire top of the pizza. Place the pizza back into the oven for approximately 5 minutes or until the top of the onions is nicely browned and the crust is completely done. That's it!

This pizza is always a huge hit in my house and I make it frequently. While I make my crust from scratch it would also work with store bought pizza mix. When I first started making this pizza I used the pouch pizza mix from Kroger and it worked well. You really should try this pizza, it's delicious!

Cincinnati Chili

Growing up my father was a huge red meat fan. My mother tried for years to integrate more vegetarian dishes and to eliminate red meat from our family diet. She would make great peanut noodles, which my dad decided were too spicy and complained had no meat. Then she tried stir-fry, which my dad thought was great, after he added ground beef. After a couple of years my mom thought she had succeeded in getting my father to stop eating red meat, I knew better. He would sneak out to McDonald's and buy their cheap hamburgers and eat two on the way home. My mother was successful in turning one person into a vegetarian, me. I was a vegetarian starting my freshman year of high-school until my junior year of college. Then I slowly added back fish and chicken. Then I met my husband. My husband and two boys have been known to eat an entire pack of bacon in one sitting. The men in my family are definitely big red meat fans. Since I am more a once a week at most red meat eater, I have slowly been able to convince the rest of my family to follow my lead. One dish that my husband absolutely loves though is Cincinnati chili. He can go on a twenty minute tangent on the various difference and qualities between the various Cincinnati chili brands. I have made Cincinnati chili at home a number of times, but never in the crockpot so I was interested when I saw a recipe in the February issue of Family Circle for Cincinnati Chili done completely in the slow-cooker.

This recipe has 16 ingredients (plus 3 optional). It takes 15 minutes of prep and 8 hours on low in the crock-pot and makes 8 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Like I almost always do I ground my own Angus beef. I find that when I grind my own meat the texture and flavor is much better. Plus the attachment for the KitchenAid is inexpensive and very easy to use. I would normally make my own beef stock, but my normal grocery store was out of beef bones, so I bought 100% natural beef stock instead. For the toppings I added cheddar cheese on the plate. Normally my husband also likes chopped onions and occasionally beans (a five-way), but chose to play it simple with just cheese (a three-way). I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

For people unfamiliar with Cincinnati chili this is a very accessible recipe. The chili is on the mild side similar to Dixie chili, a smaller chain in Northern Kentucky. My kids really liked this recipe, they even had seconds. Make sure to taste and salt this recipe before serving. I had to add a couple of teaspoons of salt to make the flavor right before serving. I love that this recipe uses the crockpot and the flavor is still the same. Most Cincinnati chili recipes use garlic and onion powder so I was skeptical when the recipe used fresh ingredients. However, the finished result was perfect, so my assumption was misplaced. Overall, a very easy way to make Cincinnati style chili recipe.

For the recipe go to Cincinnati Chili.

Bon Apetit Cincinnati Chili

As I have stated before, my husband is a huge Cincinnati-style chili fan. I've had to hear numerous times the differences between Goldstar, Dixie and Skyline chili. Our oldest child's first table food was a Skyline chili cheese fry. Needless to say, my husband has opinions on how Cincinnati-style chili should taste. We regularly buy canned and frozen Cincy chili and I've made it from scratch using the spice packets more than once. I was intrigued when the February issue of Bon Appetit had a recipe for Cincinnati chili using lamb, instead of the traditional beef.

This is a relatively time consuming recipe. It isn't something that can be made last minute. The total time involved is about 2 1/2 hours, with about an hour and a half of prep. I grind my own lamb meat, so that added an additional ten minutes. The ingredients were all easily found at my local grocery store, or I already had in my spice cupboard. I did not use the goat's milk Gouda, my husband always tops his chili with shredded cheddar and I agreed that this was more traditional. I followed the rest of the recipe as stated, with no modifications .

Using lamb instead of beef in this recipe made a nice, rich flavor. This recipe tastes like a fancier version of the traditional Cincinnati style chili. My two boys weren't too sure of it at first, but ate the leftovers the next day. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed this recipe and would make it again.

For the recipe go to Bon Appetit Cincinnati Chili.