What's Cooking Wednesday - Cincinnati Chili

Whenever I manage to con the chili master into making me some chili I invariably have to share it with Michael. Now I have to say this really annoys me because Mike is so not a chili fan. When he does choose to partake in a bowl you can bet dollars to donuts he will whine ask if it's possible to have chili without the beans because apparently beans are the scourge of the earth, next to peas. So I was pretty excited when I came across the recipe from allrecipes via kerflop.



Cincinnati Chili

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 lbs ground beef
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
1 bay leaf
1 square unsweetened chocolate
2 cans (10 oz) beef broth
1 jar tomato sauce
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup shredded cheese
cooked spaghetti

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until tender (about 6 minutes).

Add beef and cook until browned.

Add chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, allspice, cloves, bay leaf, chocolate, beef broth, tomato sauce, cider vinegar & cayenne. Stir to mix well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. Refrigerate overnight. Heat up and serve the next day over hot cooked spaghetti and top with shredded cheese.

Recipe Notes: The only changes I made to the recipe was to eliminate the bay leaf. Only because I couldn't get my hands on any. Also, to my surprise, I was out of spaghetti so we ate ours over shell pasta. I loved this recipe. It was a really big change for us. I have to admit the list of ingredients scared me a bit. I mean chocolate in chili? Cinnamon? It all came together surprisingly well. Mike had one small complaint, which was the taste of cumin was a bit over powering for him, so I promised to cut it by half next time around. 4/5

Will you promise not to laugh at me when I tell you how excited I am to have a record number of What's Cooking Wednesday participants? Okay, great 'cause I am. So. Excited.

Check out my first What's Cooking Wednesday friend sognatrice at bleeding espresso.

Then hop on over to my pal Julie's What's Cooking Wednesday at Faith, Hope and Love.... a Journey.

Last, but not least check out my newest What's Cooking Wednesday buddy, Karen at Virtually There.

Want to play along? Drop me an email or leave a comment and let me know and I will add you to the list. Don't forget to link your post back here too.