Best Cincinnati Chili with Cinnamon

Cozy up with a bowl of the best Cincinnati chili with cinnamon. The perfect dish for the fall and winter season.

Who doesn’t love a good chili recipe in the fall? When the air starts to feel crisper and the days get shorter, sitting down to a big bowl of warm chili is the best.

I love the spice and warmth to this Cincinnati chili recipe, and also that it goes on top of a big bed of noodles. It sticks to your belly and keeps you and your kids full for longer!

This is a recipe my mom cooked a lot when I was growing up. My mom is the type of person who doesn’t always follow a recipe exactly and likes to throw in extra things as she cooks. I am the total opposite. I like to follow the recipe exactly, taking a really long time before I will ever change anything. This makes it really interesting when I call my mom and ask how she makes a certain meal…

But I finally got my Cincinnati chili recipe down to where I like it. It’s super simple to make. Very filling and delicious. And my kids are obsessed!

How to Make the Best Cincinnati Chili with Cinnamon

The first step is to brown your ground beef and drain the fat. Then add in the tomato sauce.

After the tomato sauce is added, I like to put about 1/4 cup of water in the can, swish it around and dump it in to make sure I get everything out.

Now it’s time to add all of the spices and other liquids. The order in which these are added does not matter. You can premix the dry seasonings in a bowl while the ground beef is cooking so they are ready to just dump in at this point to make it easier.

Tip: This is the point that you can go lighter or heavier on the spices depending on your spice preference. The measurements I share are the ones I have found that are the perfect heat level for myself and my kids. My husband adds more spice to his plate separately because he likes a lot spicier food.

The final step for the sauce is to add the garlic cloves, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar. I have cooked this Cincinnati chili with both white vinegar and apple cider vinegar, and it tastes great either way.

Now, cover the sauce and simmer for at least an hour. This helps to infuse the flavors of all the delicious spices into the sauce even more, so the longer the better. Your house will smell amazing every time you lift the lid to stir!

Completing the Meal

While the sauce is simmering, you can take a break for a bit, then come back to prep the rest of the meal later. When the sauce is almost done, the noodles need to be cooked for the sauce to go on top. Spaghetti noodles work great, but if you avoid gluten or want a heavier protein noodle, my go to are chickpea noodles.

We also love to add kidney beans to our sauce. You can heat them in a separate pot, but I just like to add them in to the Cincinnati chili sauce when I add the noodles in to the boiling water. This saves you from having to clean one more pot. I add them in to the sauce so late because if you cook them too long in the sauce, they will start to split open.

The toppings for the Cincinnati chili are super simple but add a ton of flavor. The final step is to chop up some white onion and shred cheese or grab a bag of already shredded cheese. Cheddar and colby jack cheese are both great options.

Put your noodles on a plate, top with the Cincinnati chili sauce, kidney beans, shredded cheese and white onion, and enjoy your delicious meal.

Best Cincinnati Chili with Cinnamon Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. ground beef
• 28 oz. tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp vinegar, white or apple cider
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp Chili powder
• 1/2 tsp all-spice
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• Spaghetti noodles or chickpea noodles
• Optional toppings: white onion, shredded cheese, kidney beans

Best Cincinnati Chili with Cinnamon Instructions:

1. Brown the ground beef and drain the fat.
2. Add the tomato sauce. Put about ¼ cup of water into the empty can, swish it around and pour it in the pot to make sure you use up everything.
3. Add all of the dry spices, doing more or less depending on your spice preference.
4. Add the garlic cloves, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar (either white vinegar or apple cider vinegar).
5. Cover the sauce and simmer for at least one hour.
6. When the sauce is almost done, chop the white onion and shred the cheese.
7. Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the noodles.
8. Heat up the kidney beans either in a separate pot or or add them to the Cincinnati chili sauce to heat right at the end.
9. Build your plate. Add noodles, Cincinnati chili sauce, kidney beans, white onion and top it all with shredded cheese.

Recipe Variations

• Add more tomato sauce if you like a thinner sauce, or less if you like it to be heavier on meat.
• You can adjust the amount of spices to your preference. I tend to go a little lighter so that my kids will eat it. This is one of their favorite meals that is requested all the time.
• Try this meal with different types of noodles. For the most part, I eat chickpea noodles because they are gluten free and much higher in protein.

More Simple Dinner Recipes:

• Italian Zucchini Boats
• Oven Baked Tacos
• Mexican Chicken and Sweet Potato Skillet
• Creamy Bacon Asparagus Pasta

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• Banza assorted noodles
• Apple cider vinegar

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