Chili Revolution

Recently one of our readers emailed us and told us they have their own Cincinnati chili spice mix and run the website ChiliRevolution.com. The reader wanted us to try a sample of her Cincinnati chili mix which she claims is the Empress Chili recipe. Since we want to experiment with various Cincinnati chili recipes and love free stuff, we took the reader up on her offer.

About a week later we received the spice mixes in the mail with the following instructions:

Chili ingredients

We followed the instructions exactly as stated (made it a day before serving) and it resulted in a pretty good Cincinnati style chili. The chili was definitely your stereotypical sweet Cincinnati chili, with cinnamon being the most prevalent of the sweet spices. I don't know if it reminded us much of Empress, but that is a bit hard to tell since overall our coneys weren't a copy of Empress'. This recipe called for more tomato sauce than other recipes I've seen. I didn't notice it while eating, but could after I was done. I will need to try one of the other recipes that calls for less sauce to make a verdict about which amount is more appropriate. Onion was the most prevalent of the savory spices and we could even see some onion flakes in the chili. 

The one downfall of our coneys was not the fault of the chili. The buns we purchased were sub-par. I do not recommend buying Butternut Golden Honey buns for cheese coneys, they got soggy way too quickly. Our freshly grated medium cheddar cheese and blue grass hot dogs were good and complimented the chili well.

Overall we liked Chili Revolution's take on Cincinnati chili. Even though it requires more effort than opening up a can of chili, we enjoyed the freshness of making it ourselves. We look forward to trying more recipes, and even tweaking some existing recipes, in an attempt to find a perfect homemade Cincinnati chili recipe.

All the ingredients before stirring together

Everything mixed together and simmering on the stove

Freshly grated cheese

Dogs and Chili warming up on the stove

Chili is ready to serve

Chili Dogs

Cheese coneys!

2012 Gold Star Chili Cook-Off

Good news for those who enjoy all varieties of chili, details of the 2012 Gold Star Chili Cook-Off have been announced. The event will take place at Findlay Market on Sunday January 15, 2012 at Noon. Gold Star Chili sponsors the annual event which features 30 different chili entrants judged by the firefighters from OTR Engine 5. After judges have made their decisions the public is allowed taste all the various chilies from the competition.  We attended the 2011 cook-off and enjoyed ourselves. It's a well run event and held at one of our favorite Cincinnati landmarks.

Mr. Hanton's opens storefront

Earlier in the quest we tried the Mr. Hanton's food truck and were really impressed. It was by far the best hot dog we have tasted on the quest thus far. Apparently Mr. Hanton's business is doing very well as over the weekend they opened a store front in White Oak. According to their Facebook page, here are some of the offerings they will have:

Aside from over 30 varieties dogs/sausages we also offer Philly Cheese Steaks, Italian Beefs, Gyros shaved off the cone, Deep fried PB&J, a monster grilled cheese on Texas toast with fried mozzarella, provolone and Marinara, Flatbread Chicken breast salad, Gravy cheese fries, chili cheese fries, bacon cheese fries, sweet potato fries, Mr. Hanton fries. We will also have cheese cake and other fresh baked goodies.

Mr. Hanton's is located on 5826 Cheviot Road and their hours will be 11a.m. - 9p.m. Sunday - Thursday and 11a.m. - 3a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Everything we have tried from Mr. Hanton's has been very tasty and we look forward to visiting their new storefront. 

Coney Mania and Cincinnati Chili in Portland

The other day I came across this flyer and had to make sure to pass the info on to fellow coney lovers. If you are looking for cheese coneys for a good price, Gold Star Chili has you covered next Wednesday. On Wednesday December 7th Gold Star will have another one of their popular Coney Mania specials. 99 cent cheese coneys all day long (limit 10).

If you are in Portland and have a craving for Cincinnati Chili, you are now in luck. The Oregonian reports Sandwich Island, a lunch stop in downtown Portland, recently added Cincinnati style chili to their menu. The Oregonian reporter had positive feedback and there is a 4 star review for the chili on Yelp. Sounds like a good option for any Cincinnati transplants in the Portland area.