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.