This is what chili looks like in 10 different regions around the United States (2024)

FAQs

What region is chili from? ›

Chili became commonly prepared in northern Mexico and southern Texas. Unlike some other Texas foods, such as barbecued brisket, chili largely originated with working-class Tejana and Mexican women.

Kansas City-style chili is hard to pin down, but it's oftentimes made with burnt ends or brisket or pork shoulder, Worcestershire sauce, beans, and a kick of cumin.

What primarily distinguishes Texas chili from other chili recipes you might find is a lack of beans, but it also doesn't feature any tomatoes. It is, largely, a ground beef dish that's seasoned with a spicy chili paste made of dried peppers.

Traditionally, chili combines ground or coarse-chopped beef (or other meat), dried red chili powder, onion, garlic, some liquid, and sometimes comino, oregano, beef suet, tomato, and masa (finely ground corn meal) to thicken. Texas-style chili has no beans. Southerners and Midwesterners generally add beans.

What is a California chile? A California chili is dried Anaheim pepper. It is a dark burgundy color with wrinkled and dehydrated skin. These peppers can be five to seven inches long and two to three inches wide.

Cincinnati chili is a Mediterranean-spiced meat sauce for spaghetti or hot dogs, and is very seldom eaten by the bowl as is typical with chili con carne.

What Makes Texas Chili Different from Other Chilis? Texas chili is unique from other chilis in that it does not contain beans or tomato sauce, or any tomato product. It is made primarily of meat and a thick and flavor chili paste made from dried peppers.

Texas chili is so iconic that president Lyndon B. Johnson is known to have said, “Chili concocted outside of Texas is usually a weak, apologetic imitation of the real thing. One of the first things I do when I get home to Texas is to have a bowl of red. There is simply nothing better.”

What is the hardest chili? ›

The current record holder, declared in 2023, is Pepper X, at more than 2.69 million SHU.

New Mexico chiles have an earthy, sweet flavor with hints of acidity, weediness and dried cherry undertones. They are often confused with their close relative the Anaheim chile (or California chile) but are a bit hotter at 800-1,400 SHU and more flavorful than the California chiles.

So how do they differ? Well, besides the different chile peppers used, Texas chili is traditionally made without tomatoes, though you will find them in chile colorado. Likewise, fillers are verboten in Texas chili yet potatoes are welcome in chile colorado.

Devil is an F1 hybrid variety of serrano chilli. The plant produces heavy yields of very large 9½cm (3¾in) long by 1cm (½in) wide hot peppers. Peppers are very hot and turn from glossy dark green to red when mature. Plant has green stems, green leaves, and white flowers.

Chile, country situated along the western seaboard of South America. It extends approximately 2,700 miles (4,300 km) from its boundary with Peru, at latitude 17°30′ S, to the tip of South America at Cape Horn, latitude 56° S, a point only about 400 miles north of Antarctica.

Its roots are from Mexico, Texas, and the Canary Islands and was introduced to the world by the Chili Queens of San Antonio and at the San Antonio Chili Stand at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893.

While many food historians agree that chili con carne is an American dish with Mexican roots, Mexicans are said to indignantly deny any association with the dish.

The vast majority of Chile's population is white and Mestizo, which is a term that refers to a person of mixed European and indigenous ancestry. Most of this population carries a mix of Mapuche and Spanish ancestry. The Mapuche are the second largest ethnic group in Chile. They were historically called Araucanians.