Who’s confused by the name of this dish?! Mitch had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned what we were having for dinner the other night. Skyline Chili, the famous chili out of Cincinnati Ohio, is the inventor of the Chili 3-Way. The 3-way is a layered chili dish starting with pasta, chili, cheese and onion. It’s so good.
I’m from Columbus and Skyline isn’t as big there, but if you’re from Cinci, you looove this stuff. The chili is really unique and is flavored with chocolate and cinnamon, setting it apart from all other chili’s. My friend Ryan makes her own version and it tastes almost identical to theirs, but for this dish I just used my regular chili recipe. I also used spaghetti squash instead of regular noodles to lighten things up a bit and it was delicious. Maybe not the real thing, but still delicious!
My chili recipe doesn’t have beans because I wanted to keep it paleo, but feel free to add them. I love how versatile chili is. You can really add anything you like and the flavor never seems to change. I hope you enjoy this little taste of Ohio!
- 1 lb grass-fed ground beef or organic ground turkey or chicken
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 32oz oz can crushed tomatoes
- 1 4oz can or jar tomato paste
- 1 large onion - diced
- 3 garlic cloves - minced
- 2 bell peppers - diced - I used red and yellow
- 4 ribs celery - diced
- 3 carrots - diced
- 3 cups low sodium vegetable broth
- 3 tbsp chili powder
- 1.5 tbsp cumin
- 2 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp cayenne (or less if you like less spice)
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1.5 tsp coconut sugar
- 2 tsp salt - or to taste
- 1 tsp ground pepper - or to taste
- For the 3-Way
- 1 spaghetti squash
- Shredded grass-fed cheese of choice - Cheddar is traditionally used but I used mozzarella and it worked well
- Diced onion
- Preheat your oven to 350 F.
- Cut your spaghetti squash in half, length-wise, and remove the seeds with spoon
- On a lined baking sheet (for easy clean up) lay the two squash halves face down
- Roast in the oven for 1 hour then remove and set aside
- While the squash is baking, prepare the chili
- Preheat a large soup pot on medium heat
- Cook the ground beef, or turkey or chicken and remove from the pan and set aside
- Add the coconut oil and allow to melt
- Add the celery, onion, carrot, peppers and salt and pepper and for saute for about 5 minutes - add a bit of broth of your vegetables start to stick to the bottom of the pan
- Add the tomato paste and spices, stir to combine and let cook for another minute or two to meld the flavors
- Add the broth, crushed tomatoes and ground beef and stir to combine
- Let the chili come to a boil then reduce heat to low until you are ready to eat - the longer the chili simmers, the more flavor it will have
- When you are ready to eat, scrape the spaghetti squash halves with a fork to create "noodles" and set them aside
- On a plate, layer your noodles, chili, cheese and onion, and enjoy!
- The chili can serve 6-8 people - depending on how hungry people are. If you are feeding more than 4 people, I would recommend baking 2 or 3 spaghetti squash. 4 people at the most can eat 1 spaghetti squash.
Leave a Reply