# Cinnamon rolls with chili- is this a nationwide thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [December 9, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273 "2022-12-09T19:13:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2022, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/21 "2022-12-10T06:59:14Z")
Never heard of it, never seen it in Seattle. I ran a school lunch kitchen one year, never saw it. I don’t eat at chain diners here, so _if_ they carry it I wouldn’t have seen it. I’m pretty confident I’d have heard about it one way or another if they did, but stranger things have happened. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2022, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/22 "2022-12-10T09:21:52Z")
Saw that too. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2022, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/23 "2022-12-10T09:33:12Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Never heard of it, never seen it in Seattle. I ran a school lunch kitchen one year, never saw it. I don’t eat at chain diners here, so _if_ they carry it I wouldn’t have seen it. Must be an eastern WA thing. I asked some of my coworkers in Olympia about it and they looked at me as if I were speaking Welsh. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2022, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/24 "2022-12-10T17:31:29Z")
> [@Chingon](#): > > No, they mean chili is paired with a cinnamon roll as a sweet side. > > Very common in Kansas. Heh, I was thinking surely they mean the spice and not the meat dish. Nope! That is a very weird combo to me. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2022, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/25 "2022-12-10T21:12:32Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > a Runza restaurant in Lincoln, Nebraska…and he is, in fact, eating chili on a cinnamon roll. 😉 I’m in Lincoln, Nebraska too and it is a minor religion here, serving cinnamon rolls with chili. I grew up eating school lunches in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We had homemade school lunch lady chili and homemade cinnamon rolls, but not necessarily paired for the same meal. Here a few grocery store bakeries fashion bread bowls out of cinnamon rolls for people to serve chili in. That’s a bridge too far for me. Runza makes good chili, especially for a fast food place-it’s a local chain that has grown immensely. They also make Runzas, which they try to trademark (unsuccessfully), which are delicious-yeast bread shaped around a spiced ground beef, onions and cabbage filling. Very hearty and filling. I eat their chili when I get a hankering for chili, it’s reliably good. I never bother getting the side of cinnamon rolls to go with it, just never got attached to the pairing. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/26 "2022-12-11T01:49:01Z")
> [@Chingon](#): > > It’s people mislabeling the Great Plains as part of the Midwest. Unless you’re talking to someone from far western Kansas/Nebraska, you’ll not meet someone from that area who doesn’t say they’re from the Great Plains. Having grown up in Kansas and Nebraska, I have never heard anyone refer to themselves as “from the Great Plains”. The Great Plains is more of an ecological/geological reference, the Midwest is far more of a demographical one. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/27 "2022-12-11T01:55:07Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Heh, I was thinking surely they mean the spice and not the meat dish. Me, too. I wouldn’t like it, but I can imagine a less-sweet cinnamon roll with some chili powder in it working pretty well. Whereas chili-the-meat-dish paired with sweet cinnamon rolls sounds wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/28 "2022-12-11T02:02:06Z")
I’ve met myself and my entire family and group of friends who have lived in Kansas my whole life… Never thought I’d meet a “Kansas” gatekeeper lol ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/29 "2022-12-11T02:30:50Z")
Not really sure what sort of gatekeeping I’m doing by suggesting that people are free to refer to Kansas and Nebraska as the Midwest, since people from that region do so all the time. Maybe tell all the Kansan and Nebraskan politicians to stop referencing their “Midwest values” as well. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/30 "2022-12-11T04:10:36Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > Here a few grocery store bakeries fashion bread bowls out of cinnamon rolls for people to serve chili in. That’s a bridge too far for me. Whoa. I’m trying hard to wrap my brain around the pairing of beef chili and sweet cinnamon rolls, but I just can’t do it. But I felt the same way about chicken & waffles, and when I finally tried a bite of one, it was actually quite good. It’s just that cinnamon rolls are so overly sweet with all that gloppy frosting on top. I’ll try to reserve judgment… ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/31 "2022-12-11T04:35:01Z")
I just can’t get it. It makes me vaguely queasy. This is NOT to crap on people who like it, but not only (to me) is the combination weird, but I grew up in Southern NM, where chili is made with stewed/braised/slow-cooked pork and green chile peppers - beef and bean based chili is already considered a Tex-Mex abomination. I do have to thank @Chingon for the article that puts in all in historical context, the who-what-when-where-why, and it seems rational, but I just can’t ever imagine it working for me. By comparison, chicken and waffles makes a lot more sense to me, but I have no regional hang ups over fried chicken or waffles. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/32 "2022-12-11T12:54:21Z")
I had chicken and waffles once, and didn’t get it. It wasn’t more than the sum of the parts. It wasn’t really less, either. It just seemed like a strange pairing. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/33 "2022-12-11T13:34:32Z")
I’ve never had chicken and waffles together. Not sure I’ve even been some place where it’s been served. I keep seeing this thread, and now I want cinnamon rolls. I think next weekend I’m going to make both chili and cinnamon rolls. I will not be serving them together, but I might try dipping a piece of a cinnamon roll in chili. Just curious. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/34 "2022-12-11T13:53:28Z")
While I see the Alton Brown video and read about the cinnamon bowls, is the idea usually to combine the two in each bite? I thought it would be more like take a few spoonfuls of chili, have a bite of the roll. As I said above, those flavors to me complement, but all together in each bite would get a bit much after a couple bites. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/35 "2022-12-11T14:04:41Z")
For sake of dispelling ambiguity, the meat stew’s proper name is _[chili con carne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_con_carne)_. _Chili_ by itself or _[chili pepper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_pepper)_ (although it is not botanically a pepper) means the fruit that usually has has some level of capsaicin, like jalapeños or bell peppers. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/36 "2022-12-11T17:07:29Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > They also make Runzas, which they try to trademark (unsuccessfully), which are delicious-yeast bread shaped around a spiced ground beef, onions and cabbage filling. Very hearty and filling. Runzas are great! But I can’t really wrap my head around cinnamon rolls and chili. I can see the warm spice correlation, but I’m not a sweet and savory together fan. Chicken and waffles? Had it, it was ok. Prefer both separate. I imagine the same thing is true for cinnamon rolls & chili and me. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/37 "2022-12-11T20:28:28Z")
> [@bump](#): > > but I’m not a sweet and savory together fan. Yeah, that sounds like it would be a problem. I’m not a huge sweets fan, but sweet & savory tickle all the right taste buds for me, within reason. Like I said above, a few bites of chili, then a bit of the cinnamon roll (like I might do with corn bread), seems like it would go together very well for my tastes. For example, here in Chicago, there’s a “Chicago mix” of popcorn that is cheesy popcorn mixed with caramel popcorn. I am not a fan of popcorn, nor either cheesy or caramel popcorn, but mixed together, it’s divine. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/38 "2022-12-11T20:44:32Z")
Whereas i hate that stuff, but if i take the time to sort out the cheese from the sweet, i like the sweet popcorn and I’m okay with the cheesy popcorn. But together? Blechh. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/39 "2022-12-11T20:56:09Z")
I’m not that against it; I’ve had the caramel/cheese corn, and thought it was ok, but I didn’t feel like it was better than either one separately. I’ll make one sweet and savory exception; Korean style fried chicken is often served with a sweet soy glaze on it after it’s fried, and that particular combination is _fantastic_. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2022, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273/40 "2022-12-11T21:01:35Z")
I’m in Kansas and I hear about this combo a lot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cinnamon-rolls-with-chili-is-this-a-nationwide-thing/976273.md?page=3)