Mr. brown and I were debating this the last time I served chili. He loves slightly sweet cornbread best of all, but I like the contrast of crunchy saltines with my chili. Cracker bonus: you can use them as a scoop for the chili topped with molten cheese.
But I also love toasted corn tortillas with chili. The savory corn flavor complements the red chili wonderfully.
What say you?
I love a Baked Potato under the Chili, usually with cheese between and a little on top.
Oysterettes for crackers.
Croutons actually work well with chili, give it a try some day.
Cornbread is fine.
Tortillas and cornbread are tied for me. Or maybe tortillas have a slight edge. I like to put the chili inside of the tort.
All are delicious. I grew up eating corn tortillas, but we did regular saltines, too. Cornbread is also a big favorite, and my preference, probably. But I make it myself, and do not put sugar into the batter. I crumble it over the chili, or sometimes, I just eat a slice w the chili. In fact, chili is on the menu this weekend, since it will be chilly (no pun intended) in the Midwest this weekend.
In my corner of Nebraska cinnamon rolls are traditional with chili. No one remembers exactly why but nobody is arguing against cinnamon rolls either.
My favorite: chili casserole. Day-old chili poured into a baking dish with (unsweetened) cornbread batter spread over the top, sprinkled with grated cheese, and then baked.
Second favorite: chili tacos with corn tortillas. Along with the chili, add some refried beans, pico de gallo, shredded cabbage, and shredded cheese.
Cinnamon is one of my standard ingredients in chili. Not too much, but it adds another dimension of savory.
Cornbread. Real cornbread, Southern style, with no added sugar (it’ll still be slightly sweet, because corn itself is sweet).
But I also won’t pass up any of the other options.
I like all of the suggestions so far, but I still go back to my early adulthood and use tortilla chips as scoops.
I do like cornbread but I always eat my chili over pasta of some sort so I get my carbs that way.
Are you from the Cincinnati area?
It sounds like:
Spaghetti noodles are good but I usually use a macaroni noodle for a chili-mac.
White rice. Chili poured on top. Crackers used as a utensil to stuff it in my face.
Oh, man, I did that, too (and still do with leftovers). I gotta use tortilla chips, tho.
Peanut butter on bread .
Cornbread is my preference, but I’ll go with tortilla chips or Fritos if cornbread isn’t available.
Tortilla chips are great for scooping, especially the big “restaurant-size” ones, so those are always my choice to have with chili.
I’m not into any of the OP’s chili carbs or cheese.
Now that’s a chili-carb duo that I’ll eat to discomfort! I like it with a thimble or two of balsamic vinegar. The touch of sweet and acid knocks it out. Some raw onion is almost gildng the lily but why not?
I hadn’t thought about having chili on white rice, and it sounds tasty.
Is this a Latin American thing perhaps?
I ask this because I can only eat black beans properly if they are poured on top of white rice, as my Brazilian wife taught me 34 years ago. Never really ate black beans before I met her, but these days it’s a 3-4 meal per week staple, and it’s always on rice.
For chili, I go with Saltines, just because that’s the way Mom served it.
I never thought about tortilla chips, so I’ll definitely be giving that a trial run.
The Only True Way was how I was raised: saltine crackers.
That said, I don’t usually bother with any of these. I might toss some shredded cheese on top if I have some handy.
If there was a platter of all of those starches available, I think I’d likely grab the cornbread.
Edit: I just read the subject line line, which says tortillas, then I reread the first post which mentions crunchy corn tortillas (i.e. tortilla chips). That’s definitely the one I’d choose.
Since chilli already has a sort of carb-ish component in the form of beans (assuming you agree with beans in your chilli), I’m quite happy to eat it as-is.
Though tortillas are quite nice too.