Texas Chili Con Carne is a signature dish of United States; we have verified places to eat it in Austin and San Antonio. All-beef chili with no beans and no tomatoes, built on chunks of chuck and a dark chile paste of ancho, guajillo and pasilla chiles, beef stock, cumin and Mexican oregano.
Texas Chili Con Carne · Austin
All-beef chili with no beans and no tomatoes, built on chunks of chuck and a dark chile paste of ancho, guajillo and pasilla chiles, beef stock, cumin and Mexican oregano. Texas state dish since 1977.
Chili con carne traces to the San Antonio chili queens of the 1880s, who set up open-air braziers in Military Plaza serving meaty stew to railroad workers. Texas codified the no-beans rule in 1977 when chili was named the state dish. Austin's chili cook-offs and the Original Terlingua International Championship 4 hours west established the modern competition recipe.
Where to eat in Austin:
- Matt's El Rancho
- Dai Due
- Cisco's Restaurant Bakery & Bar
Where to eat Texas Chili Con Carne in Austin: the editor picks
Chili con carne · San Antonio
Chili con carne is a bowl of beef simmered in a deep, dried-chile gravy seasoned with cumin and garlic, traditionally without beans in the Texas style.
San Antonio's Chili Queens sold bowls of chili con carne from open-air stands in the downtown plazas from the 1880s, feeding workers and visitors by lamplight for decades. Their stands effectively introduced chili to the wider United States before the city closed them over sanitation rules in the 1930s and 1940s. The chili-gravy enchilada plate that defines San Antonio Tex-Mex descends directly from that tradition.
Where to eat in San Antonio:
- Mi Tierra Cafe y Panaderia
- La Fonda on Main
- Rosario's ComidaMex & Bar
Where to eat Chili con carne in San Antonio: the editor picks