If you love Frish’s chili, you’re gonna love this Copy Cat Frish’s Big Boy Chili recipe. It’s thick, tangy, full of warm toasty goodness and tastes just like the real thing. Only, it’s better because it’s made with ingredients from home.
If you’ve never had this stuff, don’t feel left out. The Cincinnati tri-state area is home to Frish’s Big Boy, so if you’re not from this area, you’ve most likely been denied the distinct flavor and texture of this delicious chili. That is… until now. I’ve duplicated it in my own kitchen and now it’s yours to have and devour, too!
To get started, you’ll need a medium onion. Taking note on that whole fine texture thing and the short cooking time, rather than dicing your onion, you’ll want to grate it.
To get the ground beef finely textured, mash it into some beef stock before cooking. Be sure to use very lean ground beef because there’s no removing the fat before adding the rest of the ingredients. That’s a low-calorie bonus!
The seasonings for the chili are onion powder, garlic powder, salt, chili powder and cumin. To make the chili nice and thick, you’ll need a large can of finely crushed tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce and a can of tomato paste.
Once you have all your ingredients in the pot, give it a good stir and let it come to a boil. Turn the heat down to simmer and get the cheese and crackers ready. It’ll be done and ready to eat in no time.
The recipe in the print out down below will make a significant amount of chili (about 10 servings). It’s terrific as left overs (all chili’s are great the next day!) and it freezes really well.
I hope you’ll enjoy this one as much as we did. Give it a try and let me know how yours turned out.
If you’ve got a favorite restaurant dish you’d like a copy cat recipe for, send me a message. I love a good challenge!
Have a beautiful day friends and as always, keep it delicious!
Till next time ~ much love, Connie
Copy Cat Frish’s Big Boy Chili
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 3 C beef broth or stock
- 1 medium onion minced
- 28 oz crushed tomatoes
- 15 oz tomato sauce
- 6 oz tomato paste
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 2 cans kidney beans drained.
Instructions
- In a large soup pot, combine the ground beef, onion and broth.
- Mash the ground beef to a fine texture.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and place over med/hi heat.
- When the mixture comes to a boil, turn the heat down to medium.
- Simmer until ground beef is cooked thoroughly.
- Add the kidney beans and heat through.
- Remove from heat and serve with shredded cheese and crackers.
- Total cook time is about 45 minutes.
Notes
What is Happy Belly Foodie all about? Keeping it delicious! 
Great dish!!! I love it. I’ll try to make it myself, I’ll tell you how it goes.
Awesome! You’re gonna love it 😉
Making this tonight I love frishes chili!
Gonna try it out tonight! I’ll let you know if it’s like my favorite chili from Frisches!
This recipe is pretty close to the taste of Frisch’s chili. I’ll have to try this again with crushed tomatoes. I didn’t have any and used diced tomatoes. I just ran them through the food processor. That could account for the taste being just a little off. I can’t complain though, the recipe is pretty darn close.
Hi Connie, My sister loves Frisch’s chili and made this the other night. She said that it is great. Good job. Do you have a recipe for Bob Evans chicken noodle soup? I love that stuff.
I just turned off the heat on my chili and I was so impressed I had to give feedback. I have tried a ton of copycat recipes for Frisch’s chili and this is without a doubt the closest. Many of them I question if they had ever eaten at a Frisch’s. And one of those came from TV station WCPO in Cincy!! Most of them are way overseasoned and one actually called for green peppers. I did add a bit more salt and a couple of teaspoons of sugar at the end. Frisch’s chili is a bit sweet.
BTW, you have a typo. There is a “C” in Frisch’s.
What size cans of kidney beans please?
To much tomato taste !!!
Husband was not a fan!!
The chili was good but I don’t think it tasted anything like Frish’s chili. Their chili has a very distinct flavor that this just did not have. Sure wish I knew what it was that this was missing. We moved from Ohio to Alabama so there’s no getting their chili for us anymore. I had high hopes for this recipe but was left disappointed. I do appreciate the attempt though. Thanks for sharing.
This is a great recipe, the texture is just like Frisch’s chili, they must use a super concentrated stock, because it’s not as beefy tasting as the restaurant version, but it’s pretty darn close.
NOTHING LIKE FRISCHES CHILI
VERY DISAPPOINTED
The chili had a good taste, but I personally don’t think it tasted like Frisch’s chili. (Maybe too tomato-y?) Frisch’s has a unique taste. But still, it was good. Thank you.