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We asked for readers, LAist staff and professional chefs for their top tricks for making chili magic. We got a whole lotta responses — check out the hotly contested debates between beans and no beans, whole or powder chili, and jump into a whole bar of chocolate suggestions
What are the outliers? Chicory coffee. Bone marrow. Brown sugar. Miso. Fish sauce. We could go on.
What if I don’t feel like making my own? Fret not. We’ve got you covered with our favorite takeout options.
It’s Super Bowl weekend and we’ve got chili on the brain! But it’s easy to get lost in the sauce when trying to make a memorable bowl.
We asked you (our readers), LAist staff, and professional chefs for their best hacks to make the hefty crowd-pleaser.
Ranging from beans to no beans (shout out to Texas), ground beef to prime cuts, and wild card ingredients such as chocolate, beer, and miso, it seems anything goes when it comes to flavor.
Here is what you had to say:
Caryl Chinn, Mid-City
I’m a Texas chili fan, so no beans allowed 😉 Plenty of spice, and all the fixin’s (cheese, onion, scallions, jalapeños, sour cream, etc) but especially Fritos! I follow a recipe from Elizabeth Karmel (former chef of Hill Country BBQ) Also — and this is not in the recipe — to get the consistency I prefer, I use an immersion blender to blend the finished product and break up big chunks of ground beef
Ale Gomez Tanner, Bellflower
I make a mash-up between chili and frijoles charros (Mexican-style stewed pinto beans) with chorizo and cilantro 😁
Matthew McIvor, Redondo Beach, owner of Proudly Serving
I make Texas-style chili, as we do at the restaurant and guests can make their Frito pie.
Gail Chabran, (mom of Gab Chabran, associate food editor), Whittier
I like to make it with black beans and ground turkey. Then I have the usual stuff like onion, various sauces or chiles, maybe canned tomatoes. I have been known to make it with garbanzo beans.
Nick Roman, host of LAist 89.3’s All Things Considered
My mom was a fabulous cook and taught me how to make chili in college, along with spaghetti sauce and Texas hash. She said you'll get by if you know how to make these things.
I’ve used Lawry’s seasoning, but I also use cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic cloves. I prefer to use ground beef at an 80/20 ratio for more crumble. I’ll add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, green bell peppers, Ortega green chilies, corn, red kidneys, and pinto beans, and for Sunday's Superbowl, I'll start it in a crockpot in the morning.
Oakley Boren, Los Alamitos
I use Gochujang for heat. It sneaks up on you, that one. 😉
Robert Haleblian, Pasadena
Whole dried chilis > powders
Josh Hernadez, Los Angeles
A little mustard in the chili gives it a good zing 🔥
Monica Bushman, Producer, How To LA
My mom often uses the Chilean spice merkén / merquen in place of chili powder. And usually whatever the recipe calls for, she cuts it by half, because at least the Chileans in my family are not big on anything spicy.
Jonathan Burton, Long Beach
It’s the early and the late steps that matter most to me. Early on it’s blooming spices in the rendered fat and then throwing in minced chipotles in adobo. Later, add a malty beer and some dark chocolate for the simmer.
Aiddee Robles Tellez, Montebello
Adding fresh ingredients like diced onions, cilantro, and jalapenos will level up chili. (Even canned chili) The new burst of flavor will add great texture and crunch.
Nate Perez, LAist Associate Producer
A tiny bit of liquid smoke! I would use a smoker if I could.
Ron Reeder, Whittier
I use stew meat instead of ground round.
Rod Chrolon, Los Angeles
Use a li'l chorizo.
Chef Teresa Montaño, Chef and Owner of Otoño in Highland, Park
My grandma used to make a green chili with ground pork, onion, garlic and beans. It was stewed like Texas-style but all New Mexico green chile. It was like crack. I like to put a little dark cocoa powder in Texas-style chili.
Malina Syvoravong, food stylist and recipe developer, L.A.
Someone told me to put in cocoa powder and chicory coffee! It feels very cowboy-y to make it that way.
Matthew Cisneros, La Mirada
I used some bone marrow once and it was 😋 🤤 … roast the bone with marrow then add to chili. Wasn’t for the Super Bowl but should have been!
Laura Dux, LAist events intern
My dad only knew how to cook chili when I was a kid. He would add brown sugar and a whole stick of butter.
Tiffany Luong, owner of Vegan Bánh Mì Thảo, Long Beach
Miso!!
Neal Hirtzel, El Segundo
Fish sauce.
Brian Hidalgo, Whittier
I once sliced up tamales and put them in a chili. Wasn’t that bad.
Sionnan Wood, Burbank
My tip is to sit in the back and crack feminist jokes, and giggle to myself over a cool beer and chips.
Kevin Ferguson, Highland Park
Always add masa harina. Ground-up Fritos works great as a substitute in a pinch.
Nicole Martin, Compton
Going through the Louis Burger drive-thru for them chili cheese fries or buying the enormous ‘homemade’ Costco container and putting it atop a baked potato.
Jairo Bogarin, owner of Hamburgers Nice
My best friend Tony used to LOVE chili cheese fries at Tom’s/Tommy’s/Tams/Jims/ etc. He would eat all of it! The bottom of the styrofoam plate resembled a Japanese garden after he was done forking it🍴
Khristian Diane, Long Beach
Chili John’s in Burbank is one of the oldest — The Hat in Alhambra is so good — and Louis Burger here in Long Beach is top-notch! I love chili cheese fries. One alternative is the chana masala fries from Badmaash. They are a vegetarian Indian version of chili cheese fries.
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The Garfield Bulldogs defeated the Roosevelt Rough Riders 28-24 at the 91st East LA Classic.
Why it matters: The event drew crowds in red and gold, blue and white, all there to cheer on their team and claim Eastside bragging rights.
Check out ... some of the night’s best moments. The fans in the stands. The players on the gridiron. The Friday night lights.
The fans in the stands. The players on the gridiron. The Friday night lights.
Those were just some of the scenes inside Weingart Stadium, where the Garfield Bulldogs defeated the Roosevelt Rough Riders 28-24 at the 91st East LA Classic.
The event drew crowds in red and gold, blue and white, all there to cheer on their team and claim Eastside bragging rights.
Here are some of the night’s best moments.
The post The best moments from the 91st East LA Classic appeared first on LA Local.
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The L.A. County District Attorney’s office dropped its felony body armor charges against Michael Angel Alvarez earlier this week. Alvarez was sentenced to time served on a lesser charge — a probation violation. He served more than 100 days in jail earlier this year while awaiting trial.
Most serious claims haven’t materialized: Though federal prosecutors made headlines claiming in court documents and on social media that Alvarez was “leading a violent street gang, while claiming to be a gang interventionist for the City,” they have not filed charges related to those claims.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office dropped its felony body armor charges against Michael Angel Alvarez on Wednesday. Alvarez was sentenced to time served on a lesser charge — a probation violation. He had served more than 100 days in jail earlier this year while awaiting trial.
Why Alvarez’s arrest made headlines: Alvarez was working as a city-contracted peace ambassador in MacArthur Park when he was arrested by federal agents in May. Federal and county prosecutors each brought felony charges against him, claiming he was in possession of body armor as a violent felon.
Bill Essayli, who leads the U.S. Attorney’s office in L.A., pointed to the case on social media to criticize city officials for allowing taxpayer money to be “shelled out to a convicted gang murderer.”
About his criminal record: Judges in federal and state court have now dismissed prosecutors’ felony charges against Alvarez, after U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang found on Sept. 9 that Alvarez did not have a violent felony conviction. Alvarez was 15 when he committed a gang-related murder. He was tried and convicted as an adult in 2002. After a change in state law increased the age at which minors could be sentenced as adults to 16, Alvarez’s case was sent back to juvenile court, and he was released in 2024. At that point, he had served more than 20 years.
Most serious claims haven’t materialized: Though federal prosecutors made headlines claiming in court documents that Alvarez was “leading a violent street gang, while claiming to be a gang interventionist for the City,” they have not filed charges related to those claims.
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An all-ages play about the life of Dolores Huerta and other under-told stories of the farmworker labor movement is back on tour in Los Angeles.
The backstory:
Center Theatre Group commissioned ¡Sí Se Puede! from Eliana Pipes in March 2025 and it debuted in L.A. this spring. “There's this perception that farm work was only done by men,” Pipes said. “There were women on the fields, there were women on the picket lines, and there were women in leadership in the United Farm Workers movement.”
What's next: ¡Sí Se Puede!’s upcoming free shows are:
An all-ages play about the life of Dolores Huerta and other under-told stories of the farmworker labor movement is back on tour in Los Angeles.
The show's extension had been announced prior to the news that Huerta died Wednesday, Oct. 28., at her Bakersfield home. She was 96 years old.
“There's this perception that farm work was only done by men,” said playwright Eliana Pipes. “There were women on the fields, there were women on the picket lines, and there were women in leadership in the United Farm Workers movement.”
Center Theatre Group commissioned ¡Sí Se Puede! from Pipes in March 2025 and it debuted in L.A. this spring.
The next free, family-friendly shows are:
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There’s a whole world of underground Southern California music history that’s hidden in storage boxes — photos, fliers, cassettes and other memorabilia. Research librarians at the California State University, Los Angeles are holding a community archive event on Nov. 5 to ensure the cultural memory of L.A.’s underground music scenes are preserved for future generations.
Why it matters: The memorabilia are the physical remnants of the supportive L.A. communities built around music and enjoyment. But many of these objects languish out of sight, and run the risk of being lost, along with the memories attached to them.
Why now: For four years, archive staff have held an annual day to receive ephemera from the public. They're doing it again on Thursday, Nov. 5.
Read on… to hear how goth, rockabilly and other underground clubs in L.A. inspired the head archivist.
Right around the year 2000, there was a club night in Hollywood called Clockwork Orange. Fans of The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Bauhaus and other bands came for the DJ’s mix of their favorite songs but also for a vibe that welcomed people regardless of race, ethnicity or sexual and gender identity.
“I was a pretty shy person, and so that was a place where I could sort of be myself and express myself,” said Azalea Camacho, a regular there in those days.
She had just graduated from Workman High School in the City of Industry and was also clubbing at rockabilly music nights in Rosemead and goth club nights in downtown L.A.
Camacho said there was lots of memorabilia from those times, such as photos taken in and outside the clubs, ticket stubs and promotional fliers. They're the physical remnants of those supportive communities built around music and enjoyment, but many of them languish in shoeboxes and storage units, at risk of being lost — along with the memories attached to them.
“I think the danger is maybe those stories are not being told, or people don't know about the story,” she said.
More than two decades later, Camacho is now in a position to make sure those stories are kept alive. She’s head of special collections and archives at the university library at California State University, Los Angeles.
Four years ago, she and library staff created an annual day for area residents to donate or digitize memorabilia for their Sounds of the Underground Archive. This year it's on Thursday, Nov. 5. They’ll accept physical donations, but they’ll also have a scanner to digitize printed material, so people can keep items that are precious to them.
Date: Thursday, Nov. 5
Time: 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Location: Cal State LA Library Community Room, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles
Camacho is hoping this year will bring in a bumper amount of memorabilia. It's taken time to get the word out, she said.
“From the actual community archiving day [we’ve collected] maybe 100 or less than 100 items. … It's not a lot,” she said.
She said they're on the lookout for a wide range of mementos, including:
