The Best Texas Chili Is at Tolbert’s in Dallas

Every city in Texas thinks it has the best Tex-Mex food. It’s a statewide competition with no winner, other than anyone eating it. One of Tex-Mex’s formative dishes is chili, or chili con carne — easily set apart from other chilis around the country by its lack of beans. (In Texas, this staple also goes by the name “a bowl of red.”) Nowhere is the tradition of chili stronger than in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. But how did chili become the North Texas region’s must-eat dish?

Texas chili’s roots date back to San Antonio with the Chili Queens, who popularized the dish in the 19th century by selling it in plazas. Since then, many people have built on the bowl of red legacy. The biggest Texas chili enthusiast had been Dallas food writer Frank X. Tolbert, who is also the author of what many consider the definitive book on chili, A Bowl of Red, in 1966. A year later, he and his son, Frank X. Tolbert 2, started the Terlingua Chili Cook-Off. It’s gotten to the point where the South Texas town now holds two yearly competitions, this one (aka the Tolbert Cook-Off) and the Chili Appreciation Society International.

Kathy Tran

Doubling down on Texas chili, Tolbert opened his eponymous restaurants in Dallas in 1977, with his son and his daughter Kathleen as manager. It’s the same year the Texas legislature passed a resolution naming chili the official state dish. The bill reasons that it’s impossible to be a Texan “without having his taste buds tingle at the thought of the treat that is real, honest-to-goodness, pure, unadulterated Texas chili.” The whole state was mad for chili and Tolbert was at the helm of the ship.

Years later, in 2006, Kathleen re-opened Tolbert’s in Grapevine, which serves chili made with her father’s recipe. The kitchen uses lean beef that’s cooked in beef suet (fat) before dehydrated ancho chiles are added, giving it that appetizingly greasy texture. Everything goes into a pot with water to boil and then simmer. After that, spices like cayenne, cumin, and oregano, along with garlic, are added. Everything simmers again while the grease is intermittently siphoned off. The next step is to add masa harina and more ancho chiles. The pot simmers more until the meat is soft and then it’s done.

Kathy Tran

Kathy Tran

Tolbert’s serves the chili warm, topped with a big bunch of shredded cheddar cheese that melts immediately. That creates a beautiful pull from a large spoonful, along with freshly chopped white onions that offer a crispness, and a whole serrano pepper on top. Diners can choose large or small, and have it with cornbread, Fritos, or saltines. This chili features finely ground meat and a dense sauce loaded with peppers that give it a kick, which is why adding cheese, crackers, or corn chips make it even better.

Journeying for cozy bowls of red is a definitive Texas experience. People visit Tolbert’s for the chili in Grapevine — bowls so legendary that Texans as well as folks from points far beyond make the pilgrimage to pay respect to that particular one. It’s worth the trip.