Chicago has so much to offer including amazing architecture, great sports teams and one of the country’s best art museums. However, the food in Chicago is reason enough to travel to America’s Windy City. Discover a dozen must-eat foods in Chicago. Start with deep dish pizza and hot dogs but don’t stop there!
1. Deep Dish Pizza
While deep dish pizza is just one of several pizza styles in Chicago, these layered pies are practically synonymous with the term Chicago pizza. There’s something special about Chicago’s iconic deep dish pizza. Maybe it’s the crunchy crust or maybe it’s because chunky tomato sauce is layered on top of the cheese. Or maybe it’s the generous amounts of pepperoni or sausage that seems to be in each pie.
Dig Deeper: 5 Chicago Pizza Styles
2. Italian Beef Sandwich
For the uninitiated, an Italian beef sandwich is basically a long roll that’s filled with thinly sliced roast beef. Chicago cooks follow local tradition by cooking seasoned roast beef in water and keeping the meat warm in its own juices in a steam table. The meat’s jus becomes part of the sandwich, adding a juiciness that’s not so different from the jus in a French Dip.
Explore More: Best Italian Beef Sandwiches in Chicago
3. Chi Dogs
With roots in both Frankfurt and Vienna, Chicago-style hot dogs are made with beef and adorned with a ‘garden’ of toppings. This colorful garden includes yellow mustard, white onions, green ‘sport peppers’, green pickles, red tomatoes and relish so green that its shade defies science. (It’s literally called neon relish.) A dash of celery salt completes the dog which is served on a poppy seed bun.
Discover More: Best Hot Dogs in the World
4. Char Dogs
As the name suggests, char dogs are char grilled on charcoal until they’re dark and crispy. Dressed in the same manner as regular Chi Dogs, they’re the kind of hot dogs that families and friends eat at backyard cookouts across America. In Chicago, people eat char dogs at hot dog stands and sandwich shops all over town.
5. Bacon Wrapped Dates
Bacon wrapped dates have become an integral part of the Chicago food scene and for good reason. They’s as delicious as they are substantial. In this dish, dried dates are stuffed with intensely meaty chorizo and wrapped with bacon made at Kahan’s butchery. The tasty cylinders are then served swimming in a bright orange-red piquillo pepper tomato sauce.
6. Burgers
A hamburger is technically a roll filled with a ground beef patty or two. However, in Chicago, they go way beyond the burger basics. This is a city where local restaurants add toppings like bacon slabs and fried eggs in addition to more typical toppings like onions, tomatoes and cheese.
Explore More: Best Burgers in the World and in NYC
7. Steak
Carnivores don’t have to ‘settle’ for burgers in Chicago. This is a city where mobsters and celebrities chowed down on juicy steaks at spots like Gene & Georgetti, the city’s oldest steakhouse, a century ago. Chicago steakhouses are as popular today as ever. They’re also expensive.
8. Pierogies
Potato and cheese are just two pierogi fillings in Chicago. Other fillings include cheese, meat, mushrooms, spinach and sauerkraut. And those are just the savory ones. Sweet pierogies are filled with fruit like blueberry, cherry and strawberry.
9. Melrose Peppers
Melrose peppers, similar to ancient sweet red peppers, may be the most hyper-local food in Chicago. They’re grown in a specific Chicago suburb called Melrose Park. They’re also seasonal, with a harvest that occurs in the late summer. Typical preparations include frying the peppers, stuffing them or simply sautéing them in garlic and olive oil.
10. Garrett Mix
Garrett Mix is a combination of CaramelCrisp and CheeseCorn popcorn kernels. When you taste the salty, caramelized, sweet, crunchy, cheddary combo for the first time, you likely exclaim “Why didn’t I think of that?” before you take your next bite. If you miss Garrett Popcorn stores in the city, you can the tasty popcorn mix at both major Chicago airports on your way out of town.
11. Ice Cream Cones
You might think that Chicago’s cold winters would negate the city’s interest in ice cream. If so, you would be wrong. Instead, Chicago is a city with an ice cream museum and a signature ice cream cone that’s topped with a rainbow of five flavors. Some Chicago ice cream cones are even shaped like animals.
Expore More: Iconic Chicago Desserts
12. Donuts
Donuts are popular in Chicago. Really popular. With more than a dozen donut shops in town, there isn’t one type or style of donut in Chicago. This is a city where donut ice cream sandwiches stuffed with house-made ice cream and topped with sweet sauce are a thing.
Explore More: Best Donuts in the World
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