How to Host a Chili Cook-off Party
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Jo and I have a tradition every fall of welcoming the colder weather by having a huge chili cook-off party with all our friends. Party guests each bring a pot of their favorite homemade chili recipe and everyone samples them all and chooses their favorites. We always plan the party for the same time of year that Oktoberfest events are traditionally held, and we lovingly call our cook-off "OctChiliFest". Whenever you have it and whatever you call it, a chili cook-off is a unique way to get together with friends and have a fun, food-filled party that everyone will love.
Having held this party for about 10 years in a row now, we've gathered quite a few tips and ideas for hosting a chili cook-off that runs as smoothly as it can, from inviting guests to setting up equipment and decorations, to judging and awarding prizes.
Tip #1 - Invite everyone, but pressure no one
Because all your guests will bring the food for this party, your costs as party host are minimal, so make the guest list contain as many people as you have room for. The more the merrier with this kind of party. Encourage your guests to bring a pot of chili to enter into the contest, but don't make it required or pressure them to participate. As long as you end up with at least 6 or 8 chili entries, you'll have a great contest, so don't worry if not everybody brings some.
We've got you covered with invitations, too! Be sure to check out our full post on chili cook-off party invitations for some fun ways to invite guests.
TIP #2 - Equipment is key
Ask each participant to bring his or her chili in a Crock Pot slow cooker for easier serving. Have a couple of power strips and long extension cords on hand so that you can easily plug in all those cords so that all the pots of chili can stay hot during the evening.
Oh, and if you expect to have more than 5 or 6 crock pots going, you probably want to split the electric load onto two extension cords that are plugged in to two different circuits in your house. Otherwise you might overload the circuit and trip the breaker (we learned that lesson the hard way!)
Some guests will remember to bring a ladle to go with their chili, but you can bet that some will forget. It's a good idea to have some extra ladles on hand for those who need them.
TIP #3 - Have the party outside if possible
If weather permits, have the party outside. Get a couple of long folding tables (or several card tables) and line them up along the house or deck for people to put their chili on. Having the tables outside will let you have more room for all those slow cookers, and give everyone plenty of space. The best part about having the chili outside is that it will keep the inevitable dropped ladles and chili drippings off your carpet and on the grass instead!
TIP #4 - Keep the entries anonymous during tasting
Your guests will find it much more fun if you keep the entries as anonymous as possible, so label them with numbers instead of names. The chili pot labels in our complete printable set on Etsy make this super easy to do. Everyone will chat about how chili #5 is too spicy or chili #2 has a great flavor. It's much more exciting when you don't know who made what!
TIP #5 - Have lots of sample cups and spoons
You want to encourage everyone to sample as many chilis as possible, and the best and least expensive way we've found to do that is to have plenty of 2 ounce plastic portion cups on hand. Combine that with plenty of plastic spoons and you'll see that everyone can easily get one or two bites of each chili and be able to sample them all easily without filling up.
TIP #6 - Don't set out bowls until the end
Once the sampling is over, many people want to go back and have a full serving of the chili they liked the best. So it's a good idea to have some regular plastic bowls on hand for bigger servings later in the evening. However, don't bring them out too early, or people will fill up on one or two chilis before they get a chance to try them all.
TIP #7 - Consider making sample trays
We find it can be difficult to manage scoresheets, a pen, a spoon, and samples all at once, so we came up with DIY sample tasting trays that really fit the bill. If your cook-off is an annual event, these reusable trays, made from clipboards, can be a big money saver in the long run. If you are looking for a disposable option, you might have luck with a 4-cup fiber drink carrier with food tray.
TIP #8 - Decide on your voting system
This isn't just a party — it's a contest — and you need people to be able to vote! There are lots of different ways to handle voting, from simple "this one is my favorite" ballots to detailed judge's scorecards. We have a whole post about chili cook-off voting ballots and scoresheets that talk about some of our favorite voting systems that we've used over the years. Whichever way you decide to go, just make sure you give the guests a way to vote. They'll love being able to participate and share their opinions.
TIP #10 - Have prizes for the winners
People will be much more compelled to participate if you offer some great prizes for the winning chili. There are so many options for prizes, either ready-made or DIY, and in any price range.
- Gift cards for Chili's or other local restaurants.
- Chili-themed serving dishes
- Cooking equipment such as a mini Crock-Pot or slow cooker or mini food processor.
- Custom engraved wooden cutting boards or wooden spoons featuring the prizes.
- A fire extinguisher makes a fun gag gift if you want to award a prize for the hottest chili.
My favorite prizes, though, and the ones the guests have loved most, are the ones that come with bragging rights. I recently started a new tradition of adorning the winners with chili cook-off medals, engraved with the prize and date. Having won one of these myself, I can say that it's a pretty awesome prize to wear for the rest of the party... and again next year!
TIP #10 - Don't forget snacks and kid food
As great as chili is, your average person doesn't want to eat chili all night long with nothing else. To help cleanse the palate and keep everyone's interest, offer a few snacks like a veggie plate, cornbread, crackers and cheese, cookies, or cupcakes. And if you're going to have kids at the party, remember that they won't all like chili, so a platter of hot dogs and fries or tater tots will go a long way towards making them happy.
TIP #11 - Have a variety of drinks on hand
Of course you'll need to provide soda, water, and juice to your guests. If you think you might have a lot of really spicy chili entries, you might even want to have some milk available, for calming those fiery tongues! My friends and I tend to play up the Oktoberfest aspect of our party once again by having a wide variety of unusual beer on hand, which is also fun to sample throughout the evening.
TIP #12 - Save time and start with our printables!
Getting your chili cook-off organized can seem intimidating, but we're here to help. Many of the ideas I've shared so far can be implemented easily with our Chili Cook-off Party Printables collection that’s available on Etsy.
This collection has tons of coordinating printables that will help you with:
- Invitations: customizable and ready-to-print versions
- Decorations: banners, bag tags, cupcake picks, stickers, water bottle labels, cutlery wraps, straw flags
- Judging: chili pot labels, scorecards, entry forms, voting ballots, judge's ribbons
- Prizes: winner certificates, prize ribbons
- Signs: rules, menu cards
TIP #13 - Don't forget the decorations
Keep the event festive! This can be as simple as a string of chili lights or streamers and brightly-colored tablecloths, or you can get as elaborate as you want. But your guests are sure to have more fun if you keep it lively and decorated. Our Chili Cook-off Party Printables set has plenty of great printables that will help you decorate your cook-off in style.
106 comments so far:
This sounds like SO much fun! I really want to do this, any excuse to make my favorite chili. =) I'll be linking.
I love love love!!! (was that emphatic enough?) the sampler-voting-clipboard. Sheesh...you are one creative-creator!
Thanks to you both!
Kira, that clipboard idea was several years in the making... I finally came up with a great voting system this year and my friends really liked it, too. Your blog looks really fun. Thanks for commenting so that we could find out about you! :)
Wow! You have covered everything! And the clipboards are a FABULOUS idea! THANK YOU! We're just having a small cookoff/potluck with our staff at school to boost morale, but you've taken all the guesswork out of it for me!
Thanks, Pye. Good luck with your cookoff!
You all are FABULOUS! On a whim i suggested a cookoff on the eve of new year's eve. i neglected to think i would be the one to organize. your information is spot on. my event is for work and i have, of course, zero budget right now but i am a huge fan of trophies - and there will be some. thanks again for sharing your fantastic tips. i hope our event, to be annual, is successful and FUN! Thanks again.
Thanks so much for the great comments, DarStar!
One idea popped into my head regarding low-budget trophies... chili is full of beans, and beans are cheap. Perhaps you can get a bag of dry beans and hot glue them all over something like a wood block, a bowl, or even an old trophy?
Good luck with your event. Let us know how it goes :)
I'm planning my 4th annual chili cookoff. I like your voting ideas. We have ours in June of every year and everyone looks forward to it; it's so FUN. We bought an actual trophy cup with our party title engraved on it. The 1st place winner get's their name and year engraved on a plaque on the trophy and keeps the cup all year until the next cookoff (like the stanley cup). Our #1 rule is no crockpots. All chili has to be cooked in our back yard on portable stoves. It's an all day event!
Sandie, that sounds like so much fun! I love that you have all-day outdoor event, and I really love the trophy idea. Maybe I can get one for our next cook-off :)
Thanks so much for all the ideas. Our church is hosting a cookoff for the ladies in Oct. Since I had been a participant in a previous cook off. I was volunteered as hostess for this event. Though I have some ideas of what to do. I had never thought of the fairness issue on the voting before. I will def use your ideas on that. I also like the ideas of gift cert. for prizes. Since we are non profit and doing this as a fundraiser for another local non profit group. I am going to see if any of the area restaraunts will donate gc for prizes, and the trophy bean idea sound so fun:D Thanks again for all the great ideas. I am excited and cant wait for Oct to get here.
Hi Barb! Sounds like you've got a fun event planned. We'd love to hear all about your party when it's over!
Thank you so much for the great ideas! My husband is turning 40 next month and I was searching for a creative idea for his surprise party. I often host large events for our church and he's always wanted me to do a chili cook-off. My 14 year old son said, "Why don't you do that cook-off that dad always wants?" PERFECT IDEA! And finding all your great, detailed info will make my job sooooo much easier! Thank you, thank you!
What a fun idea, Lisa. Your son is so smart :) I'm glad we could help with some ideas. We'd love to hear how your party goes!
Hi! I really like what you have done! I am hosting a chili cookoff for our neighborhood. I'm stuck on trying to figure out what to do to ge the people down and how to keep kids interested, Any ideas? I'm not creative enough to think of anything. We have already done 3 legged races,and such this year and I don't want to do them again. Any help would be great!
Thanks for the great site. My friends of the library group is going to be doing a chili cook off as a fundraiser during the town fall festival and your site took all the guess work out for me!
Debbie, as far as keeping kids entertained maybe you could set up a craft table so each kid could decorate pumpkins or make Halloween decorations. You could also try bobbing for apples, hay hurtles (race while jumping over hay bales), or a scavenger hunt.
Rachel, I'm glad you found us and hope your fundraiser is a great success. Please bookmark us because we are going to be adding to our chili cook-off ideas within the next month as we gear up for our next chili party. Great ideas for helping Debbie out as well.
Debbie, in addition to Rachel's ideas, you could also have a cupcake decorating table for the kids and adults. It's nice to have something sweet to eat after all that chili. You can have bags of the swirled icing made ahead of time if you want. Set out a few bowls of sprinkles and let the kids have a great time decorating and eating!
We hosted a chili challenge last fall! I had all the items in your suggestions above. I supplied baked potatoes for people to top with chili and fixin's if they wanted something a lttle more hearty. Our catagories included Best Tasting and Most Unusual.
I really like the clipboard idea!
Hi mmsalmon. Baked potatoes are a great idea, thanks so much for sharing!
I love this site.. I am working on hosting my 4th Annual Chili Cook off and I found your site while looking for more catagory ideas. I like to change up my voting catagories to keep my guests on thier toes. I love the Clip Board idea! I wanted to share one of my favorite catagories with everyone. Best Presenation, I have the contestants dress up their pots, like Halloween costumes and we give a prize for the one with the most presntation votes. Prize for the catagory are two CRAZY Hats they wear for the night. It is so fun!
Hi Toni! Thanks for saying hello, and I'm glad we can help inspire you. I like the idea of having different categories each year. The presentation idea sounds like a lot of fun! If you have any pictures from of some of the best costumes, we'd love to see them in our Flickr group.
This Halloween will be the second chili cook-off I'm hosting. This year, though, we are going to have scorecards and a trophy for the winner! Your website is just what I was looking for. Thanks for sharing all of these great ideas!
Jocelyn, glad we could help! Make sure to come back next week. We will have another chili party related post then.
I opened my mouth at work about having a chili cookoff to collect money for a charity very near and dear to our employees hearts. Everyone loved it and now I'm in charge. HELP! We only have about 50 employees at our site. Should we charge an entry fee and then charge employees to taste and vote? We thought having a four week contest. Drawing names of entries and so many go that week, pick a winner, so many go the next week, pick a winner until we had 3 or 4 go head to head. Do you think that would hold employees attention week after week?
What a great idea for raising money, Debbie. I think charging an entry fee might discourage participation, and you want as many chili entries as possible. Instead, I think a tasting fee would be the better way to go. That way, people are getting a nice lunch for their money, and the money can go to the charity.
As for stretching it out to four weeks, I think that will depend on your co-workers -- how many of them will want to bring chili and how many of them will want to keep eating chili every week :) Maybe just two rounds or three rounds instead of four?
Don't forget to offer prizes to the winners, which will encourage people to bring in their chili to compete. Try asking some local businesses for donations (like restaurant gift certificates). Since the event is for charity, you may get some really great responses.
Good luck, and please let us know how it turns out!
Trophy idea, I found this idea on line then hit the thrift stores. I found a brass looking bowl that looked like a little crock, cut a round Styrofoam ball in half, put that in there then I inserted a spoon filled the pot with beans (i mixed the beans with a clear drying glue) and sprayed the whole thing gold. I also bought a trophy and took it apart and used the base and had a plate engraved for the front.
Julie, I love that idea! Do you have a photo you can share with us?
Wow! Love, love, love your ideas! My husband and I have been hosting a chili cook off at our lake home for the last 5 years and it is such a BLAST! We always give a trophy away that we have engraved with the name of our place "Maker's Landing" and the 5th annual or whatever year it is on it. It has a big pot of chili on top of it. Plus we have a plaque that has brass strips that is engraved with that years winner on it that we proudly display at our bar in our home. In past years my husband and I have been the judges for the cook off and this year I am wanting everyone to participate in the judging.
We do like you do in that we have all the chili's put in a slow cooker and use the electrical strips, makes things so much easier.
I found the cutest door prize tickets at Dollar Tree this year that we are going to use and give out door prizes every half hour. I make lots of crafts so I have made some to give away, plus we will have cd's, dvd's, t-shirts, hats, etc. to give away also.
I love your balloting ideas and especially the clipboard idea..BRILLIANT! This is such a GREAT time and ours is this Saturday matter of fact...the weather has to have a chill in the air! Gotta love chili season! Thanks for all your neat ideas and sharing them!
Hi Cindy! Welcome to our site and thanks for your great comments. Your chili cook-off sounds like quite the event. Door prizes are like a really fun way to keep the party going, and I'm crazy about your trophy and plaque idea. I think you'll enjoy having the guests vote this year -- it certainly adds a new element to the party, and it's lots of fun.
Now I'm hungry for chili. Hmm.. I think I'm free Saturday if you need more guests! Hehe :)
Awesome ideas! Hay Hurdles is a new idea that I will be using. We do a chili cook off as a Fall fellowship event at church and finish off the night with a camp fire & smores. Our Grand Prize is an apron personalized with the church logo and date that I print off my computer and iron. It's a great prize and costs about $5.
An apron is an excellent idea, Christina! It would be a good prize for anybody who wins (male or famale, young or old!)
Great ideas!
This is our First Annual Block Party
Thanks for sharing your ideas. And thanks to your fans for sharing theirs! I appreciate the time it takes to simply help others make life more fun. I have a limited # of contestants - 4 so far, with about 35 tasters. Do you think tasters could simply put a tally mark in a drawn on box on the table cloth by their favorite chili? Do you see any problems (aside from cheaters!) w/ that?
Hi Donna, and thanks for your lovely comments. While I like the simplicity of your voting idea, I worry that it won't be as fun because the winner won't be a surprise. Everyone will know the 'score' as the night progresses, which takes some of the fun out of the big reveal.
Here's another very simple voting idea that you might like. Get a small container (like a can) with a lid and cut a slot in it. Then hand each taster a small token like a poker chip when they arrive, and let them drop it into the can for the chili they like best. The lid will keep the votes from view, and the voting process is very simple.
Good luck with your cook-off and let us know how it goes!
We have a big prize for the winners, and then a small humorous fun prize for everyone (roll of Tums). This will be our third "annual" cook-off.
Ran, rolls of Tums are a great idea! I've also given out a bottle of Beano as a joke prize in the past :)
When you judge the chili, do you judge with any condements the cook brings in with their chili or do you just judge the chili only?
Barb, that's your call, but I usually judge with whatever accompaniments the chef has brought. For example, I remember Jo made hot dogs with chili one year, so we judged that as a whole.
This will be a lifesaver for me for our first cook-off! I love the idea of the clipboard,probably wouldn't have thought about it until I saw the people lining up, wondering what to do with what. Thanks.
Barbara G, I'm glad we could help. Our clipboards system definitely evolved over time. If you come up with any ideas after your cook-off, please share them with us. Have fun!
If everyone brings the chili in a crock-pot, everyone will see who brought which one and can vote that way. Have you ever had that problem?
Hello Heidi! Our guests are usually so busy talking to each other and having fun that they don't pay attention to who brings in each crockpot. However, if you think it will be a concern, you could always take them from your guests as they enter and put them in the kitchen, then bring them all out at once after everyone has arrived.
Thanks for posting all this information! I'm working to put together a church chili cook-off, and your site is a life saver.
I'm so glad I found your site, now I need to check out everything else!
Carrie, we're so glad we were able to help you out with your cook-off. Please let us know how it goes.
I love your ideas, especially the clip boards and oven liners!! Question...where do you buy this plastic cups that you put in the clip boards? Thanks for all the great tips!
Hi Angela, and thanks! Those plastic cups are called "2-ounce portion cups"
and are available on Amazon or sometimes at party stores or restaurant supply stores.
I'm so excited to use your ideas at our party. FYI, I ordered he portion cups from a website called Webstaurant and they were $20.99(plus shipping) for 2500 (Dart brand)cups. I also ordered the oven liners - already forgot from where-haha. I ordered 48 clipboards for $39 from a website called DollarDays ($5 off for new customers and found a coupon code for $10 off so that almost paid for the shipping). Thanks again for all the great ideas - you rock!
Angela, so glad we could help! We would love to see pictures of your event if you would like to email them to us or put them in our Flikr group!
Thanks for all the great ideas. I'm in charge of our church cook-off scheduled for next month and I was in a panic. You have simplified it all for me. Much appreciated.
Hi Janet! We're glad we could help. Good luck with your cook-off and let us know how it goes :)
I want to do a first ever chili cookoff for the Heart Transplant Foundation as a fund raiser. Your ideas are great and am looking forward to using them.
What a wonderful idea, myra! Good luck and let us know how it goes :)
I have a question. It may sound dumb, but when guests arrive with their crockpots, how do you prevent others from seeing thier crockpots?
For instance, if "John" arrives with a blue crockpot and others see it, they will know it's John's chili when they see the blue crockpot during the tasting.
That's a good question, Jen, and a tricky situation to resolve. One option is for the host to take the crockpots when someone arrives and put them in another location until there are a few of them collected, then move them all at once. If you're really serious about keeping anonymity, you could ask your guests to drop their chili off at your house before the party starts. Keeping the crockpots in an area other than where the guests are gathered and talking also helps. In reality, most of your guests will be distracted talking to each other and having too much fun to even notice who brings which chili :)
Thank you for all your good ideas. this will be our 4th chili cook-off, and we came up with prizes that allour friends fight for. We did 3 catagories of chili- for the best over all we mounted a golden ladle on a plaque that my daughter wood burns with the winners name on. the hottest has a wooden spoon that is burned off at the end. And most original chili has a wooded fork onit. they all get names put on for the winner each year. And the winners also get an apron that has the name of our challange on it that they get to keep. We call this the "Tschetter Tschili Tschallenge" Tschetter is pronounced-Chedder.
Colleen, love the burned spoon trophy idea! How creative.
Thank you for all the very good ideas, We are planning our very first cookoff and your ideas will definitely help make ours a success. The detailed information is outstanding!!!!
Chica & Jo,
Thank you, for all the great ideas. This site really assisted with helping us start our annual Chili Cook-Off, ours is the 2nd weekend in Oct. so has the feel of an Octoberfest. Your site gave us a good base to start from. We just hosted our 2nd last weekend. It was a HUGE sucess, we leared some do's and dont's from last year.
We give the option on the invites of being a cook, judge or just an eater. Since we had so many entries, last year we found many didn't sample all Chili's the judging wasn't fair, so this year anyone that wasn't a cooker could put their name in a hat to be a Judge, we pulled 7 names. When the guests arrived with their chili, we used name tags, stuck them on the table in front of their chili with their name,then I assigned each a secret letter, we put the letters on the tasting cups with a sharpie, filled the tasting cups for the judges and brought to the judges table on platers to ensure a blind tasting.
We give out a chili pot trophy for 1st, silver medal chili pot for 2nd and bronze chili pot medal for third from Trophys2go, each engraved with the year etc... also gave each entry a thank you gift, this year I found nice Coca cola mugs I picked up from the Dollar Tree,and filled them with candy corn and peanuts, tied a thank you tag on them.
For extra food, I make a house Chili that is more basic and not too spicy, nacho chips and cheese and hot dogs. They put the chili on their nachos and hot dogs. We also include Sam Adams October Ale to go along with the theme of the day. Ohh and don't forget to put a large bottle of Tums on the table :)
We included a 50/50 raffle, raffled off a Halloween and Game Day themed baskets, we have Texas Hold Em tourneys through the day, bouncy for the kids, good music and of course a big bonfire. Fun for all ages! Thank you again for assisting in making our Chili Cook-Off a SUCCESS!
Sue, thanks so much for sharing the details of your event with us. Sounds like you had a great cook-off!
Chica and Jo,
Thank you so much for the wonderful ideas for a Chili Tasting Party. We just had our first Annual (or possibly semi-annual) chili tasting competition at our Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post. We made the clipboards. Our veterans and their families had a wonderful time. We used the function as a fundraiser for the Post's new kitchen. Again, thank you for providing the ideas and guidance enabling us to have a very successful event.
Kathy, we're so glad that our tips helped you plan what sounds like an amazing party! If you post pictures online, let us know... we'd love to see them :)
Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas - this sounds perfect!
Conrats to who organized this and came up with all the ideas, the voting ballot and the scoring system...my quests were in awe over my party! ...we all loved it and had a great time at our party! Thanks so much!
That's great to hear, Sunny! You're very welcome!
My neighbor and I have a joint chili cook-off every October, usually the week-end before Halloween. We invite all of our neighbors and we have about 30 or so pots of chili. We make up new categories every year, complete with trophies and presentation! Strangest ingredient (edible), Dress up your chili pot, Name your chili, Most ingredients... we've really came up with some good ones over the years, and as always their is the "Crowd Favorite", that's the same title every year. We order trophies from Ole Season's Shoppe in Morehead, Ky 606-793-1509. The trophies have a pot of chili on top, really cute!
Libby, you guys really go all out! I love how you change up the categories each year. I'm having my chili cookoff this coming weekend... I'm so hungry for chili!
THANKS! all this info has really saved my bacon, I am having to pull an office chili fundraiser out of a hat and with all this info it will be a piece of cake.
First page I found when I googled "how to host a chili cookoff" only one I used - Love the labels. Thank you for providing everything! I only had a week to pull this together - LIFE SAVER.
We are having a chili cookoff as a cubscout fundraiser. Do you have an ideas for me on how I can charge people and what would be an appropriate amount. Should we charge an entry fee or by cup or a flat rate to sample them all? Looking forward to any suggestions.
Nan, my thought would be that the way you charge should depend on how certain you will be ahead of time as to the number of chili entries in the contest. In other words, if you end up with only three chilis but charge by the cup, you're not going to make much money unless you charge a lot for each cup, in which case nobody will want to buy any. However, if you end up with 100 chilis, you could easily charge a hefty flat rate and people would be happy to pay it to get to sample so much. There are so many ways you can do it, so hopefully you can consider your audience and choose the best solution. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
I am the Events Coordinator at a winery and this year we are hosting our 13th annual Chili Cook Off. Last year we had 500 people attend with 91 chili entries. We have 4 catagories to enter chili and 3 judges per catagory. We have developed our own scoring system that seems to work very well. I use 6 hole disposible muffin tins with papers for sampling and our guests love it!
Debe, I love the idea of using disposable muffin tins! Even non-disposable ones would work great for a smaller party, if you're lucky enough to find them at a dollar store or on sale. We (and our readers) would love to hear about your scoring system, especially with such a large crowd with so many entries!
Thank you for all of your great tips. I am hosting my first chili cook off party and I am curious as to how to invite people without saying they have to bring chili ? I want to have enough entries but I don't want it to be mandatory. Any suggestions?
Jennifer, I would just make it clear in your invitation that bringing your own chili is optional, perhaps with wording like "If you want to show off your recipe, bring a pot of chili to share" or "Appetites are required; chili is optional".
Wow...what great ideas. I too volunteered to host one and had no idea really how to make it a success...but YOU and your readers do...Thank Goodness. Ours will be at the end of Feb for a church fundraiser. all ideas for how to raise funds much appreciated!
We are in Florida...so we may be able to be outside. So many great ideas...do you have a vegetarian category ever?
So glad we could help you out, Kathy! We have had vegetarian chilis entered in our cook-off, but have never had a category specifically for them. Good luck with your cook-off!
Awesome! You are taking a lot of the work out of this idea for me. I am hoping to host chili cook off with our motorcycle group. I have only scratched the surface of this great page, but bookmarked and definitely will be using it.
Tks
Ruth President STAR Touring and Riding Chapter 182 (Colorado)
Chica and Jo,
Thanks so much for this great website. I'm preparing for my first chili cook-off and feel so much more confident because I'm doing lots that you do. I think numbering the pots is a great idea. I was thinking of leaving people's names on them, but I think I like numbering them better. However another site said that if people had their names on them and it wasn't anyomous that the cooks could then introduce their chili to the crowd, sort of like a chef might introduce his dish? What do you think? Thanks Cheryl
Cheryl, I like the name idea as well, but if you want to keep things anonymous you could try a mix of both ideas -- maybe have the chefs describe their chilis on a card and post that near each pot of chili? Good luck with your cook-off!
Thanks Chica, that's perfect. I'll do just that.
I am hosting a chili cook off with my Youth Group at Church to beneifit our local food bank. I need table center piece ideas. We are decorating with sombraros and maracas. Any IDEAS???
I love alot of the stuff on your website and plan to incorporate alot of it into what we are doing.
Ginny, how about using a pile of fresh chilis or red bell peppers as a centerpiece? Or you could use some chili-shaped dishes and fill them with condiments like cheese and sour cream.
OMG, this site is AMAZING! You girls have GREAT ideas and THANKS for sharing your ideas!!! My husband and 3 of his brother all make their own "special" chili. I thought it would be fun to have a Chili cook-off this year. I had a few minutes last week and goggled Chili Cook-off ideas. I can't tell you how excited I am to have found your site. Now, I'm off to make the Valentine's card for my hubby using one of your ideas as well. I'll be a frequent visitor!!!
Question: are the clipboards letter size or legal size?
Lori, we're so happy you've found us! We hope you continue to enjoy our numerous projects, and good luck with your chili cook-off!
The clipboards we used are letter size, but you can certainly use legal if that's all you can find.
Oh what great ideas I found here! I am trying to plan my first chili cookoff fundraiser for ALS Guardian Angels (ALS = Lou Gehrig's Disease) I went to one once many years ago and now I find myself doing it on my own. I will definately use some of your ideas. We are going to have people bring the chili already made and put out "donation" jars at each pot of chili and people will put quarters in the ones they really like. The chili with the most money raised will get the "people's choice" award. I can't wait to get started. It's gonna be a blast!
Rae, I absolutely LOVE the idea of using quarters as a way to vote. What a fantastic way to tie in the fundraising!
We are having our 2nd annual cook off this weekend. We have 2 winners, best chili and kids choice, we have more kidsss than sense at some parties!
we tried colored dots for voting and that caused issues because their were two different blues! haha
this year I think i will give everyone a tongue depresser, jumbo for grownups and regular for kids. they can put their choice in a jar next to the chili...
i liked the pan idea though!
Had my first Chili Cook-off party on 9/1/12 and it was a huge success. Thanks for all your great ideas, as I got so many complements and even got calls the next day thanking me! What I might tweek for next year: I might add three more holes to the clipboard so the participants will be able to judge more than three at a time. We also made up the samples in the clipboards and took them out to people since we only had five entries. This way no one knew who they were voting for (we used the children at the party to deliver). Again THANK YOU for sharing the ideas!
Ladies, just had to say thank you!! Your website is so helpful! We're doing our very first chili cookoff with our church in October and really appreciate all the info on how to do one, as well as all the fun things, like invitations, too! Thanks for making this process so easy for us!
So glad we could help, Gwen. Have a great cookoff!
Thanks for your post. It will be very helpful in planning the first chili cook-off for our church. Great ideas!
I have hosted a chili cookoff for the past fifteen years. You have some great ideas here but our problem is the voting always involves cheating. It is all in fun and everyone has a good time but it would be nice if we could have a true winner one time. Terrific web site.
This will be my first time to do a chilli cook off for 2014 I'm so glad i found this website and i'm going to do it your way.I'm going to change it a bit for voting im just going to have rate each pot 1-5 then add up each pot to see who has the biggest number I will post next year to let you know how it went.
Patti
Brent i can't believe that people would cheat.To solve that just set up a table and put up a cut plywood in front of the pots so no one can see the pots.
I am planning a western themed first birthday party for my son. I was thinking of having guests bring chili and I will provide all the fixins and sides. I am stuck on the wording for the invite, as it not required that they bring chili. Any ideas? Thanks so much!
Jennifer, sounds like a fun idea! How about play off your guests' competitive spirit and say something like, "Do you think your chili is the best in town? Fire up the chuckwagon and bring a pot of your best to serve up to the cowboys!"
Hi, I'm a Fellowship Deacon at our church and we're having our fifth annual chili cook-off next month, partly thanks to you guys! Your site helped us get started, and we used many of your ideas. We always have categories, i.e. "Hot and Spicy", "Chuckwagon," "Kid-Friendly," "Vegetarian," and "Old Family Recipe." and we usually have at least three entries (often more) in each category. Everyone enjoys it. So thank you for being so willing to share all your creativity and hard work with us!
Donna, we really like some of your additional category ideas and might have to use them for our next chili party! Thank you!
I am having my third chili cook off this year.
You have some great ideas. Just want to share my voting system with everyone...
I have a chili/ fall dessert cookoff...this way
My guests can bring a dessert and or a pot of chili..I award first second and third in both dessert and chili categories . Each guest receives six dry kidney beans when they arrive and plastic cup with foil on top as a lid with a small slit in it ( so no one can see inside) The cup has a label on it....we ask the guest to write the top two or three ingredients in their dessert or chili on the label on the cup...place the cup In front of their entry and the guests all get "6 votes" they can drop their dry kidney beans in any of the dessert or chili entry's cup.......ONE RULE......you can't vote for your own entry!
Lynn, thanks for sharing your voting method with everyone!
I want to make my cook off a fundraiser for our school's Relay for Life team. Having the teachers be the cooks and testers. I just can't figure out how to make it be a fundraiser. Any suggestions would be helpful. I was thinking about charging the teachers $5.00/bowl but then how would they sample them all?? I thought it could be done during their lunch periods so time restraints would be an issue to.
Cindy, I've got two ideas. One is that you could charge $20 per entry, and have there be a prize so that people would be inclined to enter. The other is that you could have teachers donate the chili and have the tasters pay a flat fee to sample whatever they want. Hope that helps!
What fun ideas and cute printables! Going to use this for my office
Thank you so much for this post. I am chairing a Chili Cook Off Fundraiser for the elementary school and your ideas, print offs and advice are really going help me out.
Thanks! I found a lot of your ideas helpful. Last year we did Chili Cook Off and this year it's a Soup Cook Off at our Cabin. Clip board is great idea. I have a gold ladle and cabin kitchen towel/apron for the winner. We have around 10 soups . Probably 30 people. The folks love to vote.. and Win!
Karen that sounds like loads of fun! Great prizes, too.
Thankyou so much , We have been having these very successfully now for 8 yrs after reading your article. We're now up to 200 friends and have to host them in a large Mobile Home Clubhouse. I paint Photo Cut Outs or make a Western Scene for the photo area, we do Karaoke in another area , a Chili Bowl Round Up Corner kid table to color Chili related pictures and then have an Over The Top Trophy ceremony. With an MC in a sequenced Jacket and his Lovely assistant Vanna White.
I make different trophies every year out of things put together from the Dollar Tree and spray paint gold. Because of the large attendance we started making disposable chili trays out of free cardboard and used a door hole bit on the drill to make the holes for the sample cups.
Most of the ideas came from you gals so thanks from the Chili Gang!
Linda, sounds like quite an event! So glad we could help you with some details of your party planning. :)