10 Best Places for Chili in New Hampshire

It's fall. It's football season. It's chili season.

I made a big pot of chili at home this weekend, and before somebody starts typing furiously in the comments, I'm going to get this out of the way:

Yes, I put beans and...jalapeño in my chili.

And no, I don't want to hear that "real chili doesn't have beans."

My opinion? Chili is whatever you want it to be. Beef. Beans. No beans. Brisket. Chicken. Turkey. Three alarm. Five alarm. Dump some Fritos on it. Cover it in cheese. Put it on a hot dog.

You can even eat it with a cinnamon roll, which is a real Midwest thing. More on that in a minute.

I started looking for some of the most amazing bowls of chili being served around New Hampshire. Here's what I found...

1. Smokeshow Barbeque — Concord, NH

231 S. Main St., Concord, NH 03301

If we're talking chili, this might be the place where I have the hardest time deciding what to order.

Smokeshow doesn't have one chili.

They have two.

There's a Texas-style brisket chili loaded with meat, no beans and a little heat. You can get it with cheese and sour cream.

Brisket chili is basically regular chili after it got a promotion.

Here's the curveball: Spicy White Chicken Chili made with green chilies, pinto beans, cream cheese and Smokeshow's jalapeño powder. Whaaat????

Owner and pitmaster Matt Gfroerer actually spent years working in Texas barbecue before bringing that experience back to New Hampshire, so the Texas influence here isn't just marketing.

Garret's order: I'm getting one of each and pretending I only ordered two because I'm doing research.

2. Goody Cole's Smokehouse — Brentwood, NH

374 Route 125, Brentwood, NH 03833

This is exactly what I hoped I'd find when I started researching this.

Brisket chili at a smokehouse.

Goody Cole's sells its brisket chili in 8-, 16- and 32-ounce portions and serves it with cornbread. You can add cheese, too.

But here's where things get even better.

They make a Frito Pie with Fritos, smokehouse chili, cheddar and onions. So if your philosophy is that a perfectly good bowl of chili needs more carbs and cheese, these are your people.

Garret's order: Frito Pie. Zero hesitation. No Regrets

3. Llano & Rye Barbecue — Rye, NH

15 Sagamore Road, Rye, NH 03870

Okay, all of you "BEANS DON'T BELONG IN CHILI" people can stop yelling at me and drive to Rye.

Llano & Rye does a rotating Texas Red Chili made with brisket.

No beans. No tomatoes.

This is a Texas Hill Country-style barbecue operation using a big offset smoker and hardwood, and brisket is very much their thing. The chili isn't necessarily available every service, so this is one I'd check before making a special trip.

And if the chili is available, I'd have a hard time not adding their brown butter maple cornbread.

Garret's order: Texas Red Chili + cornbread. And yes, Texas, I promise not to put beans in this one.

Credit: Lost Cowboy Taproom via Facebook

4. Lost Cowboy Taproom — Portsmouth, NH

60 Penhallow St., Portsmouth, NH 03801

Downtown Portsmouth has its own answer to the brisket chili question.

Lost Cowboy serves Cowboy Chili made with brisket and beans and served with cornbread.

I like this one because Lost Cowboy is already built around BBQ, bourbon and beer, so a bowl of brisket chili while watching football feels like exactly what you're supposed to be doing there.

Garret's order: Cowboy Chili and a beer while somebody else worries about Sunday dinner.

5. Angry Hog BBQ — North Woodstock, NH

99 Main St., North Woodstock, NH 03262

Here's another one for the brisket crowd.

Angry Hog BBQ serves Texas brisket chili with cornbread at its North Woodstock location.

And location matters here.

You're in the White Mountains. It's fall. The leaves are changing. Maybe you just spent half the day hiking.

Now somebody hands you a bowl of Texas brisket chili.

That's basically New Hampshire fall in a bowl.

Garret's order: Brisket chili after a cold fall hike. That's going to be difficult to beat.

Credit: The Alamo Texas BBQ & Tequila Bar via Facebook

6. Alamo Texas BBQ & Tequila Bar — Brookline/Laconia, NH

70 Endicott St. N., Laconia, NH 03246

This one may have my favorite presentation.

The Alamo Brisket Chili is Chef Stefano's meat chili recipe, but they don't stop there.

They put an actual slice of brisket with it.

Then you choose your cornbread:

Traditional... or candied jalapeño cornbread.

You had me at brisket. Everything after that was just unnecessary flirting.

You can also get their house-made brisket chili piled onto loaded tater tots with cheese sauce and scallions.

Garret's order: Brisket chili, candied jalapeño cornbread. Then I'm stealing one of your loaded tots.

7. Fish & Chix — Derry, NH

22 Manchester Road, #13, Derry, NH 03038

How about White Chicken Chili fries? I went there to visit one day and the owners had me as a taste-tester for this. It was amazing!!!!

Fish & Chix in Derry serves it by the small, large, quart or even half gallon.

And they take it another step with Loaded Chicken Chili Fries topped with cotija cheese, scallions and Nashville hot.

I imagine... White chicken chili walked into the room like, ‘I know I’m not what you expected, but hear me out...

Garret's order: Loaded Chicken Chili Fries. I'm not even pretending this is healthy.

Credit: North Station Rumney New Hampshire via Facebook

8. North Station — Rumney, NH

897 NH Route 25, Rumney, NH 03266

This one feels more like classic New Hampshire diner chili.

North Station serves a Smoked Brisket Chili by the cup or bowl.

But I like that you can work the chili into the rest of the menu, too. You can substitute it into their soup-and-sandwich combos, or put their house-made chili on the all-beef hot dogs.

Basically, you can walk in intending to have a normal lunch and somehow leave having eaten chili three different ways.

Garret's order: Bowl of smoked brisket chili. Although that chili dog is going to be staring at me the entire time.

9. The Refinery Restaurant & Market — Andover, NH

4 Mill Road, Andover, NH 03216

Okay, this might be one of the most interesting bowls of chili on the entire list.

The Refinery isn't messing around with just one smoked meat.

Their homemade chili is made with chopped smoked beef brisket AND pork shoulder, along with sautéed onions and garlic, crushed tomatoes, kidney beans, Northern white beans, black beans and chili beans.

Ummmm... Brisket AND pork shoulder AND four kinds of beans? Somewhere in Texas, I think a man just threw his cowboy hat at the wall.

They also offer a vegetarian version, so there's something here for the non-meat crowd, too.

Garret's order: Brisket AND pork shoulder? Apparently The Refinery heard we were doing an article about chili and decided to show off.

10. Smoke Shack Cafe — Londonderry, NH

226 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, NH 03053

Let's finish this list with more brisket.

Because apparently New Hampshire barbecue restaurants have collectively decided the answer to making chili better is:

Put brisket in it.

Smoke Shack Cafe serves a brisket chili that brings together two things that already belong together... smoked barbecue and a big bowl of chili.

The brisket gives it that deeper, smoky flavor you just aren't going to get from regular ground beef, with chunks of meat throughout and a little kick.

And yes, there's cornbread involved.

This feels like the kind of place where I'd go in telling myself I'm just getting a bowl of chili and somehow leave with brisket, ribs and enough barbecue to feed four people.

Garret's order: Brisket chili and cornbread. Although if I'm already at a barbecue joint, we both know I'm ordering more than that.

Oh... And About That Chili With a Cinnamon Roll...

I didn't make this up. I grew up with this combo. It's like having dinner and dessert at the same time.

Chili and cinnamon rolls are a thing. Ask my Mom.

It's especially associated with Nebraska and parts of the Midwest, where generations of kids grew up getting chili and cinnamon rolls together in school cafeterias.

The idea is basically sweet-and-savory: spicy, salty chili followed by, or sometimes literally dipped into, a warm cinnamon roll.

I haven't found a New Hampshire restaurant yet that advertises the two specifically as a combo. If you know of one, let me know.