The Cincinnati Bengals are in the Super Bowl, and that means you’re going to need at least one in Cincinnati- or Bengals-themed food item at your Super Bowl party. But while some teams and cities lend themselves to very obvious foods, you may have a harder time thinking of foods that scream “Cincinnati Bengals.” Luckily for you, I’m here to help!

I’m dividing these Cincinnati Bengals foods into three categories: Cincinnati traditions, tiger-striped treats, and charcuterie boards.

Cincinnati traditions

The first, and arguably most important, Cincinnati Bengals food you should have at your Super Bowl party is Cincinnati chili. People in Cincinnati take their chili VERY seriously — there’s an intense rivalry happening right now between two of the major chili companies in town over which is the REAL chili of the Bengals — and it’s also pretty different than the chili those of us from outside the Queen City area grew up eating. Besides being a much thinner and soupier consistency, the meat is softer and in smaller pieces, and it has hints of cinnamon. It has no beans and is not spicy-hot, either. It’s reminiscent of a molé sauce, and I think it’s delicious! The two warring brands are Skyline and Gold Star (the actual official chili of the Bengals), but our favorite is Dixie.

If you’d like to make your own Cincinnati chili for your Super Bowl party, I’d recommend this recipe. It’s excellent and quite easy. But if you’d prefer to just buy your chili and you don’t have a mother-in-law who can hit up Kroger and ship some to you (thanks, Jane!), Amazon has you covered. (Affiliate links for Dixie chili, Skyline chili, and Gold Star chili)

Once you have your Cincinnati chili, you’ll need to serve it, and a bowl or fun-sized Fritos bag is not going to work. While many people in Cincinnati eat it as a sauce on spaghetti (topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, and maybe some onions and oyster crackers), your best bets for Super Bowl are either on hot dogs — in coney form — or in the dip pictured above.

For coneys, you’ll need hot dogs, buns, chili, cheese, yellow mustard, and diced onions (if you’re so inclined). I think you can figure it out from there. For the dip, you’ll need an 8-oz package of cream cheese, a can worth of chili, and a lot of shredded Cheddar cheese, plus Fritos scoops or other chips for serving. You can watch me make it here, or follow this recipe:

Spread the cream cheese evenly on the bottom of pie plate/dish. Open the can of chili without shaking it, and drain off some of the liquid. Pour the rest of the chili on top of the cream cheeses and spread it out. Cover with shredded cheese, then bake in a preheated 350F oven for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbly. (You can also microwave it, provided the dish you’re using is microwave safe. I’ve never microwaved mine, so I’m not sure how long it would take, but I’d start with two minutes and then go up from there, until the cheeses is all melted.) Serve immediately with chips.

Now that you’ve got Cincinnati chili covered, what else should you make? Montgomery Inn ribs, of course! Toby got a smoker for Christmas, so he’s been smoking ribs for us and then slathering them in Montgomery Inn barbecue sauce. The sauce is also delicious as a dip for potato chips. You can order that on Amazon as well, if it’s not sold at the grocery store where you live.

Other Cincinnati favorites you may be able to get your hands on: Graeter’s ice cream and Glier’s Goetta.

Tiger-striped treats

You probably remember my tiger-striped, chocolate-dipped shortbread cookies, since I just made them last month! But there are other options for tiger-striped desserts.

If you want something a little fancier — but also more labor-intensive — try these Bengals helmet cookies.

If you’d rather go very low-maintenance, try these tiger-striped brownies.

Or, do what I’m planning to do: Add orange food coloring to the “white” part of a zebra or marble cake recipe!

Charcuterie boards and snack stadiums

We started making snack stadiums for Super Bowl several years ago, and they’re always a fun choice. I think our first was my favorite, but this one was pretty great, too. However, I’ve recently realized how fun it is to make a charcuterie or cheese board — and how easy it is to theme it. For a Bengals-themed board, you should stick mainly to orange and black (or dark brown) items, with a few neutral things (like crackers) and a tiger-striped item or two.

For orange items, consider: Any orange or partially orange cheese (including orange cheese spreads, like pimento or beer cheese), carrot sticks, Cheez-Its, oranges or tangerines, orange bell pepper slices, mango, dried apricots, orange marmalade, cheese curls or puffs.

For black/dark brown items, consider: Blackberries,  prunes, dried cherries, fig jam, black grapes, dates, dark chocolate covered anything (like fruit, pretzels or espresso beans), Pocky, black bean dip, brown bread.

For neutral additions: Nuts, crackers, meats like salami and prosciutto.

For tiger-striped accents, use cookies/brownies or mandarin/clementine orange slices drizzled with chocolate.

Hope these ideas help! Please let me know what you think about Cincinnati chili in the comments. And pin this post for quick reference when you’re getting ready for the Super Bowl!