20 Best Toppings For Better Chili

There's no better way to fill your belly on a blustery winter day than with a warm, fragrant bowl of chili. This hearty dish is incredibly versatile because you can swap in your favorite types of beans (or no beans, if you want to go rogue) or ground meat (or, of course, no meat). You can also choose a style with or without tomatoes. Add in your favorite array of spices and simmer it on low and you'll have yourself a hearty bowl of chili ready to eat in no time.

But before diving in, you must decide what ingredients to add to the top of your chili. The toppings you use can vary as much as the chili recipe itself. Some folks stick to the classic sour cream, cheese, and chives combo, while other folks gravitate to the spicy or sweet end of things. You can even create a fun interplay of textures to complement the richness of your recipe and take it to a new level. Here are some of the most popular (and delicious) chili toppings you can try for your next batch.

Crumbled bacon is the savory ingredient your chili needs. This staple breakfast food is a source of all things umami, and you can also buy smoked bacon if you want to amplify your chili's hickory notes. But, rather than just adding the bacon and its grease to the chili itself, you should also crisp some up and reserve it as a topping.

The key to serving bacon at your next chili bar is to ensure it's perfectly crispy rather than limp and soft. This will give you the optimal textural contrast between the toppings and the soft beans and meat. Be sure to reserve your leftover bacon grease to cook the onions and garlic. This fat will impart savory notes throughout your dish.

Sour cream is undoubtedly the cream of the crop when it comes to rich chili toppings. But there's an underdog who's after the title: Greek yogurt. It has a sour flavor because it contains a lot of lactic acid bacteria. It's also much thicker than regular yogurt because it's strained to remove the liquid whey. So, don't crack open a container of strawberry Yoplait and think it will taste the same on top of your steaming bowl of chili.

Despite its thick texture, Greek yogurt isn't overtly heavy on the palate. So you can grab a scoop, swirl it into your bowl, and dig in. It pairs well with other additions like chives and will help distract your tastebuds from the spicy and smoky notes of the chili.

If you like a piquant flavor and a stinging mouthfeel from your chili, then grabbing a bottle of hot sauce is surely the way to go. There are so many different types of hot sauce out there that you can mix and match based on the flavor you're looking for. A Tabasco, for example, has a vinegary flavor, while a sriracha is much more garlic and chili-forward.

But our favorite hot sauce to put on chili is undoubtedly Cholulua. It's not tongue-tinglingly hot, but it does have a smoky undertone that complements ancho chili powder, tomato, and a variety of ground meats quite well. You can also add more on since it doesn't have the stinging flavor of other hot sauce varieties. Granted, if you're a hot sauce newbie or sensitive to spice, always add this condiment gradually and taste as you go.

We're not going to beat around the bush here: Onions are a pungent condiment that not everyone will enjoy. But, for the people who love the stinging, assertive flavor of a sharp red onion, there's no better chili topping.

Granted, you don't always have to grab the purple allium when you're craving a fresh, crunchy topping. You can turn to a sweeter onion, such as a white or yellow one, to get your fix. Mince or dice your onion into small pieces so that each bite gives you a fresh, punchy taste. It's important to note that these alliums have a more pungent flavor than scallions, so we would recommend only adding them to your bowl if you consider yourself an onion lover — and don't mind smelling like it for the next three weeks.

We would venture to say that most chili bars have a container of sour cream available for dabbling on top of your bowl of chili. The fattiness will subdue any of the spicy notes of the chili and make for a well-rounded, filling bite.

You don't just have to stick to adding to the top of your chili, either. Swirling a scoop of sour cream into the base of your chili can give it a creamy twist. Sour cream is popular for white chilis, but it can also tame some of the acidity found in other tomato-based chili recipes. To prevent it from curdling, you'll want to first bring your sour cream up to temperature rather than just scooping it straight from the fridge. While tempering it and creating a roux are other options, pulling your sour cream out of the fridge while you're prepping your other ingredients is easier — and requires less cleanup.

The key to making a good chili is to find opportunities to integrate coolness. The jalapeños, chili powder, and other spicy ingredients scream hot, but you must carefully balance the piquant flavors with something more California casual. And no ingredient embodies this mantra quite like the avocado.

You can either whip up a whole bowl of guacamole to add to the top of your bowl or just chop up fruit into small pieces and sprinkle it on top. When you bite into the chili, the avocado's creaminess helps cushion the spicy ingredients' blow and complements the mouthfeel of the beans and the ground meat. The best part about avocado is that it doesn't really taste like much of anything, so you won't have to worry about distracting the flavors in your bowl.

Although chili is loaded with healthy beans and ground meat, it's relatively rare that this concoction has any fresh, vegetal notes. If there are any onions, they're cooked until they're limp and lifeless, and unless you make it more hearty with root vegetables, you're looking at a monochrome pile of brown.

Chopped chives add a bright boost of color and vegetal flavor to your bowl. It's important to note that there is a difference between chives and green onions (aka scallions); the former are more slender in shape and lack the edible bulb on the bottom. If you bite into one straight from the garden, you'll notice a much milder onion flavor. This makes them more pleasurable to eat raw, while scallions really need to be tempered with heat to subdue their allicin flavor.

Fried eggs probably conjure up images of brunch, with copious piles of home fries and pieces of crispy bacon. But that's not to say that fried eggs can't appear on the table throughout the day, including as a deluxe topping for your chili. Imagine the sensory experience of slicing through an oozing yolk and watching it coat your beans and meat. Plus, a well-cooked fried egg has the perfect crunchy lace edge, providing a great textural contrast to the rest of your thick chili.

This egg preparation is best enjoyed hot — rather than just lukewarm. You'll want to keep your chili warm on the stove before you delicately ladle your hot fried egg on top. Add an extra drizzle of hot sauce on top, and you'll be good to dig in.

It's corn! This food has seen a lot of TikTok fame since a video of the song was popularized on the social media app in 2022. And like the kid says in the video, we also couldn't imagine a more beautiful thing — especially when it's sprinkled on chili.

Canned corn can provide the textural contrast and the pop of juiciness that your chili needs to shine. It's relatively inexpensive to pick up a can from your local store, rinse off the water and salt, and sprinkle a little on top of your chili. You can also add this ingredient to the chili itself, like in our recipe for white turkey chili. Corn pairs well with other accouterments, including sliced avocado, sour cream, and cilantro.

Chili begs for some sort of vegetal, herbaceous flavor, which is where cilantro enters the picture. It has the perfect amount of peppery, lemony flavor that will round out the depth of your chili and spices. Plus, the brown and red color of a tomato chili could use a bright bit of color from the chopped leaves.

Granted, cilantro isn't for everyone. It tastes like soap to some people, and if you were born with this affliction, you're better off chopping a couple of sprigs of parsley for the top of your chili instead. The flavor of this herb is much grassier, but it won't have the same sharpness as cilantro. Both herbs work well with traditional chili toppings like sour cream and cheese.