About Us

Beginnings

KEN'S Chili Seasoning began as a favorite at a church chili feed and has flourished into a staple at chili feeds and family dinners around the country.

In the beginning, Reverend Ken would concoct his special blend of chili spices in his basement as a popular treat for family, friends, and church goers. After years of accolades and requests for more, Reverend Ken listened to his chili following and decided to package his secret recipe on a larger scale. For several decades, KEN'S Original Chili Seasoning has been sold at a booth at the Kansas State Fair, and has been a popular stop on the walkway. Through the years, several have stopped by to confess that they have won a chili cook-off using KEN'S Seasoning. Ken has never entered a chili cook-off, but is always pleased to learn of others who have -- especially when they have won. With those kinds of accolades, KEN'S Seasoning has been passed along from friend to friend, family to family, even generation to generation.

Today KEN'S is still a family-run operation with a growing flock of devoted fans. KEN'S still sells at the Kansas State Fair as well as select stores and online.

What our customers say

Unsolicited comments from enthusiastic repeat purchasers continually make mention of the superior taste, give praise for the use of no salt, and for the many ways the seasoning can be used. Fans of KEN'S have also commented on how it "goes so far," and others find it hard to believe that only one tablespoon of seasoning can deliver such a wonderful flavor.

The very first note Ken ever received, shortly after first beginning to sell his chili blend, came from a physician's wife who had no idea who Ken was. The note read, "it makes my chili taste like I always thought it should." From then on Ken had his slogan: "Makes your chili taste like you always thought it should."

A grocery check-out lady in a town where Ken used to live told him (not knowing it was he about whose product she was bragging), "until I used that KEN'S stuff there were two things I could never make good: chili and apple pie. Now there's only apple pie."

Ken's sister was at a backyard barbeque and visited with a young man who had won two successive chili cook-offs in the same place. They wouldn't let him enter the third year. When Ken's sister mentioned that he might try her brother's seasoning, he asked what it was. She told him it was KEN'S-- he chuckled and said that was what he used in winning!