The BEST Hot Dog Chili (SERIOUSLY!) (2024)

The Coney Island style recipe for fine, tender meaty chili sauce perfect for Chili Dogs and Chili Cheese Fries – ‘The One’, the BEST recipe – that took me almost a decade to perfect!

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I’ve been on the hunt for THE BEST hot dog chili for years. Like, literal Y E A R S, making one recipe after another that have just not hit the mark.

You’re going to think I’m nuts, but what I was after was something like the chili they used to serve at school when I was growing up.

It might have even come from a can but I doubt it because I’m old enough and country enough that our school lunches were actually cooked by actual lunch ladies. Most of whom had big bosoms, cackling laughs, knowing smiles and a genuine love for feeding us rascals.

Whoa… I’m kinda having an epiphany right now. I think… I think I’m like the lunch ladies! As I was just summoning up memories of the many faces from the lunchrooms of my youth – the way they made me feel seen and looked after – I just realized I could have been describing who I try to be for these kids.

Wow. Of all the influential women I’ve been lucky enough to know, I ended up most like the lunch ladies of rural South Carolina circa 1986. Well, if so, it is an honor.

Having teenaged kids for the past many years, I’ve gotten used to – and maybe even look forward to – the revolving door of hungry kids in and out.

Like, for example, when I had EIGHT unexpected visitors Friday after school before the football game. I had just finished photographing the I’d made that day, so I offered it to them and that pot was scraped clean by the time they all left in a whirlwind for the game.

There is nothing better for someone who loves to feed people than to see hungry kids scarfing down something you cooked. Not chips and junk but a big pot of stick-to-your-ribs comfort food. And I love that I can’t go to a school function or local ball game without hearing, “Hey Ms. Mandy!” from a dozen teenagers who don’t worry about looking cool when they see me.

OK, what were we talking about?? Oh, yeah. CHILI. This is a post about hot dog chili, Mandy. Focus. FOCUS!

What I liked about the hot dog chili they made in school was that it was very thin and had a fine texture. It tasted more like traditional chili (cumin, chili powder, etc) and not like the ketchup-y, sloppy joe-ish chili I grew up with at home.

The school chili might have been a little tooooooo thin (seriously, sometimes you had to eat your chili dog with a fork) but I knew I liked it better than the chunky, scrape-the-roof-of-your-mouth variety of chili.

It took some years, but I finally figured out how to get that finer texture. And it ain’t pretty. When I first heard of this method I thought, uhhmmm, no thanks! but I talked with enough people and read enough recipes to finally understand it’s just how you do it.

You don’t brown the ground beef like you do for every other recipe on earth, you mix the raw meat with water and cook it like that. The ground beef will easily and quickly break down into a finely minced consistency that is soft and tender. The first time I did it, my nostrils were jacked up to my cheekbones in a suspicious scowl a la Madame Medusa from The Rescuers (the original and best Rescuers from 1977, that is).

But it works! It’s brilliant! Cooking the ground beef in water turns it into EXACTLY the consistency I wanted!! Many of you already know this. I didn’t know. I did not know!

You have to use verrrrry lean ground beef because there’s no way of draining the excess oil. You could wait until grease starts to pool in the top of the chili then ladle it off but it’s just easier to start with lean meat (at least 90%).

The next step was figuring out the flavor. A lot of the recipes I found had condiments in them (ketchup, mustard, chili sauce, barbeque sauce, etc). I tried many of them because it seemed like a good way to create a sauce but found that I kept ending up in Sloppy Joe territory.

Then I approached it the way I make traditional chili, using tomato sauce and a lot of cumin but I couldn’t get the sauce right and it always just tasted like taco meat.

After many, many so-so attempts over almost a decade, we sat down to this recipe and I waited to see everyone’s reaction. The reactions were outstanding! The best coming from Mama who said she was surprised how much she liked it! That might not sound like High Praise but Mama doesn’t mince words and isn’t a gushy person. She doesn’t say she likes something unless she truly does (especially not to me). Husband and the kids all agreed. This was The One.

I don’t use as much water as most other recipes call for because I don’t really see the point. You have to cook it until it evaporates out soooo… why make a 1-hour recipe into a 4-hour recipe? One hour is PLENTY of time for the flavors to meld and the texture to be tender and saucy.

I do sauté the onions, garlic and tomato paste. You just can’t duplicate the deep flavors of cooked onions and garlic with powdered spices. And cooking the tomato paste a few minutes gives it somewhat of a roasted flavor that makes the chili taste like it cooked all day.

Use this recipe to make Chili Dogs (obviously), Chili Cheese Dogs, Chili Cheese Fritos (or tater tots!), Slaw Dogs or Chili Cheese Fries. I usually pop the leftovers in the freezer then reheat it the next time we're having hot dogs OR I cut the leftover wieners into bite-sized pieces then stir them into the chili for a quick lunch later in the week.

Recipe for The BEST Hot Dog Chili