Coney Island Style Hot Dog Chili

• 2 pounds ground beef (80/20)
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 small can tomato paste (6 oz)
• 4 tbs hot chili powder
• 1 tbs garlic powder
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tbs apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 4 cups water

Place a large pot or dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add 2 tbs of vegetable oil and then add the chopped onions. Season with a pinch of salt and cook until the onions turn translucent.

Then add the beef and continue to cook until the meat is fully browned.

Then remove 80-90% of the meat to a blender or food processor.  Add two cups of water and blend quickly for 4-5 pulses.   If you want the chili to have no lumps at all, blend all of the meat.

Pour the mixture back into the pot.  Then add the remaining two cups of water.  Pour in the remaining ingredients including the salt.

Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat and let it simmer for 2-3 hours before serving.  As you can see from this picture and the one above, the chili really starts to thicken and cook down.

Serve it over macaroni or top your favorite hot dog for an amazing chili dog.  I like to fry up some dogs and then cover them in chili and cheese.

Also try a dog with a little fresh onion, a squirt of mustard and then top with chili.   Amazing!

This chili was fantastic.  I at about 6 cups of it in two days.

Doesn’t seem like much, but when you realize that I only at it on hot dogs, it was a lot of food.  I also added this chili to a box of macaroni and cheese for some amazing cheesy chili mac.

Rippers with Mustard Slaw

These are so good with a mustard based slaw on them.  No need for any other condiments.  They are awesome.

Rippers with Mustard Slaw

• Natural Casing Hot Dogs – No Casing Hot Dogs Won’t Work, I tried
• 1 bag slaw mix
• 1/4 cup Dijon Mustard
• 1/4 cup White Vinegar
• 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
• 2 tbs Yellow Mustard
• 1 tbs Hot Sauce – You can double this if you like more of a kick.  I tripled it.  Awesome!!!
• 1 1/2 tsp Celery Seed
• 1 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Pepper

Mustard Slaw

Mix the Dijon and Yellow Mustard with the sugar.  Then mix in the Oil, Vinegar, Hot Sauce and Celery Seed.  Mix good.  Add the salt and pepper.  Taste it to make sure the seasonings are right.  Packaged mustards are seasoned differently.  Make sure that it is seasoned as you need to add a whole bag of fresh slaw mix to it.

Mix everything together

Next fold in the slaw mix and stir.

This stuff is tasty. To steal a line for Guy, this stuff is Money!!

Refrigerate for 20 minutes before serving.  This slaw is so tasty that it can stand on its own, but it is the perfect accompaniment to rippers.

The Ripper

You need to find natural casing hot dogs.  I have tried this with skinless hot dogs and it just doesn’t work.  After searching most of the DC metro area I found some Boars Head Natural Casing Hot Dogs.  These work, but they are a little thin.  If you can find thicker dogs, they will work out better.

Natural Casing Hot Dogs

Preheat your fryer to 375 degrees.  This will make it so that the majority of the frying will occur at around 350 degrees.  The temperature of the dogs will lower the temperature of the oil.  Place the dogs in the fryer and fry until you get the crispiness that you desire.

Time to fry

The dogs that I had were rather skinny and didn’t take that long to rip and get crispy.  It took about 4 minutes.  The longer you leave them in the oil the crispier the outside gets.  If you leave them in the fryer for 8-10 minutes they will get extremely done.  The whole dog inside and out gets crispy.  Basically they have the texture of bacon.  How awesome is that.  I find that about 5 minutes is perfect.  You get a crispy outside and still have a tender juicy inside.

Rippers fresh out the fryer

Place the dogs on warmed hot dog rolls.  Then cover with the mustard slaw.

Rippers ready to eat

No joke, these are the tastiest hot dogs that I have ever eaten.  The slaw works perfectly on them.  It gives the crunchy dogs a zing.  Even if you don’t deepfry your dogs, you should try the mustard slaw on a hot dog.  It is awesome!!

Cheese Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog

Slowly cooking the hot dog over indirect heat allows you to have a crispy bacon crust that is cooked all the way through.

Cheese Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog

• All Beef Natural Casing Hot Dog
• Swiss Cheese
• 2 strips of thick cut bacon
• 3-4 toothpicks

The ingredients list for this post is quite small but the flavor is out of this world.

Only Three Ingredients

The first step is to cut a slit in the hot dog.  Cut the slit about 3/4 of the way through the hot dog.  Next stuff as much Swiss cheese as you can into the slit.

Stuff the dog

Finally wrap the hot dog with the bacon.  Start at one end, anchor the bacon with a toothpick, and then start wrapping.  When the bacon starts to run out, add another piece of bacon and use a single toothpick to hold both pieces in place.  Then continue until the end and use another toothpick to hold the other end in place.  Having less toothpicks will make it easier to rotate the hot dog.

Wrap the dog

Next preheat 1/2 of the grill to medium/high heat.  Then place the hot dogs over indirect heat and grill.

Grill over indirect heat to get the bacon super crispy

Rotate the dogs every 4-5 minutes.

Keep on rotating, watch out for the cheese leaking out.

The whole process is going to take about 20 minutes but it is totally worth it.  By doing it over indirect heat and constantly turning you get a crispy piece of bacon that is not raw on the inside.  Cooking over direct heat would cook the outside of the bacon and leave the inside raw.

Perfectly cooked with super crispy bacon

Finally server the hot dog on a nice hot dog bun.

Serve on a nice roll

I prefer mustard on mine.

Cheese Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog

You have to try this one.  There is no better way to utilize bacon on the grill.  Wrapping a hot dog in bacon is pure pleasure.

Spicy and awesome with a nice hit of refreshing sour cream.

I was discussing my favorite dog with my friends and they said it sounded gross. Who would want sour cream on a hot dog. With the spiciness of the peppers and salsa, the sour cream is a welcome addition.

Southwestern Hot Dogs

• 2 Natural Casing Hot Dogs – I love the snap and taste of these dogs.
• 2 Hot dog buns – Recipe here if you would like to make your own.
• 1 Jalapeno Pepper
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup salsa – I like mine hot
• 1/2 cup favorite taco cheese – I used a premixed Mexican blend as it was on sale.

Going on how they make them back in the midwest I utilized a pot of boiling water to cook the dogs.  I then placed the buns in a steamer basket over the water.  This allowed the hot dogs to get piping hot and for the buns to get steamed.

Next cut the jalapeno into slices.

Four ingredients make the best toppings for a hot dog

Remove the bun from the steamer basket and place on a plate.  The steamed bun is key, it prevents the hot dog from cooling too quickly.  A cold hot dog is not a tasty hot dog.  OK, it is still tasty, just not as tasty as it could be.

Don't oversteam the bun. Only takes about a minute to make the bun soft and delcious.

Slather the bun with sour cream.  It takes more than you would think.  Remember it sounds gross but it is amazing and it will help cool your mouth down from the heat of the peppers and salsa.  Now place a layer of Jalapenos on the bun.

Hot and cold come together

Now remove a piping hot, hot dog from the water.  Place on the bun and cover with salsa.

Make sure to remove the hot dog from the water just before you serve so that it is hot.

Now cover with cheese and you have the tastiest hot dog around.

Best hot dog ever, ok it is missing bacon but otherwise best hot dog ever!

Spicy and delicious.