Homemade Hot Dog Chili (+Video)
Southern Style Homemade Hot Dog Chili is made with ground beef, garlic, beef broth, tomato sauce and seasonings (no beans!) So much flavor!
SOUTHERN STYLE HOT DOG SAUCE
For me, the key is to a great homemade hot dog chili recipe is that it won’t overtake the taste of the hot dog (cause I wanna taste that too). Also, it can be kept in a slow cooker to keep warm for serving!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Hot dog chili is much thicker than soup chili. It also doesn’t usually contain beans. The meat in hot dog chili is also usually very finely ground where as in soup chili, it is chunkier. Also, hot dog chili is usually made with tomato paste rather than tomatoes. Now obviously, this can vary by region and people’s personal preferences.
Generally hot dog chili and hot dog sauce are the same thing. However, some people refer to hot dog sauce as a slightly less-thick chili – it has more liquid in it.
This chili wonderful on tater tots and french fries. Throw some melted cheddar cheese on top and it’s over-the-top delicious. I also really love this chili on baked potatoes!
Put it in a covered container in the refrigerator and it will keep up to 5 days. You can also freeze leftover chili. Put it in a freezer-safe ziploc bag. Remove as much air as possible. Chili will keep in the freezer up to 3 months.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (FULL RECIPE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST)
- onion
- garlic
- lean ground beef
- chili powder
- sugar
- cumin
- Worcestershire sauce
- tomato paste
- beef broth (or water)
- corn meal
- kosher salt
HOW TO MAKE HOT DOG CHILI:
Put a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in medium sauce pan. On medium-high heat, saute onion until translucent, then add garlic.
Stir for about a minute, then add ground beef. As beef begins to brown, use a potato masher to grind up the beef into small bits.
Once brown, add in the rest of the ingredients (if your beef produced a lot of grease, you may want to strain some of that out first before adding the rest of the ingredients.)
Give it all a good stir to combine then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Do a taste test at this point to see if it has enough salt. If you want, you can transfer the chili over to a Crock Pot and put it on the keep warm setting.
WANT MORE RECIPES? YOU MUST TRY THESE!
Homemade Hot Dog Chili (+Video)
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 2 1/2 Tablespoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 3 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup beef broth (or water)
- 3 Tablespoons corn meal
- 1/2 Tablespoon kosher salt, (or to taste)
Instructions
- Put a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in medium sauce pan.
- On medium-high heat, saute onion until translucent, then add garlic.
- Stir for about a minute, then add ground beef.
- As beef begins to brown, use a potato masher to grind up the beef into small bits.
- Once brown, add in the rest of the ingredients (if your beef produced a lot of grease, you may want to strain some of that out first before adding the rest of the ingredients).
- Give it all a good stir to combine then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.
- Do a taste test at this point to see if it has enough salt.
Video
Notes
- If want, you can transfer the chili over to a Crock Pot and put it on the keep warm setting.
- This chili is super-duper wonderful on tater tots and french fries. You gotta try it if you have some leftover chili. Throw some cheddar cheese on top and you gotta whole new meal!
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
Originally published: March 2011
Updated and Republished: August 2022
Could you make it without cornmeal?
I needed to add a little more beef broth but other than that, the flavor was great!
Awesome chili. Made for 4th July hotdogs. Very very good!
Thanks so much Beverly!
This recipe is spot on. Add some cayenne if you like a little heat. Smoked paprika if you like a more rustic flavor.
This was very good after some adjustments. The 1/2 tablespoon of salt called for was way too much for us. I adjusted by adding another 6 oz of hot water, about 2 tablespoons of honey and another teaspoon of sugar to tone down the salt. I let it simmer for another 10 minutes or so to boil off the liquid. I did not use the corn meal because I did not have any. (Maybe that would have helped the salty?).
I will use this recipe again, but only use 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 2 tablespoons of chili powder. It was a tad too spicy for us.
Overall, it’s a great recipe. Since I’m feeding just two of us, I liked that I could use 1 pound of ground beef rather than 1-1/2 – 2 pounds like other recipes I found. We each had 2 fully loaded dogs and we still have leftovers to freeze for another meal. (I love leftovers to freeze!)
Thank you!
Trying to cut beef out of diet, used ground chicken and the family loved it. Thanks for the recipe.
I just made this and it is delicious I will never buy hot dog chili again!!! Awesome thank you
We really loved this chili. I liked that it was soupy or runny. It stays in place on the hot dog and it tastes great!
My hubby’s all time favorite hot dog chili is definitely ‘Custard Stand’ … but its expensive. I made your recipe & added a 12 oz container of Custard Stand hot dog chili to tweak the flavor he loves. I freeze in individual containers (enough for 3-4 hot dogs) which keeps fresh & it also offsets the cost! TY appreciatively for this recipe. 🙂
For even more authentic taste, hit your ground meat with a stick blender before adding the other ingredients. It give the meat that fine ground texture.
THIS WAS SOOOOO GOOD!!
This was amazing !! Thankyou .. the recipe i was using took 2 hours our more the flavor here is better and doesn’t take long
I’m southern and so is this chili! It’s perfect for dogs and so much more. Thanks for the recipe!
In the summer, my Dad took us to the A&W once a week for a root beer and hot dog with chili or a breaded temderloin on a bun. We had to share one order of french fries. I can still taste it all. The nights were warm. What a great reward for mowing the yard..
Goshen, In
I absolutely love your childhood memory! I’m sure you’ll cherish it always!!
I am excited to try this, but was wondering what the purpose of the cornmeal is and it is corn meal, similar to grits, not the finer corn flour or corn starch, correct? Want to make sure before I attempt it. Thank you!
Corn meal acts as a thickener. It’s optional but we really like it. 🙂
yum!! This was delicious! Thank you!
Never heard of cornmeal in chili ???
This sounds good though.
Love a good hotdog,like mine
with chili , onions and coleslaw.
There’s an out-of-this-world hot dog place right in the cTheir dogs are so good you don’t even have to chew them Andthe chili is scrujmptuous the name ofr the place is — yeah, you guessed it — You-Yum’s. They serve up fantastic ice cream for your after-meal treat. If you’re everSpring Garden Street and just ride east until you come yo it. It will be the greatest treat of your life!
My 11-year old wasn’t sure about eating chili without beans 🙂 This is easily her favorite thing now. She eats it on hot dogs, tater tots or even by itself with Fritos. Needless to say she doesn’t dread hot dog days.
I've been wanting a good chili recipe and tried several online that ended up not tasting the best. I was tired of throwing money away on ingredients trying to find a good recipe. I decided to give it another try with this recipe and I'm so glad I did! It's delicious! Thank you.