Cookin' With Leo

By Leocthasme

Well, now if you are gonna' get to them playoffs and do some tailgatim’, here is a good recipe for Chili Dogs to feed the Top Dogs and the masses. A’ course this ain’t just chili or dogs or whatever it’s the whole combo of the ingredients that’s necessary for makin’ great Chili Dogs that will make your tailgatin’ partiers hang around for more, even if the second half is half finished.

So here we go with a quick recipe for the chili that will go on the dogs. This should be enough to lather about 24 dogs on buns:

4 - 15 oz cans of Hormel Chili without beans It will say ‘without beans’ right on the can and that is important as the kind with beans won’t go nearly as far.

2 jars of Pace Salsa, Hot or Medium, If you're feedin’ a bunch of big linebackers they can handle the hot stuff.

Mix all that together and get it hot, but be careful about too hot as the Hormel has a tendency to burn onto the pot. Just keep it stirred so it doesn’t stick and when it is hot move it to a warm area.

1 12 oz can of Bud or Mich to flush out the chili cans and salsa jars, and that gets tossed into the chili pot too. It will also help with the sticky problem.

OK, that is only part of the topping here is some more:

4 cans of Chili Hot Beans, get those warm in a separate pot.

A couple of packs of Kraft Pimento slices and pepper slices.

Three or four packs of good Heavy duty Hot dog buns. Some packs only have 8 and others have maybe 10 or 12 so judge accordingly.

Three or four packs of a good brand of Ball Park Hot Dogs. If you want to get fancy you can use Brats or Italian Sausage links instead of Hot Dogs. The good sized dogs only have 8 in a pack and usually the same is true for Brats and Italian Sausage. Grill them until they are about to pop open and then toss them into the Chili Pot to coat well and keep warm.

A jar of DiJon mustard

A jar of sliced Jalapeno Peppers.

Fresh chopped Tomatoes and fresh chopped onions.

Coarse ground black pepper

Sour Cream.

The assembly process:

Get one warm bun and open it up or slice it in half long ways if they are not pre-cut. Coat each half with some mustard, lay on a slice or two of cheese, let that warm a bit to soften the cheese. Lay on a coated dog and spoon on some more chili and some beans on top. Sprinkle on some peppers, tomatoes, and onions. Top the whole thing with a dollop or two of sour cream, and pepper that. There you have it and make sure you have heavy duty paper plates and big banquet napkins. Them cheap paper plates will wilt and turn to mush with all that goody soakin’ into them so get the good kind that don’t soak up all the goody. There you have a chili dog fit for a top dog.

A keg or several cases of Mich or Bud will wash it all down.