Well this reeks of infiltration. Who hacked into this blog?!?!

So I have a confession to make: I’ve never eaten a chili dog, and I didn’t eat one this time (although I had to try a bite, OK two bites, and it was delicious). This was all the husband’s doing. He’d been talking for days about something he’d seen on TV, something about two brothers who, back in the late 1800s, started a chili dog restaurant in Detroit, but then one branched off on his own and made a few slight adjustments to the recipe and opened another restaurant like on the opposite corner of the street, or right next to the original place or something? (Ya know, why speculate when some quick googling will fill me in on the details?) brb.

OK, back.

So actually this all went down in 1917, when a guy named Constantine “Gust” Keros immigrated from Greece and opened a chili dog (aka Coney) restaurant called American Coney Island in Detroit. Soon after, his brother William came to the U.S. and started working with him. A few years later, the brothers had a falling out and William opened his own Coney restaurant right next door and named it Lafayette Coney Island. Since the two restaurants were so similar (are similar, they’re still there), the two brothers were always out in the front of their stores, hustling for customers. Obviously, this competition fueled an even bigger feud than whatever it was they had a “falling out” about in the first place (probably over a girl). So one day when Gust was being particularly obnoxious, telling any customer that tried to walk into Lafayette Coney Island that William was using rancid meat in his chili and covering it up with lots of spices, William got so pissed that he went back inside his store, got a big bowl of steaming hot chili, carried it outside, and dumped it over his brother’s head. Gust had to be rushed to the hospital and suffered third-degree burns on his scalp and the left side of his face and neck.

OK, none of that is true (except for the boring parts).

So after a whole weekend of the husband talking about chili dogs (Where was it better to put the mustard, directly on the bun or on top of the chili? Or what about directly on the hot dog so that when you topped it with the chili it would melt the mustard and the flavors would meld? Should the chili have beans or no beans? Cheese or no cheese? What kind, where would it sit? You know, we actually have some hot dogs in the freezer. Oh, you know, we have some ground beef in the freezer, too!), I still didn’t get the hint until he asked me outright if I would make chili dogs for dinner on Sunday night. “Oh! You want to make chili dogs?”

And so we made chili dogs. He boiled the hot dogs (although I was actually in charge of monitoring them because he went to pick up the dry cleaning like the good husband he is) and I made the chili, which was a beanless variation of my classic chili recipe.

It was just like we were in Detroit!

Chili Dogs

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground chuck
• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 tsp coriander
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 14 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 bottle of beer
• 2 cups beef stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 1-2 chopped chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
• 1-2 Tbsp cider vinegar, to taste
• few squirts hot sauce, like Frank’s or Crystal’s, to taste
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6 hot dogs and buns
• spicy mustard
• minced onions
• American, Cheddar, or Cheez Whiz (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot on medium-high heat. Brown meat on all sides and season with salt and pepper. Turn heat down to medium and add onion. Saute until soft and translucent, 5 to 8 minutes. Add garlic, spices, and bay leaf and stir for 1 minute. Add beer and simmer for a few minutes until some of the liquid evaporates. Add tomatoes, 1 cup of the beef stock, and the chipotles in adobo sauce.
2. Simmer on medium-low heat, uncovered, for 1 to 2 hours. The chili should meld together, absorb all the juices, and not be dry. Add more beef stock as needed. Taste and adjust seasonings, add hot sauce and cider vinegar. Taste and adjust seasonings again.
3. Meanwhile, boil the hot dogs.
4. When hot dogs are done, assemble the chili dogs to your liking.