Chili Dogs

After our trip to Ben's Chili Bowl, I have to say that I have been craving some chili dogs ever since. I googled Ben's Chili Bowl recipe and found this from someone on the internet that claimed it was the same. It's good, but not close to Ben's. The chili at Ben's is pretty spicy as this one is pretty mild. It does make a good chili dog and makes enough chili for lots of hot dogs. I'll keep working on the perfecting the Ben's recipe or else, I'll just have to make another trip down there soon!

P.S. We used Nathan's hot dogs a.k.a. crack dogs. Delicious!

CHILI INGREDIENTS:

3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 lbs ground beef (or use half ground pork)

2 medium garlic cloves, finely minced

1/4 cup tomato paste

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cups beef

5 Tbsp. chili powder

6 Tbsp. corn meal or masa harina

2 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 bay leaves

PREPARATION:Heat oil and saute garlic and onion until light golden, about 7 to 9 minutes. Add chili powder, sugar and cumin. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add ground beef and cook, stirring, until evenly browned. Stir in remaining ingredients; reduce heat to low and simmer until very thick, 15 to 20 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Makes about 20 servings of hot dog chili on chili dogs.