This authentic West Virginia hot dog chili recipe is made with ground beef, tomato sauce, and a blend of spices that are simmered on the stovetop to create a rich and flavorful hot dog sauce.
West Virginia Hot Dog Chili
If you are looking for a great hot dog chili to use for chili dogs, we’ve got the recipe for you! This homemade hot dog chili sauce is a fun retro recipe from my childhood school days.
West Virginia hot dogs are simply a classic hot dog on a bun that is topped with a generous helping of chili (sauce) and cole slaw. Sometimes you’ll see them with diced onions or mustard as well, but chili and coleslaw are the two must-haves.
The chili used on a West Virginia hot dog is a thin, meaty chili that is typically made without beans and is known for its unique sweet and savory flavor.
This particular chili recipe is one that was originally served at our local church. I have fond memories of their hot dogs from my childhood attending the parish school. Every two weeks our school had a hot dog lunch, and this was the chili they served. Hot dog day was special for us since our school didn’t serve daily hot lunches. But every other week, we’d bring our coins to buy our hotdogs, cupcakes, and a drink.
I was so excited to find the actual recipe that my school used in an old cookbook from our parish! The cookbook is about 40 years old, but my former school has been serving hotdogs since at least the 1960’s so this is a tried and tested recipe! If you’re looking for REAL West Virginia style hot dog chili (also called “hot dog sauce”) it doesn’t get any more authentic than this!
This is a no beans hot dog chili recipe that is a little on the sweeter side. The flavor is not spicy or strong in taste, so it is the perfect topping for hotdogs for the whole family! Kids love it too!
The ingredient list may look a bit lengthy, but don’t worry, this is a really easy hot dog chili recipe that only takes a few minutes to assemble. There are just two steps: browning the beef and simmering the sauce.
In the fifty years since I left grade school, I have made hot dogs many a time and I would just make a basic kind of chili of ground beef, spaghetti sauce, and chili powder. And while that works, there is just something special about re-creating the hot dogs from my childhood and sharing it with the next generations!
Ingredients
- 4 lbs ground beef
- ½ cup minced onion
- 3/8 cup sugar
- 1 package chili mix
- 2 quarts tomato sauce
- 1 quart tomato juice
- 2 quarts pizza sauce
- ½ tsp chili powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp season salt
- 1 tsp garlic salt or garlic powder
- ½ tsp celery salt
- 1 green pepper, chopped fine
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Helpful Kitchen Tools
- Large stockpot or Dutch oven
Instructions
- Add meat to a large stock pot and cook until browned. Drain the excess grease.
- Add remaining ingredients to the pot and simmer slowly over medium-low heat for 2 hours. Stir occasionally as you cook.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool enough to handle.
- Spoon onto your hotdogs and enjoy!
Next Up: Learn how to make an authentic West Virginia hot dog here!
Prep Tips
- Ingredients – When I bought the ingredients for the chili, I looked for ones that had probably been around for a while (so might have been used back when the recipe was written) and followed the recipe as much as possible. However you can use any brand that is available or that you prefer.
- Sweetness – Since the recipe as written is quite sweet, I didn’t add as much sugar as the recipe called for. Next time I probably would not add any and I would use more plain tomato sauce instead of some of the sweetened sauces. However, that is simply my taste and some of our family members did like the sweet version. You may want to start by adding some of the sugar, tasting, and seeing if you want to add more or not.
- Yield – As you will notice, this is a large recipe with four pounds of meat. Hey, it was for a school so it was definitely designed to feed a crowd! Feel free to make smaller amounts or freeze what you don’t use.
- Substitutions – If you don’t have pizza sauce on hand, you can use tomato paste, water, and oregano as a substitute. You may need to play around with the proportions to get the flavor you like.
- Cooking Time – I’ve seen WV chili recipes that have a total time of 30-45 minutes. However, the longer you simmer, the more time the flavors have to develop. Since this recipe calls for 2 hours of simmering, that is what we stuck with. It is incredibly flavorful and worth the wait!
More Ground Beef Recipes To Try
- Southern Baked Beans
- Old-Fashioned Meatloaf with Oatmeal
- Tex-Mex Enchiladas
- Porcupine Meatballs
- Rotel Dip
- Granny’s Vegetable Beef Soup
- Easy Homemade Lasagna
West Virginia Hot Dog Sauce Recipe (Printable Recipe Card)
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West Virginia Hot Dog Sauce
Equipment
- Stockpot
Ingredients
- 4 pounds ground beef
- 1/2 cup minced onion
- 1 package chili mix
- 2 quarts tomato sauce
- 1 quart tomato juice
- 2 quarts pizza sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon season salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt or powder
- 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
- 1 green pepper, chopped
Instructions
- Add the ground beef to a large stockpot and cook until browned. Drain excess grease.
- Add remaining ingredients to the pot with the beef and simmer slowly over medium-low heat for 2 hours. Stir occasionally.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool enough to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
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