This Secret Ingredient May Give Coney Island Chili Dogs Boardwalk Flavor — Try It At Home

Coney Island chili dogs are so famous and have spread so far that Detroit, Michigan, is now just as known for them as New York City. Greek immigrants fell in love with the hot dogs and brought the recipe west. Although the chili sauce is beloved, the recipes are often closely guarded secrets. But some online think they have cracked the mystery to a perfect Coney Island chili. The trick? Crushed crackers.

This has never been confirmed by any restaurant famous for making chili dogs, so you'll have to take it with a grain of salt from atop one of those crackers. Home cooks have tried to reverse engineer the chili using ingredient labels from the different types of chili they ordered online. They determined that crushed soda crackers go into the mix to help give it that memorable texture. One recipe on Reddit calls for oyster crackers, but the creator acknowledges they made up the recipe after considerable trial and error and feels it nails the taste and texture they were looking for.

We have a Coney Island hot dog recipe that doesn't use water, but many others start by making a slurry from ground beef and water. This helps the meat develop the fine-grain texture typical of Coney Island chili. After the beef is cooked and set aside, the rendered fat is used to make a roux with the crushed crackers which adds only a subtle flavor. The ingredients are then combined with various seasonings and simmered until done as you would with any other chili. Your chili becomes smooth and rich. It isn't just thicker; it has the cling you want on a chili dog.

If you have ever tried to make chili for a chili dog at home and found it too thin, you understand why cracker-based recipes like these exist. Some versions of the chili are thinner than others. Some restaurants that share the recipes don't use crackers; they just reduce the chili. If you have the time, you can make a version without crackers and reduce it until it is very thick. This works naturally thanks to the beefy, fatty emulsion created by the beef and cold-water slurry you start with. Using a potato masher will aid in getting the fat and collagen to mix and thicken the chili.

A Coney Island chili dog is traditionally topped with some diced onion and mustard along with the chili. You can do that for a classic take on the dish or try everyone's favorite upgrade and make it a chili cheese dog. Shredded cheddar or even a spicy queso that matches the chili texture provides a perfect cheesy contrast.

There are plenty of other ways to elevate a traditional Coney Island chili dog as well. Top it with some Fritos for a crunchy, flavor-boosted treat. A little barbecue sauce and crispy onions can give you a BBQ Chili Dog. If you want to make a meal of it, swap the cheese for mac and cheese to make a Chili Mac Dog. Add some coleslaw and you've got a classic North Carolina-style chili dog. Anything you can top a hot dog with will elevate your Coney Island chili dog to the max.