Coney Island Hot Dogs

A mixture of ground beef, onions, garlic, and tomato sauce, seasoned with chili powder and mustard, is combined with ground hot dogs, thickened with cracker crumbs and spooned over warmed hot dogs in buns.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon margarine
• 1 1/2 pounds ground chuck
• 1 or 2 medium onions, chopped very fine (I use 1)
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon regular mustard (or 1 tsp. ground)
• 3/4 cup tomato sauce
• 3/4 cup water
• 12 or 13 hot dogs
• Cracker crumbs, for thickening, if needed
• 8 hot dog buns, warmed
• Chopped onions (optional) for serving

Directions:

Combine margarine and ground chuck and brown, breaking meat up as it cooks. Add 1 or 2 onions, garlic, salt, pepper, chili powder, mustard, tomato sauce and water. Cook slowly until thickened. While sauce is cooking, grind 4 or 5 of the hot dogs in a meat grinder (I used my food chopper). Add the ground hot dogs to sauce, stir and cook 15 to 20 minutes longer. If mixture seems too thin, add a few cracker crumbs. Heat the remaining hot dogs and put in buns. Top with sauce and optional onions.

Number of Servings: 8

Notes from the Cook: These taste so wonderful, so much better than canned hot dog sauce. We even topped them with cheddar cheese! Enjoy!!