I am so sorry, Chef, but I actually did laugh our loud when you dumped all those hotdogs in. Thank you for always showing us the real version of what happens during your experiments.

😂 " As a Michelin star chef would say, this is a little hotdog forward" that killed me! Thank you so much for your recipes and your comedy!

Ohhh it looks great - I would only change one thing. Let the cut hot dogs get some browning in a skillet - the flavor will seriously enhance the final product!

Chef John, I just wanted to let you know ,I've been watching you for years and I've learned so much from you. Thank you chef John. You're the Best 😊

No. Way. I’ve made my family chili cheese fries, chili cheese hot dogs and chili cheese ‘burgers’ over the last two weeks. The other night, while I was making spaghetti for dinner, I was contemplating whether to attempt a chili cheese version of it instead of the same old spaghetti with marinara sauce and ground meat by omitting the marinara sauce and adding some chopped grilled hotdogs, chili and cheese- but using the spaghetti didn’t seem quite right. I can’t believe I didn’t think of just making it into a casserole, and using elbow macaroni! My apologies sensei- you have taught me better than that. For my errors, I shall recite: 10 ‘round the outsides 10 0Oole tappa-tappas 10 fork don’t lies … and add 10 teaspoons of cayenne pepper to my next meal. 🥵 Be well, stay kind and blessings to all~

This is a lot like my Chili-Mac, except I don’t add hotdogs. I do use beans though. I never thought about baking it like a casserole. Looks way more cheesier that way, as opposed to mine that is served in a bowl with cheese just sprinkled on top - with a dollop of sour cream. Thanks!

My mom makes this but doesn't put it in a casserole and uses cocktail sausages. She calls it Beanie Weanie Chili 🤷🏻‍♀️ Also adds some barbecue sauce to it

This dish is like a midwest casserole dish served at a bridge game on Friday night.

John! This recipe totally surprised. I made it to use up left over hot dogs, and the result was so good it's been requested for repeat appearances. I didn't have enough macaroni, my chili powder was way too old and was only about 3/4 the amount suggested, but the results were delicious. This will go alongside your recipe for American Goulash and Asian garlic noodles as one of my go-too ones. Thanks, please keep up the good work and carry on, brother.

you are the Bob Ross of cooking

If I were to recreate this, which I believe I will on an upcoming cheat day, I would make a regular mac & cheese recipe, and top it with the mixture, and top it again with shredded cheese. Then I think you would get both elements (and equal parts heart disease). ❤ thanks, Chef John!

I make something similar to this, minus the hot dogs. Interesting! I might try an experiment of my own inspired by this recipe. I'd start off by sauteing a large onion, one green pepper, and three or four cloves of garlic. Once that's cooked, dump in a can or two of canned hotdog chili, followed by eight to ten hotdogs cut into medallions, 16oz can of crushed tomatoes, and 1/4 of can of water with some beef bouillon. Heat up to cook the fat out of the hotdogs, taste for flavor, add salt, pepper, and if necessary cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, and MSG. Once the flavor is right, just add whole wheat elbow macaroni to the mixture. Next add in Velveeta and mozzarella. The Velveeta is a more classic chili cheese dog cheese. The mozzarella will help it hold some sort of shape. Mix in the cheese until it seems to develop some binding ability. Dump the mixture into the casserole dish. Use monterey Jack cheese or mozzarella for the top, pressing down so it binds together with the cheese already mixed into the casserole. Bake until the noddles are completely al dente, likely similar to the amount of time called for on the box of noodles, maybe 2 or 3 minutes more just to be certain. When it comes out, test to see if the noodles are done, then let sit for 15 minutes, and then serve. That's likely how I'd spin this to be more like the classic chili cheese dog mixed with mac 'n cheese. It also reduces the clean up and the work. It's less fancy though, but a classic chili cheese dog isn't meant to be fancy, lol. That's likely why it doesn't taste like it. This recipe is good, though. I might try it as written, but with kielbasa instead of hotdogs.

Dinner idea for the kids. This is combining everything they like into one dish, and it seems easy enough to make!

Tip for when you slice too many hotdogs and don't know what to do with the left overs: fry them up in butter, add pepper (and onions if that's your think). At the end... add ketchup and cover cuz it will splatter 😅 You can thank me, and every Trini person you ever meet later 😛

"Cheese I grated myself, there's no excuse not to." I had to leave a like and comment about how much I appreciate you saying this. A few channels I watch often throw on those dry, dusty looking "cheesy shreds" things and I just want to weep inside. You have gained a LOT of points in my book from this sentence alone.

The part I think you're missing, is the bread! I buy the cheap 4pk of canned biscuits, (40) cut each in half, baked on a sheet tray for 8-10 . minutes. Stir them in when its still a bit soupy. ALSO prepare the mac&cheese FULLY before adding and the cheese will stay on the noodles!

I would make this with hot Italian sausage and kielbasa , sliced like the hotdogs, or maybe quartered. My fav pasta for baking and mac-n-cheese is cavatappi as it holds up well and can be reheated without turning into mush. Happy cooking everyone!

I thank you for this. I made it almost the same, I used chili seasoning put, I used a deluxe macaroni & cheese with the cheese sauce which I included and I used all beef hot dogs but only 2 because they were big. I did add a can of seasoned pinto bean in the can because I new I would have leftovers. Last I topped with fine shredded cheese. Brought out the sour cream, pickle jalapeños but it was so good we didn't even use them. I did add hot sauce to mine for a bigger kick❤ thank you again

One of my own creations is a mix of: * taco meat (prepared however you prefer, from scratch or using prepared spice packets) * macaroni and cheese (again, prepared however you like prefer, from scratch or using the box) Then combine. Bam! Tacoroni and cheese.

I know this may sound weird but I always put some yellow mustard on my chili dogs, so maybe a little on your serving portion would make it taste more like a chili dog. Just a thought.

Thank you for this one. This and your Lasagna Soup are two recipes I intend to try as soon as possible.

“The only experimental recipes we really should be disappointed in, are the ones we don’t even try” Thank you Chef John, I’m going to stencil that on my pantry wall

Chef John is cooking up more memories and opportunities!

We call that bachelor chow.

This is similar to my favorite Zippy’s (Hawaii restaurant chain) dish, Zippy’s Chili Frank Plate. It consists of Zippy’s chili and a hotdog, served with macaroni salad and white rice.🥰

That's it. The next time I have chili, I'm dumping some on top of my mac and cheese. That is some next-level snacking Chef John. And yes I said 'Oh my God' out loud when I saw ALL those hot dogs go in.

Yum.!🎉❤ I can't wait to try this recipe.😊

After reading the headline and watching the begining. I was anticipating a reduced down thick chili dog base and a seperate mac and cheese combined into a casserole. Like mainly mac with dollops of the chili dog all over.

I love you, and your recipes, Jon; but, there is no way I can bring myself to make this one. When my sister and I were little kids in the early 1980's, Mom was attending night school 3 time a week... leaving Dad in charge of feeding us. We were given so much Chef Boyardee "Beef Chili Mac" to cure my sister and I both of it for life... I can't bring myself to trying anything close to it - even if it's a delicious, homemade version. 😂

Mom made something similar. She just didn’t put cheese, peppers or onions in it. Sometimes it would have a canned vegetable in it, like corn. We always just called it Chili Mac.

My dad used to do something like this with linguica, I was just craving something similar last week. Guess I gotta make it!

Chili-Mac is a beloved camping food, created by combining one bag of rehydrated chili with one box of boxed prepared Mac and cheese. I’ve never made the camping version, but I’ve often considered making traditional béchamel based Mac and cheese and stirring in some homemade chili. I’m just so curious about it.

Don't mind naming the dish; it is good FOOD...! Thank you Chef John !

I love the idea. I bet if you defined it into two layers, it would match the profile better. I'm thinking split the total macaroni in half and make the first layer mac & cheese with a very thick sauce, and the second layer the hot dog/chili with the rest of the macaroni and then top it all with shredded cheese and some breadcrumbs (structural integrity) bet cocktail weenies would work great as well. I don't know if you've seen the price of quality hot dogs lately, but it makes me wince tossing them in a casserole.

You reminded me of the goulash and the chili mac’n cheese I’ve wanted to make for decades. I’ve never had it, never made it bc my husband always frowns and shakes his head whenever I mention it. But I’ve been thinking lately, life is short, and I’m getting old. I’m going to make it for myself and tell him he can make his own dinner, I want chili Mac. With kidney beans. And Tillamook extra sharp orange cheddar and Jack. I gotta have it at least once! I’m going to basically use your recipe and sub the kidney beans for the hotdogs. And I will sub some other short pasta for the Mac. (I’m a seasoned cook, I’ll know how to make adjustments as I go.) Thanks for the idea, Chef John!

Listening to you is like hearing an old friend say hello, Thanks for all the great experiments, I mean recipes.

Chili Dog, Mac, and Cheese sound like the nicknames of the members of the rhythm section of a really swinging jazz group. 🤣 Seriously though, this looks like the perfect comfort food for a cool, autumn afternoon of playoff baseball! Yum!

This looks amazing!! And ever since I started watching your videos, I now say “ the ooooole shaka shaka” and all of your other “oooooole” euphemisms. 😂😂😂 thank you chef John.

Thank you chef for the recipies

Just made this now - and it’s delicious. It’s got a real kick to it, but not over the top. And it has such depth of flavour - thank you.

Ooo, my two favorite dishes combined into one! 🤤

One suggestion I have, having used hot dogs in this way in other recipes. After slicing, fry them in a pan to light brown. The browning, of course, adds some flavor and cooks out some of the fat.

I've always been a culinary adventurer. Sometimes the result is great, like maple bacon ice cream, sometimes not so great, like the time I poured milk over Chex mix for lack of any other breakfast option.

I can guarantee that "Gabbi, a contributing editor for Birdie", would never be able to create such an amazing idea for a meal.

Made this yesterday. Subbed out the raw spring onions on top for fried onions. Anyway it was absolutely delicious.

Oh man, this is taking me back to college dorm room cooking. I swore off chili mac forever, but I might give this version a try.

i love this type of recipe. i used to screw around with hamburger helpers and it all turn into a dump everything in and bake lol

all those spices make that WAY more flavorful than the standard American goulash haha! I say this as the son of a Rapid City, SD born mother who made American goulash at least once a month through my entire childhood and loved it but I can definitely see where it's coming from there! That actually makes me want to try it MORE though!

Looks great, many thanks.

I think I’ll need to try this using Chef John’s Cincinnati Chili recipe and call it Cincinnati Chili Cheese Dog Mac.

This reminds me of when the Presidio was an active Army HQ. All of our dads would pour tons of canned crap into a pot like they were still active duty. Football weekends weren’t complete without pots of weird ass sludge.

Your mistake saved the day. I can see why you added too many hot dogs. 2 packages looked like the exact right amount to me too. But I knew I’d better because of your explanation, so I gave the extras to my puppies. I topped mine with smoked cheddar cheese. It is so delicious. And I am getting rave reviews by the crowd coming home from school. Tysm.

I usually make something very similar to this but without the hotdogs. The additional ingredient I add however is Velveeta cheese. What results is a kid magnet. It's about the only thing the kids all agree on to eat so it's part of my weekly meal rotation.

Does this remind anyone else of the "Sheldon" character on the "Big Bang Theory" show, and his love for "spaghetti with little hot dogs cut up in them"?!

That looks tasty and heartburn-y.❤ I wonder how it would come out if you put the sliced hot dogs on top and broiled it then added the remaining 40% of your cheese on top and broiled to brown. Grilled hot dogs taste so much better.

Bro- this was delicious 😋. Next time I’m going to use it for chili spaghetti!

That looks so good, I will give it a try😊

I've done that but the way I did it was to cook the Chili dog in 1 pot and the mac & cheese in a 2nd pot then mix them at the end. Sometimes "you gotta keep em separated"

Yes! I thought I was the only one who adds cinnamon. It’s awesome!

Thank you Chef😊 I know what I'm making for dinner!

I’m not sure if this has been suggested here, but I make something similar but I “garnish” with yellow mustard and it does taste like chili dogs. As you say….maybe give it a try soon :)

All these Halloween recipes are spooktacular!

I think some of the magic that is a chili dog is the toasted bun!

Another great chef said you can replace water in almost any recipe with beef or chicken broth, and I would strongly recommend replacing the water in this one with beef broth.

It works fine, childhood staple in my house lol.

I recently stumbled across "Green Valley" Lactose free dairy products. I have a bar of cheddar just waiting for this recipe. I'm a happy boy.

So nice coming home to your voice!

Plate this on a top of crispy steak fries. That would be great presentation

That looks DELICIOUS!!!

I'm making that next week.... Thanks

We always make this using a box of mac and cheese and adding a can of chili and it works like a charm

Looks Amazing!

Looks tasty, and I would agree John, more like a tasty goulash. Thanks for sharing,mind I will give it a try.

I didn’t understand where you said the printable recipe is. I want to make this. Love all three….chili dogs, mac & cheese AND macaroni & cheese

Looks great, but hard to suck on outside the Taste Freeze. But life goes on.😁

Hot Dog Forward is the best phrase ever uttered.

Reminds me of "chili-mac"..something I ate (way too) many times in my military days.

I think this sounds ideal!

We top mac n cheese with bread crumbs or similar… I’d suggest crushed up chili cheese Fritos on top. Plus a cheese product like wiz to pull it together more like Mac n cheese.

Well, It was a hit I guess. All the bowls came back to the kitchen empty. And no..... I don't have a dog or any pets. Thanks again Chef, great job.

Been making American Chop Suey with frankfurters for years. Minus the chili style of this creation. I've also done a white version and added the diced frankfurters instead of diced ham. Natural casing franks (snappy) are the best. Not mushy hot dogs.

(Dumps 15 hot dogs in) “It was a little hot dog forward” 😂

An idea. Try this dish pastitsio style: mac and cheese on the bottom with your chili-dog sauce on top. That might give you both of your favorites in one dish. Love your videos!

here in france we call these pasta coquillette (small shell or something like that).

The craziest thing just happened. I’m sitting in the car, hitting my vape while watching this and I hit my vape, then you started scooping the final product, and as soon as you dug that serving out of the casserole dish, my vape smoke started rising off of the phone screen. I thought it was special effects at first

I need to make this omg

“Mac Chili” or “Mac Dog Chili” in this case has been a combo I’ve made since I was in high school as an after school snack, super hardy.

What do you think about homemade Mac n cheese layering the bottom of casserole and then homemade chili, grated cheese etc. Obviously less hotdogs to the chili.

I think a tablespoon or two of mustard would help enhance the chili dog vibes. All the best chili dogs have a stripe of mustard between the chili part and the dog part

I'm from Texas and Yes we Do add beans to chili

I really like chilli-mac, so this looks great!

Thank you😃

Hmm... back in High School we made a similar thing in home ec, but we had a thin cornbread crust so it was like a...weird pot pie I guess. Naturally we used Chugwater chili(yeah rattlesnake was included) since it was Wyoming after all. The hot dogs were grilled first, then sliced and laid on top of our pre half baked crust, then topped with the Chugwater chili, and then the mac n cheese we made like normal then layered that and baked that hot mess for like 40 minutes at 350 degrees(its home ec, everything goes for 350 degrees...and our class periods were 90 minutes. Ours was not...as liquidy as yours was, and did give you the chili dog(okay chili corndog) with mac n cheese I hadn't thought about that monstrosity till this video. And as always in Wyoming, you serve any Chili(or chili dog or hot mess with chili) with a nice home made Cinnamon Roll. Then you can enjoy. :)

once ive made a teryaki-gulasch-lasagne, it was awesome

I've done this before but I literally made a pot of Mac n cheese and chili separately and then just combined them together in my bowl lol still going to try this though. With beans lol

this is a delicious new version of mac and cheese. i probably would just use sausage instead of the chilli dog, thankyou chef john

Gonna try this some day.

That looks great!

Made this for supper tonight holy cow that was good the only thing I did differently was in addition to chili power I added chili flakes

This looks like a kid’s dream come true meal.