Crescent Roll Hot Dog Chili Bake

In honor of National Pigs in a Blanket Day yesterday, April 25 (this was purely by accident mind you), I made Crescent Roll Hot Dog Chili Bake.  Kind of a long title, I know, but not sure what else to call it.  Also, I dropped the ball and forgot to take a picture of the finished melty goodness, but when looking at the below photo, imagine that the cheese is melted and ooey and gooey.

Crescent Roll Hot Dog Chili Bake

I got this idea to make this for one of our weeknight dinners from a Facebook post in a group I follow.  My first thought when seeing this picture is I can make that with dairy free cheese.  The picture above is not with dairy free cheese, but I will post pics later and it's extremely hard to tell the difference.  My daughter, Emma, has a dairy allergy and my youngest, Nicky, is lactose intolerant.  We make accommodations whenever and wherever we can so no one feels singled out.  That is really important to me.  Are any of you dairy free or living with a food allergy?  Emma also had a tree nut allergy, but that's easy for us, because we don't often eat nuts, just the boys eat peanut butter.  What's your favorite brand of dairy free cheese?  We've discovered Daiya (not a promoter of them), but we enjoy the taste and it melts easily for grilled cheeses, sauces, and on pizzas!  We've discovered a whole new world here in our house!  

To get this show on the road, I made chili.  Normally when I make chili I use our slow cooker, but since I forgot to take the meat out overnight to defrost, I make a quick batch before assembling dinner.  My chili recipe is just a dump and go recipe.  Super simple, quick and easy to put together, even when cooking it in a dutch oven, rather than the slow cooker.  The recipe below can be used for either the stove or slow cooker.  I will put in the notes the settings for the slow cooker. 

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1 tsp diced garlic
• 2-3 lbs of ground beef
• 1 can mild green chilies
• 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1 15 oz can chili beans
• 1 8 oz can tomato paste
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
• water
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp each of cumin, chili powder, paprika, use more to taste 

Directions:

1. Add olive oil to pan or pot to heat up at medium heat.  Saute onion and garlic until slightly brown.  
2. Add ground beef.  While browning add salt and pepper and seasonings.  Sometimes I add a few shakes of the bottle of Red Pepper Flakes if I want the chili to be a little spicy.
3. Once browned, depending on the cut of ground beef you use, you may need to drain your beef mixture.  
4. Turn pot on to medium once again, and add meat back to the pot, add green chilies and stir to combine.  Allow to cook for a minute.  Add tomato paste.  Stir to combine.  Cook the tomato paste for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and water.  Fill the tomato sauce can three times with water and add to the pot.  Add the beans.  I don't drain the beans because we like our chili a little thicker, but you are welcome to drain the beans and rinse before adding to the pot.  
6. Bring to a boil.  Once boiling, reduce heat to simmer.  Simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
7. Serve with your favorite chili toppings: sour cream, cheese, green onions, oyster crackers, pasta, tortilla chips, the possibilities are endless!  Use this recipe for the Crescent Roll Hot Dog Chili Bake.

Notes:

If making this in the slow cooker, and your slow cooker has the ability to brown.  Take advantage of that feature and follow steps 1 and 2.  If not, no worries, just dump everything into your slow cooker, mix well.  Cook for 4 hours on high, 8 hours on low.

Crescent Roll Hot Dog Chili Bake

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 2 pkgs crescent rolls
• 2 pkgs beef hot dogs, Vienna is the best
• Easy Dump Chili Recipe from above, about 2-3 cups
• 1 pkg shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 tbsp butter, softened
• 1 tsp each of garlic powder and parsley

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper.  (Using parchment paper will prevent the crescent rolls from sticking to the baking sheet.)
2. Open pkgs of crescent rolls and hot dogs.  Divide crescent rolls into triangles.  Wrap one crescent roll around each hot dog and place on the lined baking sheet.  Continue until each hot dog is wrapped.  
3. Combine the butter, garlic and parsley in a small bowl.  Gently spread the butter mixture on each crescent roll.  Put rolls into the oven until lightly browned, 5-7 minutes. Cooking the rolls in advance will help them from getting soggy when layered on top of the chili.  
4.  While the rolls are in the oven, ladle the chili into a 13x9 casserole dish.  Be sure to cover the bottom of the casserole dish with chili.  
5. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top of the chili.  Set to the side.
6. Remove rolls from the oven.  Gently place on top of the shredded cheese, and put casserole dish into the oven to finish cooking the crescent rolls, hot dogs, and melt the cheese.  
7. After 8-10 minutes the chili will be bubbling and the cheese melted.  Allow to cool 5 minutes before serving.  Serve with a light salad, additional shredded cheese, sour cream, and/or green onions. 

Enjoy!!

Notes: Don't have time to make chili?  Have canned chili on hand?  No problem.  In a pinch, there is no shame in opening up a couple cans of chili to pour along the bottom of your casserole dish!  Feel free to experiment and try a different butter mixture to spread on top of your crescent rolls.  If you like spice, add a little red pepper flakes with chili powder and cumin to your butter, or rather they be plain?  Just spread plain butter on the top.

Hot dogs wrapped in the crescent rolls

Crescent dogs lightly browned with garlic butter

13x9 casserole with chili and shredded cheese

Crescent Roll Hot Dog Chili Bake ready to go back into the oven to melt the cheese.