Chili Cheese Hot Dog Casserole with Crescent Rolls

Name: Chili Cheese Hot Dog Casserole with Crescent Rolls
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 2 8 oz Canned Chili; 1 can Crescent rolls; 8 slices Sharp Cheddar Cheese (Use whatever cheese you love!); 8 Hot Dogs

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Spring always makes me think of baseball and having hot dogs at the ballpark. And Chili Cheese Hot Dog Casserole with Crescent Rolls is a delicious casserole that combines all those flavors into one dish that you can eat a little more neatly, from the comfort of home!

Baked chili dog casserole with crescent rolls fresh out of the oven and ready to eat

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I love chili hot dogs! They are so good! Spring always makes me think of having hot dogs at the baseball park, and I always seem to be craving them. The only thing I’m not a fan of with chili dogs is how messy they can be. So I’ve found a DELICIOUS solution that’s got all the flavors of a ballpark chili dog, but none of the mess. You can eat it on a plate with knife and fork, and, it’s a super easy dinner to make for your family!

Ingredients

2 cans chili
1 can of crescent rolls
1 package sliced, sharp cheddar (You can also use shredded cheddar cheese if you like!)
8 hot dogs

Cooking Instructions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350*.

Step 2

Chili spread into a baking dish as the foundation for chili dog casserole recipe

Open cans of chili (or use your own!) and spread on the bottom of the casserole dish.

Step 3

Crescent roll dough layed out in triangles with cheese on top to roll up the hot dogs into the dough.

Lay out the crescent roll and put cheese on top.

Step 4

Then add the hot dog and roll up from the larger end first, and wrap around the hot dog.

Step 5

2 hot dogs wrapped with cheese and crescent rolls laying on top of a bed of chili

Place the wrapped dog in the casserole dish. Continue until 6 hot dogs are complete.

Step 6

Chili dog casserole with crescent rolls assembled and ready to go into the oven

If possible, use a dish that you can space out the hot dogs so they aren’t touching – they will bake better that way!

Step 7

Bake at 350* for 15 minutes. If the sides of the crescent rolls aren’t done by then, cover them with foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

Recommended Equipment

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Preparation Tools

Santoku Knife – You don’t have to go out and buy a nice knife. BUT, if you were in the market for a knife, this is the one I couldn’t do without, and the one I go for time and time again. It’s wonderfully and beautifully made. I’ve had this knife for over 10 years and it’s my favorite thing in my entire kitchen. You truly do get what you pay for in knives. These are made in Germany but are widely sold in the United States now. You can go way higher in quality as well, this is just a starting point.
Cutting Board – I’ve had these for years and I love them. Mine are red! They are the perfect sizes, easy to store, and have a little groove around the edges to stop juices from flowing all over. This is the cutting board I go to time and time again when I’m cooking.
Cheese Grater – Quick secret? I hate grating cheese. But freshly grated cheese is SO good. And I really don’t like washing a cheese grater. HOWEVER, I have found the solution to this dilemma! I do love this cheese grater. It folds flat, comes apart, and is dishwasher safe. Oxo Good Grips for the win!
Can Opener – It took me a long time to find a hand-held can opener that I really liked. This is it! Again, it’s the OXO Good Grips brand, and I love it. I find a big can opener too bulky and it takes up too much countertop space.

Cooking Tools

9×13 baking casserole dish – I have this dish and I adore it because it comes with the lid that fits it. No more fooling with aluminum foil or plastic wrap! Plus it keeps the smells of your dish inside the dish and not in your refrigerator as foil and plastic wrap do!
Oven Mitts – This is a heavy and hot dish! Make sure you have good oven mitts to protect your hands!
Table Serving Trivet – This dish is HOT and will stay hot. Make sure you put it on top of something to protect your countertop or table!
Airtight Food Storage Containers – These are fantastic. They keep food air-tight and fresh so well!

Substitutions, Modifications, and Variations

Substitutions

I used regular old Oscar Mayer original delicious hot dogs for this recipe. But feel free to use whatever hot dogs you like! Veggie dogs, all beef hot dogs or even turkey dogs would be delightful in this recipe.

As for the chili, use any kind you want, or even use your own homemade chili. I tend to use Hormel canned chili and I am really liking their turkey chili lately. It’s really tasty!

As for the crescent rolls, I’m all for using what you have on hand before I’ll make an extra trip to the grocery store! Instead of crescent rolls you could easily use pizza dough or even a can of biscuits. If you use biscuits, I’d recommend rolling them out to a much more flat shape so they can wrap around the hot dog. Or if you have cornbread mix, you could omit the crescent rolls and just top the casserole with cornbread mix instead. You could also do tater tots on top of this instead of the crescent roll dough as well. All of these choices have my mouth watering as I write this!

Modifications

This would be an easy recipe to make gluten-free or dairy-free. Use gluten-free crescent rolls, which you might have to make from scratch. Or you could use gluten-free pizza dough in place of the crescent rolls and it would also be delicious! As for dairy-free casserole, you could either eliminate the cheese or get some dairy-free cheddar, either way. There are so many options these days! Also, definitely read the label of whatever canned chili you decide on to make sure it also meets your dietary needs! You could also always make your own chili too!

Variations

You could build on this recipe and make a ton of different variations! You can change what kind of chili you select, you can change the hot dogs for Italian sausages or smoked sausages. Switch out the hot dog for Italian sausage and use leftover spaghetti sauce instead of chili and tell me that wouldn’t be just delicious!

You could also try lots of different types of cheese for the cheese dog portion of the casserole! Pepper Jack or Colby Jack cheese would be really good!

Serving Suggestions

3 hot dogs with different condiments, and then all the hot dog condiments around the hot dogs in containers, including chopped onions, sliced jalepenos, ketchup, mustard and pickle relish

Garnish

Grab all your usual favorite garnishes for this dish! Add some:

Pickle Relish
Chopped Onions
Ketchup
Mustard
Jalapenos
Nacho Cheese
Sour Cream
Cole Slaw

And any other toppings you can think of that would make you happy! If there is extra chili sometimes I pour the chili over rolls and everything on my plate. Here’s a super fun article about chili dog history and garnishes!

Side Dishes

Generally, I just let this magnificent and delicious casserole be the entire dinner. If you want to toss a salad and throw a green vegetable on the plate, that would probably be a good idea!!

Storage Tips

I store any leftovers we have in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Leftover Tips

To reheat leftovers, just put them on a plate or microwave-safe dish and reheat in the microwave until warmed through. It’s almost as good the second day as the first time you had the casserole.

Freezer Tips

This casserole would freeze beautifully. I would freeze it uncooked, meaning I’d assemble it and then freeze, then dethaw and bake when I needed it for dinner! I have never frozen it after already baked, but I’m thinking the crescent rolls would lose some of their deliciousness that way.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

Could I use flour tortillas instead of the crescent rolls?

You could! I’d make sure to cover them entirely with chili so they don’t get too crunchy or burned.

Can I make this casserole ahead of time?

Yes, you can totally prepare the casserole ahead of time. Assemble everything up to the point of baking, cover it tightly with aluminum foil or plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. When you’re ready to serve, bake it as directed, adding a few extra minutes to the cooking time if it’s coming straight from the refrigerator.

How can I make this casserole vegetarian?

To make a vegetarian version of this casserole, you can use vegetarian hot dogs and a vegetarian chili. There are many good-quality vegetarian hot dogs and chili available in the market that would work well in this recipe.

Wrap-Up – Chili Cheese Hot Dog Casserole with Crescent Rolls

I adore this dinner. It’s delicious, it’s nostalgic, and best of all, it’s as easy as can be. It’s a crowd pleaser, cause who doesn’t like a chili hot dog?! I find myself going to make this dish at least once a month, if not more frequently. We just love it. Simple recipes make life easier for busy mamas, and we are all busy mamas these days. I can’t wait to hear what you think of this recipe! Let me know how it turns out! Until then, happy cooking, and as always, Just Keep Shuffling!