Chili Dog French Bread Pizza

All the ingredients of a chili dog, but served on a big slice of french bread like a pizza so there is more room to hold all the toppings! Have you ever had a chili dog and thought, this needs to be bigger? I have! Either there is not enough chili, or the bun is pushed to its absolute breaking point by all the toppings. I thought I would let the chili dog breathe a bit with more bread real estate to load up with chili and cheese.

The inspiration for this recipe

I saw a picture of a french bread pizza while I was thinking about hot dogs. There isn’t much more to it than that! Sometimes my brain works in mysterious ways, and other times it just wants what it wants. I streamed the recipe the first time I made it and you can watch here!

Prepare the French bread

Get a nice loaf of French bread and cut it in half so it’s ready o be a pizza crust for that delicious chili dog topping! Then pull out some of the insides. If you pull too much out, the bread will sort of collapse in the oven, so make sure to not do too much.

Add the chili dog toppings

I like to alternate between chili, cheese, then more chili and more cheese. This way some of the chili juices will get into the bread but also the cheese will be mixed into the chili and not just on top.

Finally add the hot dogs. I tried two different layouts for the dogs but I think I liked the diagonal version better. Once the hot dogs are on the pizza, add a little more chili and cheese and get them into the oven!

Baking The Chili Dog French Bread Pizza

I baked this chili dog french bread pizza at 425 for about 10 minutes, then broiled it for 5ish more to get some color on the hot dogs. Notice how the dogs curl a bit when cooked. If you can figure out which way they will bend, use this to your advantage so they don’t bend too far off the pizza.

Add The Toppings

I made a sour cream mixture with lemon, garlic, and mustard as the topping. I figured he mustard would match with the hot dog and the sour cream would match with the chili to create a balance on the french bread pizza!

I also added some jalapeno slices and chives. Slice and serve!

Serve the Chili Dog French Bread Pizza

Gather your friends around and dig in! The combo of flavors and textures on this pizza was amazing! What an amazing appetizer or snack to have on game day with your friends! An epic meal!

I was obsessed with this chili dog french bread pizza! The extra bread was the perfect way to serve a chili dog. I am almost mad I didn’t think of this sooner. But then again, I don’t think I needed more chili dogs in my life.

You could use pickled jalapenos but I personally thought the fresh ones were fantastic on this. You could also use serranos for a bit more kick!

Twists on this Chili Dog French Bread Pizza

I didn’t put a chili recipe here. You could use store bought or your personal favorite recipe. I also debated about putting beans but in the end I didn’t. I did a chili like this one but without the Italian sausage. Something like this one would work great on this chili dog french bread pizza too!

You could also put less hot dogs and more chili if you wanted. Any other chili toppings you like would work great here too. Avocado? Scallions instead of chives? You could even just do sour cream instead of making a sauce like I did.

If you love putting chili in random places, check out my Cincinnati chili ravioli, or these cornmeal pancakes with chili!