Texas Hot Sauce for Hot Dogs

Texas Hots, Wellsville, NY
The hot dogs were gilled and served on a steamed bun,
then topped with mustard, the Texas Hot sauce, and raw onions.

The signature food of the Texas Hot, a diner in Wellsville, NY, is their Texas Hot Sauce. It is a spicy meat sauce mixture used to dress hot dogs. The owners are Greek (Gus Rigas and Jim Raptis) and keep their recipe a secret, only handing it down to their sons, Chris Rigas and Mike Raptis, who are running the business now. The recipe was handed down to Gus and Jim from their fathers, Jim Rigas and George Raptis, so the recipe is very old. The restaurant opened in 1921.

History of the Greek-style hot dog sauce

In New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the "Texas hot dog,", "Texas chili dog." "Texas hot'," or "Texas wiener" is a hot dog with chili or hot sauce. The Texas wiener was created in Paterson, New Jersey before 1920 and in Altoona, Pennsylvania by Peter "George" Koufougeorgas in 1918 and originally called Texas Hot Wieners. The "Texas" reference is to the chili sauce used on the dogs, which actually has a stronger Greek cuisine influence due to the ethnicity of the cooks who invented it. Greek sauce is a smooth, slow cooked meat sauce spiced with cayenne, cinnamon, allspice, cloves and cumin. It is considered a unique regional hot dog style.

This chili sauce is what is called a "Greek" style sauce. A lot of the original purveyors of hot dogs with chili were of Greek origin, and they developed the original special chili sauces. The problem when trying to create one of these sauces is that they are usually "secret recipes" - you just can't find the recipes. The owners of such places jealously guard their recipes. The recipe is often handed down within families or is sometimes sold. The owners quite often make the sauce themselves in big batches, and they won't even tell their employees the recipe.

Texas Hot Sauce

The recipe below was created by me using the spices that the Texas Hot had on their kitchen shelf (I worked as a waitress there for 4 years). I don't know if they used all of the spices on their shelf in their sauce, but the spices were in huge metal containers so it is clear they used a lot of these spices. I'm missing one spice, which may have been the paprika that I used or ginger, which I did not use. My sister bought a container of their sauce when we were home once, and I taste-tested my recipe against this and adjusted the spices until it seemed right. It's fairly close to the original. Mine is a little darker in color - maybe I am using too much cocoa powder, or maybe I should leave it out. One defining characteristic of this sauce is the clove used in it. It is a spicy sauce, and although cayenne is in the recipe, it is not real hot.

Close-up of Texas Hot Sauce on a Cheeseburger
Burgers were served on a toasted bun. The top bun was brushed with butter.

1 pound ground beef
1 medium cooking onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup tomato puree
1 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp. celery seed
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (or less)
3/4 tsp. cloves (distinctive flavor in the sauce)
2 tsp. chili powder
3 tsp. cinnamon (important ingredient for flavor)
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder (I do not find this in other recipes, but seems to add flavor - it does make the sauce darker)
1 tsp. dry mustard
2 Tbsp. paprika
1 quart of water
2 Tbsp. cornstarch mixed with 1/2 cup water

Hot dog rolls
Boiled or fried hot dogs
Yellow mustard
Fresh sweet onion, very finely chopped

Fry the hamburger in a large pan until cooked, but not browned. Add the onion and garlic and saute until they become translucent. Add the tomato puree, the spices, and the water. Simmer the sauce for about 2 hours, stirring frequently to break up the ground beef into tiny little pieces. Add more water if need be as the sauce cooks. As the sauce cooks down, the spices will create a rich "gravy."

To finish the sauce, add the cornstarch mixed with a little water. Cook until the mixture thickens from the cornstarch. This should take only about 5 minutes.

Note: The sauce should not be too thick. It should be loose enough to spoon over the hot dog easily. Add more water if necessary. Or if not thick enough, cook a little longer to evaporate some of the water off. The Texas hot had a small ladle they used. They would swipe the ladle down the hot dog in the bun covering it with the sauce.

To serve: Steam hot dog rolls until they are good and hot. Place a grilled hot dog in the roll, spread with yellow mustard (spicy brown mustard is also good), then the Texas Hot sauce, and finally some minced fresh sweet onion. The Texas Hot rinses their onions in water to remove some of the oniony flavor.