A chili dog is a form of hot dog. It is used as a generic name for a hot dog that is served in a bun and then topped with a meat sauce; chili con carne is a common choice. The hot dog will then often be topped with other things; cheese, mustard and onions are common.
The standard hot dog, the wiener or frankfurter, is the most common type of sausage used in a chili dog but, as with other hot dogs, other types of sausage can also be used. In the U.S., there are a number of regional variations on the chili dog that use different ingredients and, in some cases, different sausages too.
Image: bryan... from Taipei, Taiwan / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)
