Sonoran Hot Dog

I confess – I love competition-based cooking shows.  I’ve been a fan of Top Chef since around season three and love, love, love the Great British Baking Show.  A few weeks ago, we discovered that Netflix had several seasons of the Great Food Truck Race, so we serial watched our way through.  The episodes and seasons blur a bit, but somewhere in there, one of the cooking challenges was for the teams to make and sell a Sonoran Hot Dog.  I’d never heard of such a thing, but Clay was familiar with the concept.  All I knew was it involved a bacon wrapped hot dog and chili peppers.  I liked the concept, but have been too busy fantasizing about how to make a chicken tikka masala deep dish pizza to think much about this particular recipe.

However, as we wandered around our quirky grocery store today, Clay discovered these:

We stocked up on some bacon, got a few Anaheim peppers, and committed to making bacon-wrapped bratwurst for dinner.

The bacon wrapping was accomplished by wrapping around the bacon and skewering it to keep it in place.

Given that it is January and raining and cold, we cooked these in our cast iron skillet.  I would imagine that they would be wonderful grilled, as well.

Sonoran Hot Dog
Serves 4

4 hot dogs, bratwurst or sausage
4 strips of bacon
4 hot dog buns or hoagie rolls
1/2 onion
2 Anaheim peppers

Condiments
Pickle relish
Dijon mustard
Cheese or cheese sauce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  When oven is at temperature, put the Anaheim chilies on a baking sheet and put them in the oven to roast.  This takes around 20 minutes – turn halfway through.  When the peppers are nicely charred on both sides, take them out, let them cool, and then peel.  Set aside.

Caramelize the onions in a cast iron skillet oiled with a bit of olive oil.  Set aside.

Wrap the hot dogs with the bacon.  Use a skewer to anchor the bacon at one end of the hot dog and again toward the end of the hot dog.  In a well oiled cast iron skillet, cook the hot dogs for about 30 minutes, until the bacon is crisp.  Turn periodically so that the bacon crisps on all sides.

When the bacon is crisp, assemble the hotdogs by laying half an Anaheim chili on the base of the hot dog bun, then the hot dog, then the relish, mustard and cheese or cheese sauce.