Chicago-Style Hot Dogs

Chicago-Style Hot Dogs

  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 25 mins
  • Servings: 4

    • About This Recipe

    “A long-time family favorite. The authentic stands use Vienna Beef franks and buns with poppy seeds and that trademark green relish and yellow mustard. If you’re not fortunate enough to live near a stand (like us), this home version does nicely (with my own preferred changes of course)! The natural casing frankfurters have a pleasant “pop” when you bite them and are far superior to normal hot dogs. I don’t advise using serranos in place of sport peppers as they are not the same type of chile and the serranos are MUCH hotter (as well as not usually being found pickled).”

    Ingredients

  • 4natural casing beef frankfurters( I like Boar’s Head brand)
  • 4hot dog buns( with poppyseeds if you can find them)
  • 1smallonion, diced fine
  • 3 -4teaspoonssweet pickle relish( bright green type if you can find it!)
  • 1cold-pack kosher dill pickles, quartered lengthwise
  • 1smalltomato, sliced into julienne strips
  • 4 -8pickled sport bell peppers or 4 -8tiny hot peppers( Kroger sells these)
  • dusseldorf-style brown mustard, with horseradish,to taste( may use yellow mustard)
  • celery seed
  • poppy seed( omit if using seeded buns)
  • beer, for simmering( standard golden lager preferred; not authentic)(optional)

    • Directions

  • Simmer frankfurters in beer or water for approximately 10 minutes.
  • Warm buns in microwave, until slightly warm and soft.
  • To assemble hot dogs, place frank in each bun.
  • Add mustard to taste; top with dill spear, relish, onion, tomato, and 1-2 sport peppers (Jalapenos”might” be a reasonable substitute if you are desperate to find the sport peppers, but the taste won’t be quite the same).
  • Sprinkle with celery and poppy seeds.
  • Serve.

    • Reviews

  • “I never had a Chicago-Style hot dog before and was really excited about trying this. I could not find the sport peppers, but they turned out good anyway.”

  • “I get an urge for these hot dogs and was not sure how to make them myself until I found this recipe. I especially loved it with the hot peppers. Great recipe! Thanks for sharing!”

  • “This is one of our favorite Chicago style recipes. Everything about this recipe is perfect.”

  • “Yellow mustard..not brown. Celery salt makes a big difference. If you can’t find sport peppers, hot banana peppers is an ok substitute. Don’t ever put ketchup on a Chicago style hot dog. There are some places in Chicago who will not add it to your hot dog even if you ask. The toppings came from the depression whenhot dog vendors were trying to entice people with extra toppings to fill them up more. People used to order Chicago style dogs by saying “drag it through the garden”.”

  • “Never had a dog like this before.My son brought one home from Sonic. I was apprehensive with the plethera of toppings.But I was impressed.I had to try myself. What a great hot dog!I had never seen (and still havent seen hot dog buns with poppyseeds).I added seeds to the dog and made exactly as presented.Thanks for sharing”

  • “Never had a Chicago dog but having seen so many people on those travel tv shows enjoy them I thought we should give them a try…couldn’t find buns with poppy seeds but used all the condiments suggested.Really good and filling… I felt like I was eating a burger somehow given the way it was dressed.Not a bad thing but just my opinion.Thanks for sharing!”

  • “OMG, these are wonderful.I made these for dinner the other night adn we all loved them.DS left out the peppers but otherwise we all followed the recipe exactly.Thank you for such an awesome way to serve hot dogs, it really jazzes up the ordinary.”

  • “Wow!I never knew adding tomatoes to franks would be so delicious!Only thing did different was to cut my onions into rounds and boil them in the beer with the franks.I will never eat a hot dog any other way!Thanks Sue!”

  • “Yumm Yumm!!!!I love Chicago-style hot dogs the best and I loved the suggestion of simmering the hot dogs in beer.I used good ole’ Budweiser to simmer. They cooked perfectly and tasted just like ball-park hot dogs!!Next, I read in a magazine that the way to make the relish the beautiful bright green type is to just add a drop of green food coloring and a drop of yellow food coloring and blend well.We bit the tip off the little sport peppers (Vlasic hot chili peppers) and sprinkled the juice over the hot dogs and it was just perfect.The celery seed makes them taste authentic.I used a little celery salt too (because I saw that in the magazine that I got the relish tip in.)These were the best Chicago dogs I’ve ever had!!!Thanks for posting!!!!!!!!”

  • “I LOVE my hot dogs this way! Every year I go to Chicago for St. Patrick’s Day and I always have to make sure I have one! Thanks for sharing.”

  • “These were great.Loved all the add ons.I couldn’t find sport peppers here, so just added some jalapeno slices.”

  • “The contrast of the dill and sweet pickle relish is fantastic.Great recipe!!”

  • “Good Recipe, Can get everything ya’ need @ https://www.viennabeef.comNote: Steam the dogs and buns. Sport Peppers are pickled seranno peppers.”

  • “I am not from Chicago, but had a good friend who grew up there and these seem fairly close to what he described, except for the brown mustard.Incidentally, a man from Chicago who runs a stand here in Denver told me that the “sport peppers” are actually pickled serrano peppers – hotter than jalapenos, and readily available in the produce section.Now, if we could just get an authentic Chicago Style Italian Beef recipe…”

  • “Have lived in Chicago all of my life and have never seen a dog with brown mustard. Chicago dogs always have yellow mustard. Points for the celery salt.”

  • “This was fun!And delicious!!”

  • “Hey, Sue L, you must be from Illinois, too! Thanks for posting the definitive Chicago-Style Hot Dog recipe. They’re like no other hot dogs! There’s just something about that bright green relish and those poppy seeds! NO KETCHUP!”

  • “Delicious, delicious! My family enjoyed this recipe.”

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