Sonoran Hot Dogs

Sonoran Hot Dogs have become very popular in Arizona over the past year or so, with hot dog stands popping up seemingly on every corner, as well as fancy renditions that you can find at restaurants. I’ve been wanting to have one for a long time. The other night, my niece J surprised us with Sonoran Dogs and they were fantastic! So I asked her to come over and help me make some so that we could put together a blog post!

We decided that we really should have fresh salsa, and she thought that bolillos or French rolls would be a good option too. With a choice of refried black beans or regular pintos, we opted for the black beans. In its most basic form, a Sonoran Hot Dog is wrapped in bacon, then cooked until crisp, served on a roll with condiments. What sends it to the next level are all of the toppings.

First, we needed to make some fresh salsa. This one is the most basic, just tomatoes, chiles (jalapenos here), onions, cilantro and garlic with a splash of olive oil and red wine vinegar. There are lots of folks who use lime instead, and it’s fine – just different.

The vegetables get diced, and then a splash of the oil and vinegar are added. It gets better with sitting for a little bit to let the flavors combine, so we wanted to make this first. Of course, you have to taste it to make sure it’s ok!!

Next, it was time to prepare our dogs. J picked up some applewood smoked bacon from the deli. It’s also important to have hot dogs that fit your rolls. We will use some mayo and hot sauce to make the sauce, then we have avocado, queso cotijo (you can use feta if you can’t find it), a little extra cilantro and our black beans to round out all of the accompaniments.

The first step is to prepare the hot dogs. They get wrapped in bacon, securing the ends with toothpicks.Then they are placed on a grill pan to cook. It works really well because it’s easy to keep the dogs in their place and turn them as each side browns.

While those are cooking, it’s time to prepare the other toppings. Beans get warmed, cheese gets crumbled, sauce is made and avocados diced.

This time we decided that a nicely toasted bun would be good, so we did that too while the dogs kept getting brown and crisp.

Once all of that’s ready, time to put them together. First a slathering of chile-spiced mayo, then some refried black beans to form the base. The hot dog is added, being careful to remove the picks.

The rest of the toppings are added to taste: salsa, avocado, cheese and cilantro – and don’t forget a good dose of hot sauce!

This is a meal in itself, but we couldn’t resist and served these along with more of our fresh salsa and chips and a refreshing jamaica flower sweet tea.