Mexican Hot Dogs – At-Home Recipe

Hot dogs! Everybody loves them. A staple of American culture, they can range from the hyper-convenient and simple industrial-made sausage inside an industrial-made bun, to fancy versions with buttered rolls, artisan sausages, and all sorts of gourmet flavorings and garnishes. This hot dog belongs to the fancy side but is closer to the Mexican side of the border, and with ingredients you can find easily and put together at home.

That said, a typical Mexican-style hot dog is not fancy food. American influence has made it so that burgers and hot dogs are another solid option for a late-night cheap meal, alongside the more typical tacos. This is especially true in the country’s Northern states, closer to the US, and with a larger population of would-be migrants or ex-migrants. One can imagine that it’s one of the things that Mexican migrants have brought back with them after some time up North, to the point that the hot dog, or hocho, as we call it in colloquial Mexican Spanish, has a Mexican version that is well-established by now. It is cheap, convenient, and tasty. It is typically a street food, but it is also popular at kids’ birthday parties, or as a weekend snack to enjoy a ball game with.

This is my take on the traditional Mexican-style hot dog, where we’ll make everything at home— the buns, the sausages, and the spicy pico de gallo. If you’re pressed for time, you can source one of the ingredients and make the rest. If you’re really pressed for time, you can simply put together the pico de gallo, and other toppings like pickled jalapeños, and you’re golden. Check out the recipe notes at the end of this post for other suggestions.

In terms of equipment, you’ll only need to assemble:

Sieve
Iron griddle or flat pan
Scale
Oven tray

Instructions

Hot dog buns (8-9 pieces)

180 g tepid water
385 g wheat flour
1 egg
40 g soft, unsalted butter
30 g sugar
30 g powdered milk
7 g instant yeast
8 g salt
20 ml whole milk
30 g melted butter for the finished buns

Making the dough: Sift the wheat flour. Add water, 1 egg, butter, sugar, powdered milk, yeast and salt. Bring all the ingredients together to form a soft ball. Knead this dough ball for about 10 minutes, or until the gluten is properly developed. This is the stage where you can take a ping-pong-sized ball of dough, and gently stretch it until it is translucent. When this point is achieved let ferment for 1 hour, covered, in a warm place.

Divide the dough in 80g pieces. Give them a round, smooth shape and let rest, covered with cloth or plastic, for 5 minutes.

Form hot dog buns:

Take each 80g ball, and stretch with your hands to form a 10-12cm cylinder. Place on an oiled oven tray, cover with plastic and let rise until they double in size (20-30 minutes depending on how hot the room is). Brush lightly with whole milk and bake at 200·C for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Take out of the oven and brush lightly with melted butter. Let cool.

Home-made sausage

1 kg ground pork meat
25 g salt
30 g powdered milk
1/2 tbsp ground black pepper
1/2 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp ground mustard seeds
1 g pink curing salt

Mix the ground pork meat with the rest of the ingredients. Work quickly (the meat has to remain cold) using your hands to form a very compact mass (so that the cooked sausages dont crumble).

If you have a sausage maker, proceed to case the meat into the tripe or appropriate casing. If not, you can make the sausages by hand:

Divide the meat into 80g pieces. Shape each of these into 8-10 cm long sausages. Fry the sausages in a little olive oil in a pan or grill, until they are well browned on the outside and fully cooked in the inside.

Pico de gallo (mexican fresh salsa)

3 small-diced tomatoes
3 tbsps finely chopped onion
1 seeded, finely chopped serrano or jalapeño chilli
1 tbsp, finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 lime

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, season with a little salt and lime juice to taste.

Recipe Notes

How to Assemble Mexican Hot Dogs

Place a pan or grill over medium heat. Add a little olive oil and re-heat the sausages there. Slice the hot dog buns in half, or just make an incision on the side. Place the buns on the grill or pan (or in the microwave for a softer bun) until hot.

Slice the sausages lengthwise in half and place inside the hot dog buns. Finish with a little mustard, ketchup, pico de gallo, and your choice of pickled jalapeños and/or pickled cucumbers.

Other considerations

This recipe involves preparing everything, the hot dog buns, homemade sausage, pico de gallo salsa, you could even make the pickled jalapeños yourself! Check out my recipe here.

So it can be quite a commitment. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can buy everything and just assemble your Mexican-style hot dogs and surprise your friends on a nice sunny Sunday. Or, you can make one element of the recipe and buy the rest. Say you have a good local sausage maker, save yourself the hassle, and just buy them from him or her. It´s really up to you.

About the sausage, properly casing sausages can be tricky without proper equipment. It can be fun, but it is messy and a little tedious. I prefer to form them by hand. They will not have the exact traditional sausage shape but they work just fine in the finished hot dog and have a home-style appeal that you don’t get anywhere else.

The basic recipe is the meat, salt, and pink salt (essential in adding that pinkish tone). Spices and flavorings can vary a lot. You can use the spices you have at hand, or you can add other ingredients like finely chopped garlic, herbs, a little (chilled) red wine, or red wine vinegar.

Another great touch is to wrap a slice of bacon around each sausage, which is typical of Mexican street hot dog vendors.

Enjoy!

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