📍 Illinois

Chicago-style hot dog

· Street food

An all-beef sausage on a poppy seed bun with seven classic toppings, always served without ketchup.

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Chicago-style hot dog: An all-beef sausage on a poppy seed bun with seven classic toppings, always served without ketchup.
Photo: ZhengZhou · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia CommonsPhoto resized, converted to WebP and cropped for display.
⏱ 25 min🍽 4 servings📊 Easy🏷 Commonly associated
Preparation
15 min
Cooking
10 min
Waiting and resting
0 min

History

It emerged in Chicago during the Great Depression as hearty, cheap street food, closely tied to Eastern European immigrant communities. The local rule is strict: never any ketchup. Its combination of mustard, green relish, onion, tomato, pickle, sport peppers, and celery salt is known as being 'dragged through the garden.'

Ingredients

Adjust quantities

Only numeric quantities at the start of an ingredient are adjusted. Descriptive quantities, seasoning to taste and timings remain unchanged; check them when changing servings.

Preparation

  1. 1

    Heat the sausages by steaming or in hot water without letting them boil hard.

  2. 2

    Warm the buns with steam so they turn soft.

  3. 3

    Place the sausage and add mustard and relish lengthwise.

  4. 4

    Add onion, tomato wedges, pickle and pickled peppers.

  5. 5

    Finish with a pinch of celery salt and serve immediately, never with ketchup.

Cooking tips

  • Heat sausages without a strong boil to prevent split skins.

Technique and preparation

What to check during preparation

Cut and drain toppings before warming the hot dogs. Follow product heating directions; this entry does not use raw sausage. Steam the bun gently without soaking it. Spread toppings along the length so each bite includes mustard, vegetables and pickles. Finish with a small amount of celery salt because hot dogs and pickles already contain salt. Serve sport peppers separately for anyone who prefers less heat.

References to consult

References provide information about the dish, its context or a technique. Quantities in this version may differ from those in the source.

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