Authentic Chicago Dog at Home

Authentic Chicago Dog at Home

Recipes with Chicago Hot Dog

Building a Chicago dog outside Chicago depends on sourcing the right components. Vienna Beef ships nationally. Neon green relish is the hardest ingredient to find locally: it gets its colour from food dye, not from the cucumbers themselves, and a grocery store sweet relish will not do. Sport peppers are similarly specific. This recipe covers where to find everything and how to assemble it.

Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

8 min

Servings

4

Difficulty

Easy

Ingredients

  • 4 Vienna Beef all-beef frankfurters (natural casing, order from viennabeef.com or a specialty grocer)
  • 4 poppy seed hot dog buns (Rosen's brand if available; supermarket brands work if they have real poppy seeds)
  • 4 tsp yellow mustard (French's classic yellow, not Dijon or honey mustard)
  • 4 tbsp Chicago-style neon green sweet pickle relish (Vienna Beef brand, order online, or Claussen Chicago-style relish)
  • 4 tbsp white onion, chopped very fine
  • 1 large ripe tomato, cut into 8 thin wedges
  • 4 dill pickle spears (Claussen refrigerated pickles have the right crunch)
  • 8 sport peppers (find at Chicago-style hot dog retailers; Mezzetta brand is widely available)
  • Celery salt (McCormick brand is fine)

Steps

1

Source the ingredients before you start. Neon green relish and sport peppers are the two items most likely to require an online order or a trip to a specialty grocer. Vienna Beef operates a mail-order service and ships most of their product line including the relish and sport peppers.

2

Set up a steaming station: a pot with two inches of water, brought to a gentle simmer. Place a colander or steamer basket above the water. Lower the frankfurters in and cover with a lid. Steam for 6 to 7 minutes.

3

For the buns, wrap them in a damp paper towel and microwave on medium for 20 seconds each. Or steam them over the pot for 45 seconds. Both methods work.

4

Pat the tomato wedges dry. Prepare all toppings before the dogs come off the heat: once they are steamed, assembly should take under a minute.

5

Assemble in order: frankfurter in the bun, mustard along one side, relish along the other, onion scattered across both. Tomato wedges go into one side of the bun, pickle spear into the other. Two sport peppers on top. Shake of celery salt last.

Tips

The poppy seed bun matters more than most non-Chicagoans expect. A plain bun is not the same: the seeds add texture and a faint nuttiness that integrates with the celery salt. If you cannot find Vienna Beef specifically, any natural-casing all-beef frankfurter is acceptable. Skinless beef franks are not.