Maxwell Street Polish

The Maxwell Street Polish is Chicago's other great sausage sandwich and the close cousin of the hot dog. A grilled or charred Polish sausage goes into a bun with yellow mustard and a heap of grilled onions, sometimes with sport peppers or piccalilli relish alongside. It traces back to the Maxwell Street open-air market, where Eastern European Jewish vendors sold food from pushcarts from the 1880s until the market's demolition in the 1990s. Jim's Original, which has operated near the old Maxwell Street site since 1939, remains the reference point.

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

15 min

Servings

Difficulty

Easy

Ingredients

2 Polish sausages (kielbasa-style, all-beef or pork-beef blend)
2 hot dog buns (plain or poppy seed)
1 large white onion, sliced into rings
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp yellow mustard
4 sport peppers (optional)
Salt and pepper

Steps

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a heavy pan or griddle over medium-high heat. Add the onion rings and a pinch of salt. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft, browned, and slightly caramelised at the edges.

Score the Polish sausages with two or three diagonal cuts on each side. Heat the remaining oil in the same pan over high heat. Lay the sausages in and cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side until charred on the cut surfaces and browned all around.

Warm the buns on the griddle for 30 seconds cut-side down.

Place the Polish sausage in the bun. Apply mustard along the top of the sausage. Heap the grilled onions on top, as many as the bun will hold. Add sport peppers if using.

Tips

The onions are not a garnish: they are half the dish. Cook them long enough to lose their raw bite and develop colour. The char on the sausage should be real, not cosmetic. Jim's Original is open 24 hours and is worth a visit if you are in Chicago at 3am.