When making a themed dog, the key is to consider what elements of the target cuisine you are going to incorporate. For Mexican, obviously burritos aren’t really practical, and while a tasty carnitas taco could work, fajitas and nachos are probably the quickest and easiest – this recipe has both!
I have tried a few recipes for Mexican hotdogs, this one is a combination of all the best bits from first hand research!
Most you’ll find say to wrap the dog in bacon, but I think this makes them unnecessarily hard to eat. Fail to chomp through it properly and you’re going to end up with a mess of hod dog toppings on your plate (or down your t-shirt). Instead use a pack of smoked lardons/pancetta – or simply finely dice some bacon and fry it.
Here we’re going to make the salsa and guacamole from scratch, they really will be better and fresher than a jar of pre-made, but you can cheat if you really must. The cheese sauce is essential, it’s hard to find a good pre-made nacho cheese in the UK, but this one is so easy it’s not really a problem. The key is evaporated milk.
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE HOT DOGS:
- 4 hot dogs
- 4 smoky bacon strips (or smoked lardons)
- 2 jalapeños, halved lengthwise and stem/seeds removed
- 1 small onion, thinly sliced
- 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
- 4 posh hot dog buns
- 1 bag of crispy nachos/tortillas
FOR THE CHEESE SAUCE:
- Small 170g can of evaporated milk
- 100g of grated cheddar
- 1/2 tablespoon of cornflour
- 1 tsp hot sauce
FOR THE GUACAMOLE:
- An avocado
- Cherry tomatoes
- A little bit of onion
- A few strips of red pepper
- Fresh coriander
- Lime juice
FOR THE SALSA:
- Cherry tomatoes
- Red onion
- Fresh coriander
- Lime juice
- Red chilli
PREPARATION
- Heat oven to 180C. Put the dogs on a baking sheet along with the jalapeños, skin-side down, and lightly drizzle with oil.
- Roast jalapeños and hotdogs for 20-25 minutes.
- Get the cheese sauce on. Tip the grated cheese into a pan, add the cornflour, toss to coat the cheese, then add the evap and turn the heat onto low. Just remember to stir occasionally and it’ll be done when melted.
- Finely dice the white onion, and slice the pepper into strips. Save a little bit of onion and a couple of strips of pepper for the guacamole, add the bacon and then start to fry over a medium heat.
- Stir to occasionally to avoid burning and remove from heat when onions are caramelized and peppers are soft, about 15-20 minutes.
- To make the guacamole mash up the avocado with a bit of lime juice and some coriander, dice up the reserved onion and the pepper a bit more and mix it in. You can borrow a bit of red onion from the salsa too if you like. Take a couple of cherry tomatoes and dice them up as small as possible – mix those in too. Add a few chilli flakes if that’s your bag.
- For the salsa, add all the ingredients to a blender and give it a whizz until it is your desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and set aside.
- When everything is ready it’s time to assemble:
- Firstly, slice the buns – are they super soft? If not splash a bit of water on them and microwave them for 10 seconds. (You can steam them, but a quick blast in the microwave is a bit less faff)
- Add a layer of guacamole to the bottom of each bun
- Add the dog
- Top with salsa
- Spoon over the fajita mix
- Pour over some cheese sauce
- Sprinkle over a few broken nachos
- Finish with half a roasted jalapeño.