How to Prepare Chicago Style Hot Dogs

Re-creating a Chicago style hot dog at home might seem to lack the ease and overall experience of grabbing one at a no-frills greasy stand. But once the weather warms and the grills come out, stick around home and relish the thought of turning your place into the neighborhood's favorite hot dog spot:

To prepare your dog the real Chicago way, I recommend starting with a family favorite (and I come from a family of butchers): the Daisy Brand all-beef hot dog. After you've got your Daisy Brand dogs, grill to level of choice (these dogs are even good just boiled). Place dog inside a poppy seed bun. If Daisy are too hard to come by, Vienna Beef is a solid alternative.

Add these must-have condiments to create Chicago style:

yellow mustard

tomato wedges

chopped onion

cucumber slices

pickle

relish (yes, you can have cucumbers, pickles and relish together! no overkill here.)

hot peppers

celery salt

Things to leave off:

ketchup

ketchup

ketchup (for many Chicagoans, combining ketchup and mustard on a beloved dog is a sacrilege)

Click here to read about the history of the Chicago Hot Dog.

(Image: From the Vienna Beef website)

Comments (12)

When I get the craving, it's for a steamed Vienna Beef. I call shenanigans on this grilling nonsense.

Boiled or steamed for true authenticity. Save the grilling for your Maxwell Street Polish, the redheaded stepchild of Chicago's encased meats.

I love a crunchy skinned, dog right of the grill, ready to burst with the first bite. But, I need ketchup and mustard. Must. Have.

Steamed is the standard way in my experience and per this http://www.viennabeef.com/about/faq/#FAQ55>Vienna Beef Faq Entry).

Steamed and Boiled do NOT taste the same.

Yeah, whats with the grilling---thats so out of line---no doubt tasty but completely inauthentic. I've never had cucumbers either just the pickle and relish.

Thank you so much for the "three" things to leave off. The hubby never believes me when I say that ketchup doesn't belong on a hot dog!

Never comment but moved to...

thus is my passion for my home town dog !

Thinking of Mustard's Last Stand - near Northwestern...

The hotdogs are exactly as described from the poppy bun...to the grilled skin...to the onions and celery salt...

and the SANS
ketchup!

all other renditions (while tasty) are not true chicago dogs!

I have lived 32 yrs. in Chi town and never heard of Daisy Brand Dogs ONLY Vienna All Beef Hot Dogs. There was only one place on the North Side that grilled their dogs, and they were actually Char dogs(this joint is sadly long gone), otherwise always steamed or boiled Vienna Beef.

I visited Chicago for the first time 2 summers ago. At some point, I went a 36-hour period eating nothing but hot dogs.

Up here at the Chicago History Museum, they have an interactive thing involving a giant plastic bun, and all the Chicago Dog accoutrements made out of some tarpaulin-type material. You're meant to lay in the bun, and pile the items on top of you. It's really filthy by now, and a bit gross, but still kind of hilarious.

And no, there is no ketchup.

http://www.abreadaday.com

You know, swiping the post's truly excellent image from the Vienna Beef website and then knocking them down to "also ran" status behind Daisy is pretty low, guys, pretty low indeed.

Couple of important clarifications from a lifelong Chicago Hot Dog enthusiast:

1) Vienna hot dogs are the best, but Dave Berg dogs are a close second.
2) STEAMED! Never, NEVER [did you hear me -- NEVER] boil a hot dog!!!!!

I have lived in Maryland for the last ten years, and they barley know what a hot dog is out here. They serve some kind of a limp, tasteless dog, on a dry bun [which they call a "roll"], smothered in ketchup.

Please save me, oh Hot Dog God!!!!!