Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dogs

Ever since bringing bacon-wrapped hot dogs up in a conversation a few weeks ago, they've been tickling my mind as a comfort food. I first heard about them from my brother, who would rave about the street vendors selling them outside USC football games. Always sounded like overkill of a good thing to me. Then I got to experience them for myself a little over a year ago when my bro invited me to a USC home game.

Oh. My. God.

Horribly indulgent greasy goodness.

They fry up onions in the bacon grease too. He forgot to mention that.

So after a few days of being battered by work, I decided to treat myself. I bought some bun-length hot dogs, thick-sliced bacon, toothpicks, and onions (the brown-skinned ones were on sale).

I immediately realized the paradox: The onions take longer than the hot dogs to cook, but need the bacon grease to cook in! I decided to start the hot dogs on lower heat to render the fat, then get the onions started, then boost the heat to crisp up the bacon.

With my plan of attack in place, I cracked the packages, pulled out three hot dogs, and started wrapping. Each hot dog required two to three pieces of bacon, depending on how much overlap in the bacon-wrapping I did. The toothpicks held the bacon in place, but I broke each one in half to allow flat frying. I did the hot dogs in a non-stick pan and the onions in my All-Clad.

I started off the hot dogs for fat rendering and turned my attention to the onions. I split the onion in half, bisecting the root, then sliced the half, ending up with half-moons. I only used half an onion. I had about a teaspoon of bacon fat about 10 minutes in to the cooking process, so transfered it to the heated saute pan, and started the onions. Carmelizing onions is easy. Spread into an even layer and walk away. If it burns, that's just flavor. Stir every 5-10 minutes or so, but no more often.

I boosted the heat on the hot dogs to the high end of medium, and started to look for crispiness, turning after I saw it. As more fat rendered, I added it to the onions. After about 45 minutes of total cooking, everything was ready.

I prepped my bun by toasting it in the hot dog pan with a little bacon grease, added ketchup, dijon mustard, and some onions. Removed the toothpicks from the hot dogs, and chowed down.

Lovely!

But after eating one, I threw away the other two. I wasn't feeling that self-indulgent any more.

Anyone want hot dogs and raw bacon? I can't bear to look at them. I'll throw in one and a half onions too.