Hi folks, Chef G. here and, boy oh boy, do I have a winner for you today! It's my take on another mid-western original--The Chicago Style Hot Dog.
There's only one problem: Chicagoans are as protective of their style of hotdogs as Philadelphians are of their cheese steaks--if not MORE so. I explained how fussy the Philly-heads are in a previous episode of The Chef G. Cooking Channel, but the Chicagoaniacs have taken fussiness to a whole new obsessive level. An authentic Chicago-style hot dog not only must have specific ingredients, but those specific ingredients must also be assembled in exact order. Anything that doesn't abide by those rigid specifications, in their minds, is NOT a true Chicago-Style hotdog.
Who are they kidding? Are the Chicagonese trying to say every single bar, restaurant, street vendor, and hotdog stand at Comiskey/Wrigley/Soldier Fields all serve exactly the same thing? HA, I laugh at such absurdity.
I really did try to find all of the authentic ingredients here in Minnesota. Most of them were pretty easy, but I had to do some serious searching to find the "sport peppers." I had never heard of a sport pepper before I started researching the Chicago Dog. I never did find a poppyseed bun at any of the local bakeries, but even if I had, some rabid Cubs fans would probably immediately disqualify my hotdog because it wasn't made in Chicago.
I'm not gonna play that game, Chicago. I'm going to the other side of the state to name MY Illinois hotdog. Moline is the largest western-Illinois city, and the city council gladly permitted me to use it's name for my recipe. [1]
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| MY ingredients are mostly the same. Dill pickle spears, tomato wedges, diced onion, sport peppers (surprisingly,) sweet pickle relish, organic yellow mustard, all-beef hot dogs. I whole-heartedly agree that ketchup has no legitimate place on a hotdog, whether it's Chicago-style or not. |
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So I brought a pot of water to a boil, reduced the heat to low, put some all-beef wieners in there and cooked them for about eight minutes.
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Can't just cook one
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[A quick note about hot dogs: Who knows what's inside a hot dog? I don't. It wouldn't surprise me at all if "all beef wieners" contained a certain percentage of cow liver, intestine, eyeballs, and even traces of snouts and lips. That reminds me of Lisa Simpson's vision of the things that make up a hot dog.]
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It could be true.
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Okay, whatever is inside of them, the all-beef hot dogs are boiling. Let's move on to the next step.
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I don't really know how to steam buns. I just did it the way I steam broccoli or asparagus.
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Hot dogs boiled and buns steamed, I assembled my Moline-style hotdog.
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1) Put hot dog on steamed bun
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2) Add mustard.
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3 Add pickle relish.
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Add diced onions.
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Add tomato wedges on top.
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Add dill pickle spear on the bottom.
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Toss the sport peppers on top of the whole mess.
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I think that order of assembly is a bunch of B.S. I have no doubt it would taste the same no matter how you added the ingredients. But I don't want to get in a fight about it. I don't want to get shrink-wrapped to a light pole by a bunch of Chicago Bear fans like one unfortunate Packer fan did a few years ago.
But once I got the whole thing assembled, I had to admit that the ingredients are a thing of genius. In particular, the sport peppers provided a delightfully spicy bite. There were so many complementary, yet contradictory flavors going on. It's hard to imagine a poppy seed bun making it any better.
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Thank you, Moline, for helping me create this deliciousness.
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1] Not true.
