Banh mi-style hot dogs
This banh mi-style hot dog recipe has everything you need: pickled carrots, spicy Sriracha mayo, cucumber and a homemade cilantro pesto. Oh yeah, and a super crispy hot dog!
I love hot dogs so much that I sometimes joke that I need to start a hog dog themed Instagram account. Everyone thinks I'm joking, but no sir! I'm dead serious.
I would say the obsession began when I was maybe 7 and we would go to lunch at Friendly's. You know Friendly's, the place with the crazy ice cream sundaes and giant salads? We'd go and my order was always the same. One hot dog with a side of mac and cheese. My two favorite foods right there! My obsession was real.
Growing up it wasn't a BBQ without a hot dog, but for the longest time a hot dog was simple: the dog, the bun, and a squirt of mustard. Then I started working for a lobster roll company in NYC. While slinging lobster rolls at various outdoor markets I was exposed to tons of new food vendors. One of them? Asia Dog.
Asia Dog made the most incredible hot dog with spicy ketchup, mustard, and crushed potato chips on top! This was way before the food scene was all about mile-high milkshakes and rainbow bagels, so I thought potato chips on a hot dog was crazy! Little did I know. Asia Dog also had a banh mi-style hot dog, which this recipe is a little ode to.
This is certainly no banh mi, since I wouldn't dare to claim it as one, however, it has a few tasty elements you'd find on a traditional banh mi. There's pickled carrots, cucumber and Sriracha mayo, but I'm switching it up with a cilantro pesto. Yes, we're going there! The recipe is below for those that can't wait to eat them up.
Banh mi-style hot dogs
6 hot dogs
6 hot dog buns
1 small cucumber, thinly sliced length-wise
Sriracha mayo
Pickled carrots (recipe follows)
Cilantro pesto (recipe follows)
Heat a sauté pan over medium heat. Score the hot dogs four or five times on one side to let the air escape during cooking. Add the hog dogs to the pan, and cook them until crispy. Set them aside.
Toast the hot dog buns in a toaster oven or in the oven.
To serve, place a hot dog in each bun. Add a slice of cucumber, a drizzle of the cilantro pesto and a generous portion of the pickled carrots to each hot dog. Drizzle Sriracha mayo all over the hot dogs. Enjoy right away.
Pickled carrots
5 small carrots, peeled and shredded
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
Combine the carrots, white sugar and rice wine vinegar. Allow the carrots to pickle, as little as 30 minutes. Pickle them overnight for even more punch.
Cilantro pesto
1 cup of fresh cilantro
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon almonds
1 garlic clove
Combine the cilantro, olive oil, almonds and garlic in a food processor. Blend until combined. Add a little more olive oil if the pesto is too thick, otherwise season with salt and pepper.
