How to Cook a California Ghetto Dog

The bacon-wrapped, California, "ghetto" hot dog is a staple of the LA nightlife. The aroma emitted by the ghetto dog as it cooks is sure to attract a crowd to your grill.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• hot dog buns
• all beef hot dogs
• bacon
• onion
• jalepeno peppers
• mustard
• mayo
• toothpicks
• bbq grill or griddle
• tongs

1. Prepare your "ghetto dogs" in advance by wrapping the bacon around the hot dogs and securing the bacon in place with toothpicks. Take an all-beef hot dog and spiral a piece of bacon around it from top to bottom. Try to wrap the bacon tightly around the hot dog so that there's no extra bacon flapping around.

2. Quickly wet some toothpicks in water (so they don't char & burn on the grill) and use those toothpicks to secure the bacon on the hot dog. Push the toothpick through the bacon and through the hot dog; coming out the other side of the hot dog.

3. After wrapping all of your hot dogs in bacon, get out a cutting board and chop your onions. First, remove the onion skin and cut off about a 1/2 inch from the top and bottom of the onion. Now cut the onion in half, lengthwise. Now, put the flat side of the onion face down on your cutting board so you can slice the rest of the onion into 1/4 inch slices.

4. Heat up your griddle or frying pan on medium heat and place a few bacon-wrapped hot dogs in one half of the cooking surface. The bacon-wrapped hot dogs should cook slowly; the grease will fry out of the bacon and the bacon will slowly constrict around the hot dog.

5. Now that you have a decent amount of bacon fat in your pan / griddle, throw in some of your chopped onions and cook them in the fat. Stir the onions periodically so that they don't char. You want the onions to cook until they are soft and somewhat translucent.

6. When the bacon around your hot dogs is somewhat crispy (not soggy) they're ready to eat. Pull them off the pan / griddle with your tongs and pull out the toothpicks.

7. Place your bacon-wrapped hot dog into a hot dog bun and then cover it with a decent helping of grilled onions.

8. Top your "ghetto dog" with a whole (not sliced) jalepeno pepper and apply mayo and mustard to taste.

Tips & Warnings

• As long as your pan / griddle isn't too hot, you can leave the onions in the pan to keep warm (even after they're done cooking).
• You can also throw your jalepeno peppers into the pan to heat up before serving.
• If you don't cook the bacon until it's crispy the entire piece of bacon will be pulled out when someone takes a bite of their hot dog. You want it crispy enough so people can bite through the bacon without too much trouble.
• If you want more bacon wrapped around your hot dogs, use additional pieces of bacon and more toothpicks to secure them.
• Remember to remove the toothpicks from your hot dogs before you eat them.
• Use tongs at all times when taking food on or off the grill.