Bacon-Wrapped Mac’n Cheese Dogs

We’re back with another hot dog variation. Like most of these ideas I have, I think about doing it one way, change it up and it comes out pretty outstanding. This one, I thought would be good with a smoked bacon crumble on top of the mac, but I made a change and decided to try bacon wrapping the hot dog. Is more bacon ever a bad thing? Definitely wasn’t in this case.

Ain’t too much crazy in the recipe-realm, but if you want to see how I did it, check the link below. Or, keep on reading and scrolling and ride this train with me. I’ll hopefully flying back home after a week of working elsewhere by the time this goes live, and I’m sure I’ll have experienced some new cuisines and styles to bring to the ForensicBBQ kitchen!

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Recipe

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The Prep Table

Obviously meat prices (prices in general) are still stupid, so it was time to reach into the freezer again and pull out some hot dogs. I bought the Costco mega pack of dogs, divvied them up and froze ’em until ready. I think the hot dog buns were a Costco buy too.. but same thing, had some vacuum-sealed and frozen and thawed up for today.

I read somewhere that Walmart’s mac and cheese was actually the most flavorful in a blind taste test, and for 40-some cents – I was willing to give it a try. Let’s be real, a blind taste test of store bought boxed mac’n cheese – c’mon. I’ll tell you it accomplished the task, but it didn’t excite the palate at all. Nor did I really expect it to.

This is a childhood throwback idea when you’d have hot dogs cut up in the mac. We’re gonna throw a little bit of magic at it, but it still has to be reminiscent and familiar. This did all of those things.

By the time you’re reading this, it should be some damn nice weather – but this here was in early April. (Update 6/12: Looks like it’ll be toasty this week! I’ll be in Texas, where it’s much toasty-er). I drove out to the Walmart to get some items and it still wanted to snow a little bit. A few flakes dusted the air but nothing substantial, it was just a bit cold. Anyway, let’s get the RecTeq fired up to 225 and load up some bacon.

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The Process

Besides my Kerrygold butter, this was the most expensive thing we’re using for this cook. Ridiculously priced bacon. If you recall on my BLT fail, I used a thin cut to attempt to achieve the roll. It was absolutely thin – and I burnt it. This time, we went thick cut, but I didn’t want to cook it all the way to crispify it.

This is also when I decided to go from “bacon crumble” to “bacon wrap”. I had to rebound from the rookie move of burning the bacon. For this one, I laid it all out on a frogmat, and gave it just a little bit more flavor with a cajun seasoning. Didn’t go hog wild (bad joke, i know) with the seasoning, just a little bit to enhance. We’re going to lay this in a smoke at 225 degrees for about an hour and a half. With a flip halfway through.

Grabbing that color nicely. That front end piece is going to deliver a gift for my spring clean post, for sure. You can see it hanging over the drip pan just enough to make a mess for me later. The RecTeq Bull got a serious workout this winter, so a clean was so necessary. (Don’t worry, I won’t bore you all with another cleaning post.)

Gave it a flip after 45 minutes and this was the result. Not a great blog/instagram photo picture, but it’s a real picture. Frogmat leaving it’s imprint on the bacon, but definitely getting some of that smoke. After another 45 minutes, I went back out and it looked amazing. And to make it a better blog/instagram photo picture, flipped it back so you can see it in it’s glory.

Ah yes, a beautifully colored bacon, limp enough to roll (Some) around a hot dog. The crispier ones (like the one in the back) was the control group. It’s essential for any backyard cook to taste the product before serving. And it was delicious. The dog (FurensicBBQ) agreed, but most of cats (PurrensicBBQs) didn’t want any part of them.

This part wasn’t fun. You can see the pile of grease on the butcher paper. Slippery-ass bacon. I always use gloves when handling any of these cooks, and I’m still motoring through the cheapo boxes I bought. I save the awesome nitrile ones for special occasions until I can get rid of all these loose junk gloves.

These got better as I went along, but take a strip of bacon, wrap it around one end and skewer with a tooth pick. You’ll pierce through the wrap (two widths of bacon) to keep it held in place. Wrap it all the way down and when it’s time for another, tuck the new piece under the first piece and skewer it to keep it in place. Continue the wrap and pierce it at the end. Each dog had about 1.5-1.75 strips of bacon. The scrap pieces left over were again used for a control group.

Naturally, after I pulled the bacon, I cranked the RecTeq to 500 degrees to get those GrillGrates hot. Went back outside to the bask in the bacon grease burning off. Should be common knowledge for the neighbors now (Sorry! Kind of?). We’re blessed with great neighbors, so hopefully they don’t hate us (me) when we (I) burn off the grease. Let’s be real, the weekends could always smell worse than a backyard BBQ.

These went on for maybe 10 minutes or so. I’d throw ’em on – lift the lid, rotate, and repeat. Wanted a good crisp all the way around for these, plus, the dogs needed to cook. I know, let’s get to the finished product already.

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The Result

Hot dogs were sweating, bacon was getting crispy, it was about time to pull these off. I put the buns on the actual grates during one of the rotation periods to give them a little texture. The only thing you’re not seeing is the Mac’n cheese prep – because it was per the box, no changes. I was also going to shred some gruyere cheese as a topper, but I forgot, and it wasn’t really all that necessary.

I also made some northwest US “Fry Sauce” because I was going to make some fries as a side – but I’m kind of putting the side dish on top of the damn hot dog. That’ll be featured later I’m sure.

Because I’ll be topping with Mac’n Cheese, you gotta see the bacon-wrapped dog in the buff before I do that. Could eat these as-is and have no complaints. I made six total and they’re in the refrigerator for a week of meals. Bacon-wrapped dogs and Built Bars – pinnacle of health.

Throw a couple of spoons of Mac’n Cheese on the hot dog and sprinkle some of McCormick’s “Hot Shot” Black/Red pepper blend on top. I had diced up some green onion as a colorful topper and I loved the onion-y flavor that it gave. These were a fun Saturday cook, tasted great and nostalgic all at the same time. When you want to do something a little different, but something familiar at the same time – try this one out!

Last note: I hope everyone has a great Father’s Day. I was planning a great Blackstone Tex-Mex Father’s Day meal this year. I still am, but it’ll be rushed because I’m probably driving to the airport to come back home as this goes live. My father wanted some more of those ground beef Blackstone tacos (who can blame him) , but I gotta mix it up some too. I’m lucky have a great Father-in-Law as well, so I hope he enjoys the spread we’re making too. Stay tuned for probably August/September to see the results – I’m sure I’ll have complained about rushing the cook! Thanks all.

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The Recipe