I’m sure there’s a good percentage of you who are groaning… like “really, another hot dog?!”. The other percentage – actually higher than you nay-sayers – will be curiously excited about this one. Yes, my friends… new year, same game. Coming off a dynamite brisket, we’re back to another old familiar… the hot dog.
The magic in this recipe is the Mac Sauce. Truth be told, I never really did enjoy a Big Mac hamburger. Flip through my burger journey, I was never really one for sauce on a burger. Simple cheese, pickle and onion has always done it for me. Onion was a later-in-life journey, and sauces are slowly coming around. No posted recipe this week.. I stole the Mac Sauce from a website, typed this up – gave credit where credit’s due.. and then saw the obnoxious privacy, disclaimer, warning, etc. all over that site. So I removed it rather than asking for permission, signing waivers, or anything else.
The Prep Table
“Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickle, onion on a sesame seed bun”. Okay, well we’re not exactly doing that. We’re going to take an all-beef hot dog and split it in half. Special sauce is the majority of our prep here. I remember the lettuce and onion being really.. cheap. and finely diced. So we can do that part. Cheese, check. I knew I needed some cheap ass pickles too. The store was out, I was “settling” with a higher quality crinkle chip as pictured above.. then I remembered. I know I had a “cheap-ass-pickle-stash” in a pantry. And I did.
Sesame bun? Nah, big ass dogs packed with stuff is fine in a brat bun. We good? We’re good.
Just kept chopping and chopping for this one. I needed some for the Sauce, and the rest for the dog topper. So I prepped this part the day before, cause that Sauce needed to settle. The sauce was pretty damn close – involved French Dressing, sweet relish, vinegar, sugar, and mayo. Put it in a jar and we’ll see you tomorrow!
As mentioned, credit for the Big Mac Sauce goes to some other disclaimer, warning, privacy-laden website. Don’t post the recipe and then tell people not to copy it. It’s 2023 dude. Hey, copy all my recipes and enjoy the hell out of them. (I’ll take some blame since I used the recipe before noticing all that).
The Process
Put a quick dice on some iceberg lettuce and we’re good to go. Got the cheap cheese (one for dog, one for the actual hot dog).. found the pickles in the back of pantry, hot dog is split ready to go, sauce is made.. Oh, the bun. Let’s try something.
Yeah, I did it. Iconic is that middle bun in the Big Mac, so I sliced the brat bun to make it appear like we had one here. I know, it’s cheesy – but it happened.
Now it’s just grilling up the dog and putting it all together. Freezer onion rings for a side and let’s see how it goes.
The Result
Okay, there’s a lot going on here. Taking a closer look, we have everything. Both sides of the bun have that sauce on there, pickles are plentiful. Onion and lettuce are there. Cheese and dog? Damn, we got ourselves a Big Mac Hot Dog afterall.
The bite was big (appropriately, I assume). But the flavor was actually there. I think it was better too because I’m sure this hot dog has a better flavor than a McDowell’s hamburger patty. The sauce was it.. I mean, it’s not exactly a bragging point, but I really nailed this one. Brisket last week…the Big Mac Hot Dog this week – you know we’re back into the swing of things over here at ForensicBBQ!