Little known ForensicBBQ secret around here – I’m a huge United Football League fan. This love started with the USFL and migrated with the merger and I enjoy watching some spring professional football. MrsForensicBBQ and I traveled to St. Louis – the home of the Battlehawks and took in a ball game. As I approached the concession stand, I was greeted with what was called the “Hawk Dog”. Double the price, I knew it had to be something special.
They described it as a larger hot dog with pulled pork, coleslaw and bacon bits. Okay, I’m in – even at $16. And being in St. Louis, I had to get a Budweiser beer. We didn’t make it over to the brewery (we drove in, watched the game, and drove back) – but I can still say I had a Budweiser where it was born.
The dog was good, but I couldn’t help but think I could make it so much better (Welcome to dining with me). I’m going to make it so much better (and cheaper).
Revisit my Leftover Pulled Pork post, and you’ll know what I did to make it just-as-fresh good. But we’re also going to make a coleslaw dressing, smoke some bacon, and do it better.
Make a dressing and mix it with the store bought cabbage/carrot blend. We had an apple that was dying, and thought absolutely throw it in the coleslaw. This amplified the coleslaw so much – do it!
The usual 225F-2hr bacon smoke. Ain’t incredible crispy, but it’s incredibly delicious. Eat a slice or 4 for quality control, and we’re going to chop up the rest.
I slit the dog lengthwise to try to get a little bit of smokey flavor in there. Not enough to split it, but enough to open it up a tad. Make that pork like I showed you a few weeks back, and when it’s done, let’s dress this thing up.
Sorry Battlehawks fans, your out-of-towner just crushed your Hawk Dog. Dog meet bun, top with pulled pork. Layer on some coleslaw with some chopped bacon to top it all off. Drizzle on some BBQ sauce and while the football game we watched didn’t result in a victory, this hot dog did. Almost made this for our 4th of July party – maybe I should have. Maybe America deserves it for her 250th birthday, not her 249th.