How to: Spiral cut hot dogs

By Tyler, Mr. DoerWith a sweet grill and an awesomely fun backyard, it’s really no surprise that this summer we’ve been doing a whole lot of outdoor grilling. Because of this, I spend a lot of time finding grilling recipes and tips and tricks online. 

Anyone who searches recipes regularly already knows that there are not a whole lot of hot dog grilling recipes out there, at least if we’re talking store-bought dogs. Really, there’s just not a lot of innovation in the way of grilling hot dogs and everyone pretty much does them the same way, right? 

Well, I used to think so. Now I've got a new favorite way to cook dogs and I may never go back to my old ways. Introducing the spiral cut hot dog.

Instead of just placing hot dogs on the grill and rotating frequently, I learned that you can “corkscrew” cut hot dogs before grilling for an even better dog. Before I get into the corkscrew cutting technique and how to do it, I’m going to answer the question you are all asking yourself – “why on Earth would I want to cut my hot dogs before cooking them?”

Well, not only will they cook better since cutting them this way gives you more grilling surface area and thus more of the grilled taste, they will also be safer for kids since they are smaller around and less of a choking hazard, they will be easier to pile on the toppings since the condiments have a place to rest without riding precariously on top of the dog, and they will fit in your hot dog bun better since cutting them this way elongates them to fill the more premium hot dog buns and rolls.  

• Hot dogs or brats
• A sharp knife
• Wooden skewer
• BBQ

So, now that we’ve got the “why” and the "what" out of the way, here’s how to cut your hot dogs and brats. 

First, you take a standard wooden skewer and stick it length-wise into your hot dog.  It doesn’t have to be perfectly straight, but if you mess up, you can keep on trying until you’re happy and it won’t hurt anything, including presentation.  Once the skewer is all the way through, you simply start cutting at an angle all the way through to the skewer, corkscrewing down the dog while spinning. 

Although this does sound a bit tricky, it’s surprisingly easy to do. My first one I did was pretty rough, but I got a system pretty quick and was able to cut the remainder no problem.

Once they are cut, you simply remove the skewer and are left with a perfectly corkscrewed dog ready for the grill.

And, the resulting grilled hot dogs are simply to die for. At a recent BBQ the skewer cut hot dogs were the first to disappear, and everyone was raving about how incredibly delicious they were, as well as how awesome the spiral cut dogs were for filling and serving. Even though I’m not usually drawn to hot dogs, they were my absolute favorite thing we’ve grilled this summer and our new go-to recipe for BBQs.  

Happy Grilling!