The Ripper

Have you ever deep fried a hot dog? You should. It is amazing. I unpacked the deep fryer the other day to make Poutine and I didn’t want to drain the oil till I fried up a hot dog.  To make a ripper you need natural casing hot dogs.  Where I am originally from in the Midwest, this is not a problem.  Out in DC this was a different story.  I had to go to three different stores to find natural casing dogs.  If you have multiple choices on natural casing dogs, make sure to pick the biggest ones that you can find.  They will rip better.

These are so good with a mustard based slaw on them.  No need for any other condiments.  They are awesome.

Rippers with Mustard Slaw

• Natural Casing Hot Dogs – No Casing Hot Dogs Won’t Work, I tried 🙁
• 1 bag slaw mix
• 1/4 cup Dijon Mustard
• 1/4 cup White Vinegar
• 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
• 2 tbs Yellow Mustard
• 1 tbs Hot Sauce – You can double this if you like more of a kick.  I tripled it.  Awesome!!!
• 1 1/2 tsp Celery Seed
• 1 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Pepper

Mustard Slaw

Mix the Dijon and Yellow Mustard with the sugar.  Then mix in the Oil, Vinegar, Hot Sauce and Celery Seed.  Mix good.  Add the salt and pepper.  Taste it to make sure the seasonings are right.  Packaged mustards are seasoned differently.  Make sure that it is seasoned as you need to add a whole bag of fresh slaw mix to it.

Next fold in the slaw mix and stir.

Refrigerate for 20 minutes before serving.  This slaw is so tasty that it can stand on its own, but it is the perfect accompaniment to rippers.

The Ripper

You need to find natural casing hot dogs.  I have tried this with skinless hot dogs and it just doesn’t work.  After searching most of the DC metro area I found some Boars Head Natural Casing Hot Dogs.  These work, but they are a little thin.  If you can find thicker dogs, they will work out better.

Preheat your fryer to 375 degrees.  This will make it so that the majority of the frying will occur at around 350 degrees.  The temperature of the dogs will lower the temperature of the oil.  Place the dogs in the fryer and fry until you get the crispiness that you desire.

The dogs that I had were rather skinny and didn’t take that long to rip and get crispy.  It took about 4 minutes.  The longer you leave them in the oil the crispier the outside gets.  If you leave them in the fryer for 8-10 minutes they will get extremely done.  The whole dog inside and out gets crispy.  Basically they have the texture of bacon.  How awesome is that.  I find that about 5 minutes is perfect.  You get a crispy outside and still have a tender juicy inside.

Place the dogs on warmed hot dog rolls.  Then cover with the mustard slaw.

No joke, these are the tastiest hot dogs that I have ever eaten.  The slaw works perfectly on them.  It gives the crunchy dogs a zing.  Even if you don’t deepfry your dogs, you should try the mustard slaw on a hot dog.  It is awesome!!