Smoked Hotdogs -Spiral Cut and Seasoned

If you have never tried smoking hotdogs then you are in for a real treat! We take it a few steps further and spiral-cut the hotdogs and add some seasoning but you will love them either way.

If you decide to try these spiral cut, seasoned with my original rub (purchase recipes here) and then smoked for an hour in the smoker, you will understand why I decided to do an entire newsletter on something as simple as a smoked hotdog.

These are dog-gone good stuff!

Here's what you'll need

• Hotdogs (I use the jumbo 3 oz hotdogs by Hebrew National)
• Long wooden or metal skewer
• 1 batch of Jeff's original Rub (purchase recipes here)
• Hotdog buns
• Condiments (mustard, ketchup, barbecue sauce, etc.)
• Onions
• Relish

How to Prepare

Remove the hotdogs from the package

Carefully run a skewer through the center of the hotdog end to end trying your best to keep it in the center. If you make a mistake, pull the skewer out and try again.

Holding the knife at a 45 degree angle, start on one end cutting through the hotdog allowing the skewer to stop the knife from going all the way through. Roll the hotdog away from you as you press the blade down against the hotdog cutting it through to the skewer.

Continue cutting at an angle until you reach the opposite end of the hotdog.

Here's a video from Chow.com that does a great job of showing you how it's done:

My first one did not look so great, I steadily got better after that.

I took my time and tried to do a good job on all of the hotdogs but it's really not important that they look perfect.

Once all of the hotdogs are spiral-cut, sprinkle my rub all over them allowing it to get down into the cut areas as well as on the outside.

Place the hotdogs on a Bradley rack, Weber grill pan or cooling rack and let them sit for a bit while you go get the smoker ready to cook at 225 – 240°F.

If you don't want to spiral cut all of them, there are no rules that say you have to do that. Here's some extras that I left uncut just to show that it's ok.

Smoking the Hotdogs

It never fails that I get emails every week asking me if I have special recipes for electric smoking or gas smoking and the answer is, “no, I don't”.

In all of my recipes, I give you the heat setting, the smoke recommendation and from that point it absolutely does not matter what type of smoker you are using as long as you have the heat and the smoke.

I have written pages on specific smokers and I am on a mission to write more and will post links to those as I get them finished:

• Bradley 4-rack Digital
• Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5
• Big Green Egg XL
• Great Outdoors Smoky Mountain Propane
• Traeger Lil' Tex Elite Pellet Grill 22
• Camp Chef Woodwind Pellet Grill

Whatever type of smoker you are using needs to be set up to cook at 225-240 degrees for about an hour. If you using an electric, charcoal or gas smoker then I recommend keeping the smoke going the entire time. In a wood smoker, this happens by default.

For the smoke, I recommend apple or pecan but other woods like hickory, mesquite, maple, and cherry will also do a wonderful job.

Just like ham, you'll be amazed at how much smoke flavor these hotdogs pick up in the smoker. You will taste the smoky goodness in every bite.

This method of cooking hotdogs is wonderful for large parties where you need a lot of hotdogs done all at the same time. Just put them in about an hour before you need them and serve them right out of the smoker an hour later. Due to their small size, you can do hundreds of these quite easily even if you opt to not spiral cut them.

Enjoy the process.. enjoy the flavor!

Summary

1. Remove hotdogs from package
2. Run skewer through center of hotdogs lengthwise
3. Starting at one end, hold knife at angle and cut while rolling hotdog away from you
4. Continue rolling hotdog away from you until the knife ends up on opposite end
5. Remove skewer
6. Repeat steps 2-5 for all hotdogs
7. Lay hotdogs on a Bradley rack and apply rub generously
8. Prepare smoker for cooking at 225-240 degrees F
9. Smoke cook hotdogs for 1 hour
10. Serve on bun with condiments and toppings

Tips and Other Thoughts

• You could also brush these with my original barbecue sauce (purchase recipes here) at the 30 minute mark to make them a little sticky and to add to the flavor.
• Sprinkle with grated cheese and let the cheese melt onto the hotdogs during the last 20 minutes or so in the smoker.

***Note: you get the Texas style rub recipe free with your order!

If I could give these recipes away, I would do that. I really want you to have them! But, then, this is how I support the newsletter, the website and all of the other stuff that we do here to promote the art of smoking meat.

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I really, really appreciate the support from my newsletter friends and be sure to let me know if you have any questions about this.

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