Chicago hot dog
Photo: arnold inuyaki / Arnold Gatilao · CC BY 2.0

History

Vienna Beef has been making the canonical frankfurter in Chicago since 1893, when Austro-Hungarian immigrants Emil Reichel and Sam Ladany debuted theirs at the World's Columbian Exposition. The fully dressed Chicago dog crystallised during the Depression, when Maxwell Street vendors gave you a hot meal of a frank, salad and pickle for a nickel. Ketchup has been banned by unwritten city law for at least sixty years, a rule that locals enforce with both gentle eye-rolling and absolute seriousness; the prohibition was reaffirmed by the late Mayor Richard M. Daley in public on more than one occasion. The poppy-seed bun is from S. Rosen's, the city's other 100-year-old bakery.

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Common allergens: Gluten

Make it at home

Yield 4Hands-on 15 minTotal 15 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 4 all-beef Vienna-style hot dogs
  • 4 soft poppy-seed buns
  • 4 teaspoons yellow mustard (no ketchup)
  • 4 tablespoons neon-green sweet pickle relish
  • 4 tablespoons finely chopped white onion
  • 8 tomato wedges, half-moon cut
  • 4 dill pickle spears
  • 8 sport peppers (pickled small green chillies)
  • 1 teaspoon celery salt

Method

  1. Bring a wide pan of water to 80C (175F) but not boiling. Drop the franks in and poach 5 to 6 minutes until plump and warmed through. Boiling is acceptable but not preferred; grilling is a different recipe.
  2. Steam the buns 60 seconds over the same pot. Soft and pillowy is the target, not toasted.
  3. Lay a dog in each bun, then build in this order: yellow mustard, relish, onion, two tomato wedges along one side, one pickle spear along the other, two sport peppers on top.
  4. Finish with a generous pinch of celery salt across the top. Eat immediately, ideally standing up.

Tip from the editors. Drag the dog through the garden, do not bury it. The bun should still be visible at the edges.

Where to eat chicago hot dog

Chicago hot dog in Chicago

Superdawg Drive-In ★ 4.3

$ American dinerNorwood Park

Superdawg in Chicago is the 1948 Norwood Park drive-in on Milwaukee Avenue, with car-hop service and a pair of giant Superdawg-and-Maurie figurines.

OrderSuperdawg with everything (mustard, relish, onion, sport peppers, pickle, fries inside the box).

TipUse the car-hop. It is the same price as the counter and the experience is the point.

Directions Book

The Wieners Circle ★ 4.2

$ American dinerLincoln Park

The Wieners Circle in Chicago is the Lincoln Park late-night hot dog counter on Clark Street, open since 1983, famous for the staff-and-customer banter past.

OrderChar dog with everything; cheese fries on the side. A chocolate milkshake to walk home.

TipThe shouting is the show. If you are not up for the banter, the daytime queue is exactly the same dog without the audience.

Directions Book

Portillo's Hot Dogs ★ 4.2

$ AmericanRiver North

Portillo's in Chicago is the Ontario Street flagship of the chain founded 1963 by Dick Portillo, with Chicago hot dogs, Italian beef and the chocolate cake.

OrderA Chicago dog, an Italian beef dipped, a small chocolate cake shake.

TipDrive-thru is faster than the counter. The chocolate cake shake is a chocolate shake with a slice of chocolate cake blended into the cup.

Directions Book

Gene & Jude's ★ 4.5

$ AmericanRiver Grove

Gene & Jude's in River Grove is the 1946 hot-dog stand on River Road, west of Chicago: no ketchup, no tomato, no cheese, no chairs, just dogs.

OrderDouble dog with the works (mustard, relish, onion.

TipFries are tucked into the same paper as the dog. Eat them off the dog as you go, that is the point of the design.

Directions Book

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