Seattle-Style Hot Dog
Photo: Toohool · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

The Seattle Dog was reportedly invented in 1989 by hot dog cart vendor Hadley Long at his Pioneer Square location, who added cream cheese to a bagel-and-dog after a customer asked for an alternative to mustard. The cream-cheese-and-grilled-onion combination spread across late-night carts through the 1990s. Dick's Drive-In and Monster Dogs in Pike Place are the canonical city versions.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy

Make it at home

Yield 4Hands-on 15 minTotal 25 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 4 all-beef hot dogs or Polish sausages (Hebrew National or Nathan's quarter-pound)
  • 4 hot dog buns (sturdy split-top New England style)
  • 200g full-fat cream cheese, softened to spreadable
  • 2 large sweet white onions, sliced thin
  • 2 tbsp neutral oil
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 2 fresh jalapeños, sliced into thin rings (seeded for less heat)
  • Sriracha hot sauce, to drizzle
  • Sweet pickle relish (optional)
  • Yellow mustard (optional)
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

  1. Heat a heavy pan over medium-high heat. Add 2 tbsp oil and the sliced onions. Cook 12 to 15 minutes, stirring, until deep gold and softened. Season with salt and pepper. Push to one side of the pan and keep warm.
  2. Push the onions to a corner. Add the butter to the cleared pan, then the hot dogs. Roll the dogs through the butter and cook 4 to 6 minutes until heated through and the skins blister.
  3. Slice the buns open without cutting all the way through (split-top hot dog buns work best). Toast the inside on a dry pan 30 seconds.
  4. Smear a generous tablespoon of cream cheese inside each bun, covering both faces of the open split.
  5. Slot a hot dog into each bun, pressing into the cream cheese.
  6. Top with a heap of grilled sweet onions.
  7. Add jalapeño rings to taste.
  8. Drizzle sriracha in a back-and-forth pattern across the top.
  9. Add relish or mustard if desired. Eat immediately, leaning forward.

Tip from the editors. Real cream cheese, not light or whipped, is the trick; thin spreads get lost. Toast the bun inside lightly so it does not soak; cream cheese is wet.

Where to eat seattle-style hot dog

Seattle-Style Hot Dog in Seattle

Dick's Drive-In Broadway ★ 4.4

$$ BurgersUntil Daily 02:00

Dick's Drive-In Broadway in Seattle's Capitol Hill is the 1955 burger window the city eats at after closing time: the Deluxe and hand-dipped milkshakes.

TryDeluxe burger and fries

Directions

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