We had hot dogs for dinner two nights ago. And since we still had all the fixings, we decided to have them again tonight. But I didn’t just want the same ol’ ketchup/mustard/onion dog again. Then I quickly remembered watching celebrity chef Bobby Flay cook up some mouth-watering ideas for better hot dogs on Food Network yesterday. So I whipped together his recipe for caramelized onions (salt, pepper, cinnamon, chili powder, ketchup, water – all things we had) and grilled hot dogs two ways.

One was fairly simple with these cooked onions and deli mustard and the other was a variation on this with the same onions combined with fresh cilantro and Crystal hot sauce. I grilled buns (with a bit of butter) to add some extra char and crunch. Both dogs were tangy, a bit sweet, and a bit spicy. Surprisingly, the “Mexican” dog with the hot sauce was less spicy than the deli mustard dog, likely due to more onions (and thus more chili powder) being piled on that one. But I’d gladly make either one again.