Burger Dog · i am a food blog | Selfimprovementblogs

If you have hot dog buns and ground beef and are wondering why you’ve never seen a hot dog shaped burger patty before, I’m here to answer all of your questions. A burger dog is tasty, cute, and easy to eat because of its superior shape. No more burger toppings falling out the bottom of your burger and no more messy hands. Burger dogs are here to stay!

What is a burger dog?

The name sounds funny, the taste is delicious, and the quirkiness is all part of the fun. Behold, the burger dog! A rectangular hamburger patty grilled and nestled into a crisp and buttery hot dog bun dressed up with all the usual burger suspects. Essentially, it’s a burger in a hot dog bun!

How to make burger dogs

You make burger dogs the exact same way you make burgers, by shaping them. Get a high quality, ground beef (or ground chuck, ground round, or ground brisket if you’re feeling fancy).

1. Divide – Evenly divide the ground into 4-6 ounce portions, depending on the size of your hot dog buns.
2. Shape – Use your hands to gently shape the ground beef into rectangular patties about 6 inches by 3 inches. Don’t pack them too tightly.
3. Season – Generously season both sides of the patties with salt and freshly ground pepper.
4. Grill – Heat a clean grill to 450°-500°F, hot enough that you can’t hold your hand over the grate for more than 1 second. Place the patties over direct heat and cook to your desired doneness, flipping after a chargrilled crust has formed. Add cheese, if using, then remove from the grill and let rest for 1 minute before enjoying!

Stove top burger dogs

Heat up a large cast iron pan over VERY HIGH heat, hot enough that you can’t hold your hand over the pan for more than 1 second. When smoking, place the burger dog patties onto the surface. Cook, to your desired doneness, flipping as needed when a chargrilled crust has formed. Add cheese, if using, then remove from the pan and let rest for 1 minute before assembling the burger dog.

• Rare: 125°F, about 4 minutes
• Medium Rare: 135°F, about 5 minutes
• Medium: 145°F, about 6-7 minutes
• Well done: 160°F, about 8-9 minutes

Burger dog ingredients

• ground beef – a good ground beef is what’s going to make your burger dog sing. Theses patties are pure ground beef, so get the good stuff, more on that below.
• hot dog buns – your favorite hot dog buns will do. Bonus points if you’re having hot dogs already and are making burger dogs to use up extra buns! Our favorite hot dog buns are brioche style or potato rolls. If you’re on the East Coast, you can’t go wrong with Martin’s long potato rolls.
• toppings – here’s where you can get creative and do your own thing. The burger dogs in this post are just like the ones we had at Deer Valley: they have a French onion soup kind of thing going on with caramelized onions, whole grain mustard, and melty gruyere. Classic toppings include: mayo, mustard, ketchup, American cheese, diced onions, and pickles. Feel free to use your favorite burger toppings.

What kind of ground beef for burger dogs?

For juicy burger dogs, go for a ground beef that is at least 80/20, that is 80% meat to 20% fat. Fat is what makes burgers juicy and delicious. Stay away from extra lean ground beef, which will cook up tough and dry. If your grocery shop does it, you can get freshly ground beef instead of the ground beef that comes in a brick. You can even ask them to grind up whole cuts into your desired mix. We especially like 80/20 ground chuck: meat from the shoulder that has the ideal fat-to-meat ratio.

What to serve with burger dogs

Everything that’d you’d serve with a burger! Chips, fries, potato salad, and green salad are good places to start.

Who invented burger dogs?

After a quick google, it’s apparent that burger dogs have been around for a while. Hot Dog Bills, in San Francisco, has been making them since the early 1950’s. It was a space saving idea: a hot dog shaped burger patty was easier to fit on a small grill. The shorter cooking time was a bonus too.

Our burger dog story

Funny story, Mike and I have never heard of burger dogs before and were talking about grilling season one year, as we often do. We were curious, why was it that no one made a hot dog shaped burger? It made so much sense: you could buy a pack of hot dog buns (which notoriously come with the wrong amount of buns to hot dog ratio) and use the extra buns for burger dogs.

In our minds, the burger dog patty was a thick sausage-shaped ground beef log. We never did see our idea to conception though because we both independently decided that log shaped burger dogs were probably not the most aesthetically pleasing food.

Then, earlier this year we went skiing at Deer Valley in Park City and lo and behold, on the menu was a burger dog! Mike ordered one and the patty was a cute rectangle, which makes SO MUCH SENSE. It was juicy, grilled to perfection smothered in cheese and caramelized onions. So good that we had to make our homemade burger dog dreams come true.

Classic burger dog toppings

If you want to make a Hot Dog Bills burger dog, this is what they do:

1. a buttered toasted hot dog bun
2. American cheese
3. a squiggle of ketchup
4. diced white onions
5. and sliced pickles

Any which way you top your burger dog, you can’t deny that it’s fun addition to your summer grilling plans. I hope you burger dog this year!
xoxo steph