A Chicago hot dog is known the world over for the taste and for all the items placed on it. Many Chicago hot dog recipes vary, but I have found this one is very close to what you can buy on a Chicago street. See if you can eat more than one!

Chicago-Style Hot Dog

8 all beef hot dogs (Vienna or Best's Kosher if available)

8 poppyseed hot dog buns

1 tomato, cut into wedges

1 cup chopped sweet onion

Sweet pickle relish

8 pickle spears

Yellow mustard

Sport peppers (optional)

Celery Salt (optional)

Cucumber slices (optional)

1. First, make sure to use plain yellow mustard, like French's -- now's not the time to be getting all fancy.

2. Pickles should be mild in flavor, with a good crunch.

3. The relish on a Chicago hot dog is famously an unnatural shade of bright green and if you can find that, great, if not any good sweet relish will be fine.

4. Sport peppers are readily found in your grocery stores "ethnic" aisle (generally in the Italian section by the jars of giardiniera, roasted red peppers, etc.) or by the deli section.

5. Lastly, poppy seed hot dog buns are not always available in every region of the United States, so plain ones can be substituted.

The key to a Chicago style hot dog is to steam both the dog and the bun. A Chicago hot dog is NEVER boiled!

6. Place a steamer basket into a dutch oven and fill with water, keeping the water level just below the basket. Bring water to a simmer.

7. Place hot dogs in basket, cover, and steam for 5-7 minutes until heated through. To steam the buns, carefully remove the cover and place the buns on top of the hot dogs for the last 2 minutes of steaming. If you want to make what's known here as a "chardog", grilling the hot dog for approximately 4-5 minutes is an acceptable alternative.

8. Place a hot dog in a bun and begin assembly remembering, as they say, "dress the dog, not the bun."

9. Squeeze a small amount of yellow mustard across the length of the hot dog. Add chopped onion and relish to taste. Then on goes the pickle spear and 2 tomato wedges. Take it all the way to Chicago-style nirvana with a few sport peppers and cucumber slices, then top it all off with a couple shakes of celery salt.

I suppose you can put on ketchup if you absolutely insist, just know that if you do you'll have made *something*, but it certainly won't be a Chicago hot dog.

Photo courtesy of Vienna Beef, Ltd.

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