This is a sponsored conversation written by me of behalf of Ball Park® brand. The opinions and text are all mine.
Ahhh, hot dogs on the grill. Is there any thing more American than picturing families gathered around their backyard grills in the sun enjoying their time together. And nothing shows off your grilling style better than grilling the perfect hot dog. So here’s everything you wanted to know about grilling the perfect hot dog.
Hot dogs have been a staple of summer meals for over a century and are enjoyed in every locale from the east coast to the west coast. And what kid hasn’t enjoyed one while strolling around the county fair or while watching their favorite baseball team. There’s been many memories shared with our kids over a couple hot dogs with all the baseball games our son has played over the years. So after all the years I guess you could say I’m a hot dog connoisseur and I’ve learned a few tricks to grilling the perfect hot dog.
So here’s everything you wanted to know about how to grill the perfect hot dog…
Just like in real estate the old saying of location, location, location. With hot dogs it’s all about selection, selection, selection, and there’s none better in my book than Ball Park Park’s Finest. Packed with big, bold flavors and infused with premium seasoning you can see, Ball Park Park’s Finest are a premium beef hot dog that is made with 100 percent beef and contain no artificial preservatives, no artificial flavors, colors or fillers, and no nitrates or nitrites added.
There’s 5 BOLD flavors, Slow Smoked Hickory, Cracked Dijon Mustard, NEW Jalapeno Cheddar, NEW Slow Cooked Chili and our favorite Signature Seasoned.
Once you’ve made the selection it’s time to grill. I’ve tried several techniques over the years ranging from cooking them in a sauce similar to sausages to slicing them open and grilling them open-faced to get a real good char on them. But my tired and true method I’ll outline below…
1. Preheat the grill to medium heat, that would be around 300 to 350 F degrees. This goes against the conventional wisdom of preheating on high but I’ve found that it is not necessary to do so and actually makes it difficult to cook the dogs without burning them and ending up with chard blisters.
2.Once your grill is heated clean the grill grates then take your grilling tongs and lay the hot dogs perpendicular or at an angle to the grill grates. I always start out grilling them this way to get those nice grill marks but honestly the real benefit to doing this is to prevent them from dropping through the grates. Because who wants a hot dog coated with ash, yuck.
3. Now it’s time to let them sizzle. I could tell you to let the hot dogs cook for 2 minutes on each side but everybody’s grill is different so here’s how I want you to do it from now on. Every minute or two you’ll want to roll the hot dog a quarter turn or so until the ends of the hot dog start to pop open. This will take anywhere from 5-7 minutes normally but is going to depend on a lot of different factors.
4. Serve HOT! While I love eating hot dogs cold out of the fridge that’s not what we are going for here. So have all your buns and condiments ready ahead of time or if you are grilling for a crowd keep them hot in a covered foil pan place on the grill over indirect heat.
5. Creative toppings. I love the standard condiments that almost everyone uses, ketchup, mustard and relish. But you can take your hot dog to the next level by trying something different like a garden dog, Mexican dog, pizza dog, BLT dog or our favorite, the Chicago Dog.
There you have it. Everything you wanted to know about grilling the perfect hot dog… well I may have a few secrets left, but I’m keeping those to myself for now.
Ball Park recently attempted to break the World’s Record for longest-running group BBQ. Check out this video to see how they fared!
So go ahead and grab a package of Ball Park Park’s Finest the next time you fire up the grill!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Ball Park. The opinions and text are all mine.
