Italian Hot Dog Recipe, On The Grill

If you are from NJ, you probably have had an Italian Hot Dog. If you have not, this is a New Jersey classic that you need to try. We will walk you through the steps of how to do this on the grill. Once you try an Italian hot dog, you will see what you have been missing! Enjoy!

What Is An Italian Hot Dog?

An Italian style hot dog is a fried hot dog, served in pizza bread or an Italian roll with fried potatoes, peppers and onions. There is some debate if it is served with just mustard or mustard and ketchup. Personally, I have always have had them with mustard and ketchup and would be hard pressed to have an Italian hot dog without it.

The pizza bread is almost a must for this recipe but a good Italian roll will do the job as well. I have had Italian hot dogs with both and they are just as enjoyable. In this recipe, I am using Italian rolls.

Origins Of The New Jersey Italian Hot Dog Recipe

If you are from NJ, you probably already know some of the history. The first Italian hot dogs were made by Jimmy Buff, in Newark NJ. Jimmy Buffs started making Italian hot dogs back in 1932 and to this day, they are still around making the this version of the hot dog.

There are some other well known places in NJ that are well known for their Italian hot dogs, Joe Joe’s Italian Hot Dogs in Toms River and Dickie Dee’s in Newark. Another famous hot dog stop in NJ, although not so much for the Italian hot dogs but its “rippers” is Rut’s Hut.

Italian Hot Dog Ingredients

For this recipe we are going to start off with some Sabert’s all beef hot dogs. You are going to need some olive oil for the frying. Our toppings will be potato round slices. We will not be cubing the potatoes but slicing them. Then we have our peppers and onions that we will end up slicing as well. I am using Italian roaster peppers, sometimes also known as long hot peppers but green bell peppers will work as well for this recipe. Then for the onion, I am using a large white onion.

When it comes to what to serve the hot dogs on, if you can find some pizza bread near you, go with that. Depending on where you live you may or may not be able to find it. If not some fresh Italian rolls will do the trick. The pizza bread is more authentic but the Italian rolls, you can say are just as common. For this recipe, I am going to be using fresh Italian bread that I am slicing into roll sizes.

We are also going to use a Dutch oven on the grill for this recipe. If you do not have a cast iron Dutch oven, a deeper cast iron skillet will work too. If you are looking for a Dutch Oven take a look at this one here.

How To Make Italian Hot Dogs

As mentioned, we are going to do this recipe on the grill using a Dutch oven. You will have sliced your onions and peppers by now and put them off to the side. The potato’s you will have also sliced as potato rounds and left them in that manner. No need to peel the onions, skin on works just fine. We will start with the potatoes and some olive oil in the Dutch oven, over medium heat. Once the oil is heated, place the potato’s in the oil. You will fry them for about 3 minutes and then flip/stir and do another 3 minutes.

After the second 3 minutes, you can now add the onions and peppers to the mix and we can also start frying the hot dogs at this time. All in the Dutch oven. You will stir and rotate after 8 mins. and then give it all another 8 minutes. As you start to add the other items, check to make sure you have enough oil in the Dutch oven, you are going to need approximately 2-3 cups and maybe more as you move into your cook. You can incrementally add salt and pepper to taste.

If you have a lid for your Dutch oven be sure to keep it on, it keeps the mess down and helps avoid some fire risk on the grill if oil splashes out. After you have finished cooking everything, you can remove it from the Dutch oven and serve or serve directly from there onto your rolls or pizza bread. My Dutch oven has a lid so I was able to move it all over to there for serving.

I started making this by adding in my mustard and ketchup on the bottom of the roll, then I placed my hot dogs in from there I added the potato’s and then the peppers and onions. In the land of Jersey if using one hot dog, is called a “single” and two hot dogs, you guessed it, is called a “double”. Always go double! Go big or go home.

If you do not have pieces of potato, onions and peppers falling out of your sandwich, you did not add enough. Load it up and enjoy this in all its glory.

There you have it! A authentic New Jersey style Italian hot dog recipe!

Thanks for being here and checking out this Italian hot dog recipe recipe. I hope you enjoy it! We always appreciate comments, 5 star recipe rating and social media shares. As always, keep that smoke rolling!

If you are looking for some other recipes, here are some suggestions:

• Smoked Sweet And Spicy Chicken Bites
• Grilled Chicken Sliders
• Smoked Pork Loin Recipe
• Smoked Meat Loaf
• Smoked Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

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