Corn Dogs

Having to spend a few week stretch at home and not able to do much I did a lot of searching for recipes, stories and info for our site and blog. I came across some info on fair food and fried fair food. Apparently the Houston yearly rodeo has a storied food court with every thing under the sun fried, and they even have a fried food competition to see which is the best.

They fry anything you can think of. But one of my favorites is the corn dog. They just don't get any better then at the fair. So I thought. I started looking up everything I could on corn dogs and came across many home recipes. I somehow thought that they would be hard to do or take a lot of work. Boy, was I wrong. I found some info from an ex-carny that gave some inside tips on how to do them. I know they are probably not the best thing for you but, so.

Take all-beef franks, just the regular size, don't get the jumbo dogs on the first try. Trick number
1.Take the ones you are going to use and wipe them completely dry. I took regular bamboo skewers and put them in about 3/4 of the way. You can use popcicle sticks as well but they will be a little to big for the regular dogs. Make your favorite corn bread recipe. I made mine but I omitted the vegetable oil and split the 1 cup of milk in 2, and did half milk and half butter milk. I also added a little more flour then it called for. After you have mixed it all up you need to put it in a tall glass or jar of some kind as long or longer then your dog of choice. Here is trick number 2: You have to get the mixture cold so stick it in the fridge for an hour or 2.

Get your oil hot then take your skewered dog and dip it all the way into the batter then start turning it in circles until its fully coated. Take it out slow and put it right into the hot oil. Cook it until it is golden to a light brown or more if desired. Remove from the oil and dry on paper towels. Serve with your condiment of choice but if you are a traditionalist, it will be mustard.

I have no idea why I thought they would be hard to do. All total not counting the fridge time or heating the oil it maybe took 15 minutes all in. And if I don't mind saying so, they were really really good. Its been a long time since I've had one and it was as good as I have ever had. Since I had the fryer fired up I did tater tots to go with them, hey why not, tater tots are the best. I have a good story about tater tots I will post but a teaser here: I know the guys who invented them and why!

So enjoy the pics, and the recipe I used can be traded for your own batter and you can also throw in anything you wish, jalapenos, green chiles, cayenne pepper, what ever you like. I guarantee your kids, dads, husbands and everyone else on the planet will think you are the most awesome person on earth. Corn dogs are the best, and come to find out pretty easy.

\Let us know how they come out and shoot us some pics. If you fry anything else let us know about that. Next time I am going to try with my favorite bratwursts. Maybe I will try smoking the dogs first then fry them, that sounds good as well. I also took the left over batter and added a touch of veggie oil back in and cooked it for corn bread but for some reason it did not come out as normal, it was kinda rubbery. I did half my cornbread recipe for the dogs but was pretty even so not sure but that happens with cooking and especially baking sometimes. I should have done corn dogs sooner.

Corn dog coating:
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/8 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup buttermilk

Mix all dry ingredients then wisk.
Stir in all wet ingredients into dry until smooth and creamy. The batter should be creamy but pretty thick.
Pour into tall glass or jar as long or longer then your hotdog. Your want the vessel about 2-3 times the diameter of your hotdog.
Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until really cold.

Heat frying oil to 365 degrees.
Take skewered dry hotdog and dip into batter and twirl in circles until fully coated including the bottom at the skewer.
Remove from batter in swirling motion slowly and put into hot oil immediately.
Fry in small batches until golden or light brown to med brown Drain on paper towels and serve with condiment of choice.