Skip to main content

How To Make the LA Danger Dog, a Mexican Style Hot Dog, for Your Next Cookout

Wrapped in bacon and topped with sautéed onions, jalapeños, and an array of sauces, Mexican style hot dogs are a ubiquitous part of California street food. Often called “danger dogs,” these savory flavor bombs are particularly popular in Los Angeles and a classic feature on street corners and sporting events.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Related Guides

Recommended Videos

History

The story of how hot dogs became a Californian street food icon begins in Hermosillo, a city in the Mexican state of Sonora. Hot dogs migrated to Mexico from America and by the 1950s, enterprising Mexican chefs started to add their own local spins to the iconic American food. Their creation was the Sonoran dog, a recipe that features a kaleidoscope of ingredients, including: A bacon wrapped hot dog, pinto beans, chopped tomatoes, onions, mustard, salsa, Mexican crema, and roasted chili peppers, all stuffed in a large Mexican bolillo roll. This delicacy eventually migrated back to America and is particularly popular in Arizona.

There’s no exact timeline on how the Sonoran hot dog migrated to Los Angeles. As Mexicans immigrated to Los Angeles, many of them opened street food carts. The hot dog was a natural choice as a street food since it can be made with relatively affordable ingredients with low upstart costs. However, adjustments were made to the original Sonoran dog recipe. While Los Angeles style hot dogs maintained the bacon wrap and other components, many toppings like pinto beans were discarded. This is probably due to the much smaller size of the traditional American hot dog bun when compared to the bolillo roll, which were difficult to source for many vendors at the time.

Read more: Mexican Cuisine Guide

A Street Food Staple

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Unlike the boiled hot dogs of New York street carts, Mexican hot dogs are always cooked on a griddle. The smells of melting bacon fat and onions flowing from these carts is a perfect marketing tool, tempting everyone who walks past. Street vendors will usually cook multiple hot dogs on the griddle with a pile of onions and peppers (jalapeños or serranos) on the side. Condiments include ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, crema and sometimes fresh cilantro.

As a street food, Mexican style hot dogs can be found everywhere from California sporting events, busy intersections, bars, and even parking lots. However, these hot dog carts are also unregulated and technically not legal according to the California Department of Health. But that fact has not stopped these hot dog vendors from offering a popular late night snack, especially after a few drinks.

Chef Brian Duffy’s Mexican Style Hot Dog

Image used with permission by copyright holder

(By Chef Brian Duffy)

A Philadelphia native, Brian Duffy is a television personality, culinary consultant, and chef. He is best known for the popular Spike series, Bar Rescue, where he tours the country helping failing bars and restaurants. As a culinary expert, Chef Duffy studied at The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College and has worked for James Beard Award winning Chef Jean Marie LaCroix at The Four Seasons in Philadelphia. In 2012, Chef Duffy formed “Duffified Experience Group,” a consulting firm that works with smaller restaurant & bar operators.

Ingredients:

  • 4 hot dogs (Feltmans preferred)
  • 4 Martins Potato rolls
  • ¼ cup Queso Anejo or Cotija, grated or crumbled
  • 1 cup chorizo (save fat)
  • thinly sliced jalapeños for garnish

For Pico

  • 1 cup heirloom tomato, small diced
  • 1 small jalapeño, minced
  • .25 cup onion, minced
  • 1 tbsp cilantro, minced
  • 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp oregano, minced
  • Salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

For Lime Crema

  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 tsp lime zest
  • 1.5 tsp lime juice
  • Dash Valentina Hot Sauce

Method:

  1. To make pico, combine all ingredients in a bowl. Let it sit in the refrigerator for 2-plus hours to allow flavors to develop.
  2. To make lime crema, mix all ingredients in a bowl. Place in refrigerator.
  3. Place hot dogs in a pot of hot water until ready for use.
  4. In a sauté pan, cook chorizo until done. Set aside and save the grease.
  5. In pan or grill, cook hot dogs on all sides to desired char. Set aside.
  6. Toast buns quickly in chorizo grease. Set aside.
  7. Place some cheese on each bun. Then, place a hot dog on top.
  8. Top hot dog with chorizo, more cheese and pico. Drizzle lime crema over everything.
  9. Garnish with cilantro & thinly sliced jalapeños
Hunter Lu
Hunter Lu is a New York-based food and features writer, editor, and NYU graduate. His fiction has appeared in The Line…
Spice Up Your Cooking with Homemade Hot Sauce
Homemade hot sauce in a jar with small red chili peppers on the side.

In the world of condiments, hot sauce appears to be a trend that’s sticking around for the long haul. Gone are the days of the old standards like ketchup and mustard being the sole stars of the condiment caddy at your local diner. Now, you’d be hard-pressed to find a joint that isn’t offering at least one variety of the spicy sauce we’ve all come to love and expect. These days, so many companies are hopping on the spicy bandwagon, that you can even find an Italian version of the popular condiment.

Hot sauce really is the solution to just about any culinary conundrum. Boring burger? Hot sauce. Subpar sandwich? Hot sauce. Mundane minestrone? Hot sauce. No doubt we’ve all got a few of these store-bought bottles clinking around in our refrigerator doors, standing ready to add some pizzazz to just about any dish we find lacking. It turns out, though, that homemade hot sauce is actually a breeze to make. What’s wonderful about that, too, is that it’s completely customizable. Maybe you’re one of those for whom hot sauce just can’t be hot enough, and you like to set your palette ablaze, likening yourself to a fire-breathing dragon. Perhaps you prefer your hot sauce on the mild side, enjoying just a slight hint of peppery pleasure. The love for that capsaicin kick is a sliding scale, and no matter where you fall, there’s a homemade hot sauce recipe for you. 

Read more
How to Make the Best Version of the Comforting Hot Toddy
Hot toddy

There are cocktails out there so soothing they might as well be medicinal -- in fact, the hot toddy recipe is a favorite for sore throats and the sniffles. Turns out, there are good hot toddys, and there are great hot toddys. Let us focus on the latter. These are some of our favorites to warm the soul this coming winter season and beyond.

Related Guides

Read more
How to Make Spicy and Sweet Mexican Hot Chocolate
how to make mexican hot chocolate

Hot, sweet, and fragrant with cinnamon and spices, Mexican hot chocolate is a delicious beverage that's equally great by itself or when served with pastries like churros or sweet bread. In Mexico, chocolate has been an important part of the country's culinary history for thousands of years, although the traditional beverage was quite different in taste than the current version. In modern times, this Mexican style of hot chocolate has also migrated to the United States courtesy of Mexican immigrants. On a chilly evening, there's perhaps nothing better than a warm cup of Mexican hot chocolate.
What Makes Mexican Hot Chocolate Unique?
Historically, cacao beans were fermented and roasted before being made into a beverage (corn and chili peppers were frequently added). This ancient chocolate beverage was unsweetened and used primarily for religious rituals or medicinal purposes. By modern tastes, this historical chocolate beverage might taste strange to those used to sweetened chocolate. It wasn't until the Spanish encountered chocolate that the beverage started its evolution to its current sweetened iteration. At first, the Spanish did not like chocolate, finding the taste to be unsuitable to their palate. Eventually, these Spanish conquistadors brought chocolate back to Europe. Over time, the ingredients morphed with the addition of sugar, changing it to the sweetened beverage commonly enjoyed today.

Unlike American hot chocolate, Mexican hot chocolate is alive with spices. In contemporary Mexican culture, hot chocolate is a frothy, sweet drink flavored with sugar, cinnamon, and sometimes vanilla. While it's consumed throughout the year, the drink is especially popular for holiday celebrations like Christmas, Three Kings Day, and Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). On these holidays, like the Day of the Dead, it's common to have pastries like pan de Muertos (a Mexican sweet bread) with your hot chocolate.

Read more