11 Tasty (and Totally Bunless) Hot Dog Recipes
Look beyond the bun for delicious new ways to serve up your family's favorite frank.
Erica Silverstein

It doesn’t matter if you’re staunchly Team New York with its dirty-water dogs or Team Chicago with its wieners piled high with toppings: The humble hot dog is a family favorite for good reason. But there’s so much more you can do with a hot dog than just slap it in a bun and slather it with ketchup! If you’ve got a pack of franks in the fridge, try getting creative with this week’s lunch or dinner. Toss the bread, grab those junior sous chefs, and try one of these quick, easy hot dog recipes, no bun required.
1. Crescent Dogs
Anyone who gobbles up pigs-in-a-blanket from an hors d’oeuvres tray should supersize their appetizer into a full-sized crescent dog dinner. Wrap a hot dog in a triangular slab of crescent roll dough, then bake until golden brown. Serve with all your favorite condiments — ketchup, mustard, maybe even ranch dressing.
2. Hot Dog Tater Tot Casserole
This no-bun hot dog recipe in a nutshell: Throw all your family’s favorite foods into a pan and bake. This casserole combines leftover hot dogs, tater tots, chili, cheese, and ketchup for an easy weeknight dinner that gives you time to put together a salad — or watch an episode of your favorite show together — while it bakes.
3. Hot Dog Cheesy Macaroni Casserole
This loaded macaroni dish combines hot dog pieces with another dinner winner — mac-n-cheese — plus some bacon because why not? If you’re tired of boring Kraft dinners in a box, try this meatier version of cheesy pasta to put some zing in your dinner lineup.
4. Cheddar Corn Dog Muffins
Corn dogs are tasty fair food, but who wants to bother slathering a hot dog with batter and dealing with hot frying oil? One pressed-for-time chef discovered this corn dog hack: Put the hot dog in a corn muffin instead. You get the double win of a meaty surprise in the center of your muffin and a quick and easy baking project with minimal mess. Add a jalapeno to the mix to spice up your snack.
5. Hot Dog Fried Rice
Hot dogs may be the American versions of German sausages, but that doesn’t mean you can’t go international with them. Got leftover hot dogs and rice in the fridge? Toss them with veggies, soy sauce, and ginger for an Asian-inspired lunch of hot dog fried rice.
6. Polynesian Sweet and Sour Hot Dogs
From Asia, head to the islands for a Polynesian hot dog meal. This hot dog recipe without a bun combines wiener slices with bell peppers, pineapple chunks, some sweet brown sugar, and sour apple cider vinegar and soy sauce to create a colorful plate. This is a meal to eat outside by tiki torchlight, accompanied by a Blue Hawaiian or Bora Bora mocktail.
7. Hot Dog Salad
Hot dogs ... in a salad? Sounds crazy, no? But perhaps hot dogs are the next ranch dressing when it comes to getting reluctant veggie eaters to try salad. Hannah at the Bittersweet blog tosses onions, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, and pickles with hot dog pieces to create a tangy dish that just might make salad converts out of grownups and kids alike. (Note: This recipe uses meatless dogs, but you can certainly substitute the meat kind, no problem.)
8. Hot Dog Hash
Who says hot dogs aren’t a breakfast food? Hot dog hash begs to differ. For this easy hot dog recipe, brown some chopped-up franks, fry up some potatoes with onions and garlic, and cook an egg to flop on top. We’d throw some hot sauce on there, but you do you.
9. Hot Dog Pizza-dillas
Hot dog pizza-dillas are basically the culinary representation of the melting pot that is the United States. Throw Mexican, Italian, and American food concepts into a blender and turn out this wacky-yet-yummy family-friendly meal. The tortilla becomes the pizza crust, sliced hot dogs the pepperoni, a salsa-ketchup mix the tomato sauce, and the cheese is, well, the cheese. Fry it up quesadilla style and serve with whatever ethnicity of condiment you prefer.
10. Beans and Weenies Tater Bake
When you need a hearty meal on a cold day, pull out The Kitchen Whisperer’s recipe for her mom’s beans and weenies tater bake. The ingredients are in the name: hot dogs, white or kidney beans, and potatoes, simmered with bacon, sweet onion, and Worcestershire sauce for a dish that will stick to your ribs. Don’t be sad if the kids don’t ask for seconds; it’s likely because they wolfed down the first bowl and now are too full to move.
11. Chili Dog Pizza
Our intensive hot dog recipe research has yielded some main themes — mainly that hot dogs go well with carbs, chili, and cheese. Therefore, the ultimate hot dog dinner might just be chili dog pizza. This bunless hot dog recipe has it all: a pizza crust, chili, sliced hot dogs, and handfuls of cheese. Add chopped onions and sweet pickle relish for the full hot dog effect. This one hits all the food groups while delighting all the taste buds. Bon appetit!

Try these recipes as a family for a colossal cupcake, an extra-big pretzel, and an epic pizza slice — all super tasty, and surprisingly easy!
Charity Mathews

Making an extra-big pretzel to fuel extra-big adventures make seem tricky, but don't worry, it's KNOT as hard as it looks!
Charity Mathews

Yep, that's a pizza slice the size of a kid's head. Life's dream: ACHIEVED!
Charity Mathews

Ever looked at a cupcake and thought: "Hm. Looks yummy. But what if it was ENORMOUS?"
Charity Mathews