Korean Street Food “Hotdog” aka Corn Dog | chopsticks and flour (2024)

Hotdog (핫도그) in Korea isn’t the usual sausage in a long bun that we find here in the baseball stadiums. It resembles more of a corn dog but it is so much more than a corn dog. The “hotdog” is often stuffed with more than just a sausage, (think velvety cheese), is wrapped in a chewy dough, covered in breadcrumbs, deep fried and then sprinkled with sugar.

I don’t really eat hotdogs or sausages in general. But, when I went to Korea in 2017, the “Myung Rahn Hotdog” (명란핫도그) chain store was all the craze. So, we had to have one. And it was so good. They had so many variations available: filled with mozzarella cheese, sausage wrapped in cheddar cheese, rice cake, even squid ink breading! It was delicious and we continued to grab a few on the street, in the metro stations, basically, whenever we saw it. It’s been about 2 years now and those don’t really exist here but I’ve been randomly craving it so much! So, what’s the only thing I can do? Fry it myself.

(Look at that mozzarella cheese!)

INGREDIENTS

DOUGH

• 1 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
• ⅔ cup sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour, chap ssal garu, 찹쌀가루)
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp (4 ½ g) instant dry yeast
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• ¾ cup water (180 ml) , room temperature

ASSEMBLY

• 6 skewers (wooden sticks)
• 3-6 hot dogs
• Block of mozzarella stick * Optional
• 1-2 cups Korean breadcrumbs (Japanese panko, bbang garu, 빵가루)
• ½ cup sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

Dough:

1.In a medium sized bowl, sift the flour and sweet rice flour together. Add the sugar, salt and yeast on to the flour mixture.

2.In a separate small bowl, mix together the water and vegetable oil. Pour into the flour mixture. Mix well and knead until well combined. The dough will be slightly sticky.

3.Cover with a plastic wrap and place in a warm place until the dough has doubled. About one hour.

Prep for Assembly

4.Prepare the skewers. You can play with options here: one hot dog on a stick, one stick of blocked cheese on a stick, or a mix of the two. Make the 6 skewers as you please, and set aside.

5.If using hot dogs, prepare them as stated on the package (I usually boil them for a few minutes).

*For the skewers, I like to do about ½ a hot dog and a similar length and fatness chunk of mozzarella cheese. For the cheese, lay the block next to the hotdog and cut in a similar width so the corndog will be similar size throughout the the stick.

6.Prepare the breadcrumbs. Spread 1-2 cups of breadcrumbs on to a flat plate. Set aside.

Assemble with the Dough

7.Gently pat the proofed dough from Step 3 and remove the gas bubbles.

8.Separate the dough into 6 equal pieces. Take one dough, and roll it out into a long strip; long enough to wrap around the corn dog. Take one skewer, beginning from the bottom, wrap it around until the top. Pinch all the sides together so it becomes smooth. Roll the corn dog in bread crumbs. Repeat with the other skewers.

9.Heat a pot with frying oil (corn oil, vegetable oil), until the heat reaches 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 Celsius). If you don’t have a thermometer, drop in a few breadcrumbs and the oil is ready when they bubble to the top.

(the first corndog I made was a bit too fat. you can see that the ones in the back are slimmer. that follows an amount of dough of about 1/6 of the batter. the first one was about 1/5th of the batter. i preferred the dough slightly less thick)

10.Fry each hotdog until it is golden brown on the outside. Lay on a baking rack.

11.*Optional: If you want to enjoy it the Korean way, spread ½ cup of sugar on to a plate. Roll the fried hotdog on the plate for something extra special.

12.Squirt a thin strip of ketchup on to the hot just-fried hotdog and enjoy. If you used cheese, it will be stringy if enjoyed when still hot!

And a few fun snipits from Korea when I tried this!