- 1 year ago
We challenged Nicole to turn one mystery ingredient—hot dogs—into three brand-new recipes using a fully stocked kitchen and zero prep time. From recipe concept to final plate, Nicole walks through her creative process and proves there’s no challenge too weird (or too wiener-y) for her to handle. She starts with a breakfast classic reimagined: a Hot Dog Pancake Casserole that’s sweet, savory, and surprisingly comforting. Next, she’s tasked with creating a wedding-worthy dish (for 100 people!) and pulls off a viral-inspired Garlic Bread Mini Hot Dog Station—with a guest appearance and taste test from Allrecipes’ own Natalie. Finally, the real wildcard: dessert. Nicole channels candied bacon energy into a Caramelized Hot Dog Banana Sundae that’s bold, sweet, and shockingly good. Whether you’re here for the recipes or the reactions, this hot dog challenge brings the creativity.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I'm standing in front of a fully stocked kitchen because we're doing something a little bit
00:03different today. I'm being challenged to make three different recipes using one
00:07secret ingredient. The kicker, I don't know what the secret ingredient is and I don't know anything
00:12about the challenges. I've never met a hot dog I don't like though. I'm up for the challenge.
00:24Let's get started with the first challenge. I'm told they go from easiest to hardest,
00:28so let's see what number one is. Please create a breakfast casserole. I can do that. I've been
00:34known to make a breakfast casserole or a hundred. I'm gonna do a little research. When I think
00:38casseroles, I think something hearty, so my ingredients are going to be that and crowd
00:42pleasing because you're generally making this for a crowd. There's always something, some sort of like
00:46starch ingredient to hold everything together and give it like some substance. So that generally is
00:52some sort of bread product. Obviously our protein, which is going to be our hot dogs, maybe something
00:57else. And then there's always something gooey in there, something creamy or cheesy. I'm looking
01:01for different textures, things that are going to create that perfect bite experience in case we
01:06haven't met. There's got to be like a sausage pancake casserole from all recipes. And there it is,
01:14pancake and sausage casserole. No wonder I like this recipe so much. Look who wrote it. This is my
01:19inspiration. I think cooking the hot dog is going to make it taste a little more like sausage. I'm
01:23going to take that like sauce that usually the sausages cook in in the crock pot and use that
01:29as like my drizzle on top. Yes. Start my sauce with a little bacon. Cheese. A little milk. Having a good
01:40stocked condiment door section can really save you, especially when you don't really know what you're
01:45making. It can inspire you. Let's go. I'm going to cut up a little bacon. This is going to be the start of
01:51my sauce. The sauce is what's going to make this bacon and hot dogs just go together. They're in
01:57the same family. Cut this bacon up, saute it, and I can crumble this on top or I'll put it in the
02:03casserole. I'm not really making this how I like my hot dogs, but I'm making it how I like my breakfast.
02:09And I love like a sweet and salty moment when it comes to breakfast. If I was just eating it like a hot
02:14dog, don't put anything sweet except maybe some sweet relish. I'm going to choose these kind of like
02:19fatter hot dogs because we're going to let it be the star of the show. I'm not trying to hide it.
02:23Although I've eaten hot dogs for breakfast since I was a kid because my grandmother used to put them
02:27in scrambled eggs, probably because they used to be cheap and cheaper than sausage. P.S. when you're
02:31cooking bacon, it's good to start it in a cold pan because as the pan heats up, it starts to slowly
02:38heat the bacon up and render the fat out and then it can cook in the fat. Now the flavor that's going on
02:45on the bottom of this pan, I want that because this is going to be the base for my delicious sauce.
02:50Oven preheating to 350. All right, bacon's crisp and drain it out. All that goodness right there,
02:55that's what's going to cook the hot dogs and help them get like good and caramelized. Every food has
02:59sugar in it, even like things that you think are just savory and sugars when they cook, caramelize,
03:05caramelization, eagle flavor. Here, I'm going to try to make me make dessert with hot dogs.
03:10Now I want to get all that flavor off because I'm trying to make a sweet and salty syrup to drizzle
03:18over the top. So to lift that flavor up, you need a little bit of an acid. I'm going to use a little
03:22mustard. You can see how it kind of like starts to lift that flavor up. See, that starts to kind of
03:29clean the pan. Now I'm going to do a little brown sugar and maple syrup. A half a cup of syrup and
03:35mustard goes with hot dogs too. Pinch us all. As it cools, it's going to thicken up a little more.
03:42So we're really about there. Nailed it. At the end of the day, for this recipe, you're just looking
03:48for whatever kind of pancake batter you like. If you want to make that from scratch, you can.
03:53These just add water. Then I don't have to really do any thinking today. I mean,
03:56I'm doing enough thinking already. Three cups. This is my kind of baking when you don't have to be exact,
04:01you know. You know I like to shred my own cheese. It's better. You don't get that like cakey white
04:07stuff on the outside. It's going to be creamier and the flavor is better. And you get more bang for
04:13your buck because eight ounces of a block of cheese actually grates more than eight ounces of pre-shredded
04:19cheese. Everything's prepped. Now we build. You can use just water in this. I'm going to use water and
04:24milk. So it's a little less than what the box calls for to make pancakes because I want this
04:30batter to be a little thick so that it is substantial. I'm keeping this more like a
04:33pancake experience or a little bit of a McGriddle situation. But if you wanted it completely savory,
04:40you could add in, you know, something spicy, green onions or something like that. But I'm really kind
04:44of trying to mimic the pancakes and sausage pairing that we love. I am going to fold in a little cheese,
04:50just kind of acts as a little glue. Our cooked hot dogs going in. Might as well add that bacon that we
04:56cooked into a casserole dish. Spray it. Looks pretty good, doesn't it? All right, now we bake 350 degrees
05:07for about 25 to 30 minutes. Once you start to smell it, it's probably getting close. All right, it has been
05:1324 minutes. We want a toothpick inserted in to come out clean. Okay, so like when you serve up your pancakes,
05:23first thing you do is put some butter on it and let that melt. And my sauce, our liquid gold right here.
05:31Look at that. Does it feel like breakfast tea? Maybe not yet, but you trust me. And the sauce.
05:38See where I'm going now? Okay, does it taste like pancakes and hot dog sausage?
05:44It does. You got to have a hot dog in every bite. Because when I was just eating just the pancake,
05:52it was almost like a savory pancake, and I wasn't quite wanting that. But with that little salty bite
05:57of hot dog and that syrup, the pancake almost gives it like a biscuit consistency. Swimming in butter and
06:06like honey, you know. Pretty sure we just nailed challenge number one. What's challenge number two?
06:13I'm a little scared.
06:16All right, that was easy enough. Let's go for challenge number two. So they get harder though.
06:24Please create a dish worthy of a wedding with a hot dog. I mean, I'm not judging. I wouldn't be mad if
06:30there were hot dogs at my wedding. My wedding was like buffet style, so I feel like that gives me
06:35a little bit of a better option. Popular wedding buffet items. Pretzel station, taco bar. I mean,
06:41a little mini hot dog bar I think would be fun. I feel like that's not what you're looking for. I feel
06:46like maybe there should have been more rules to that. Let me look up. My friend did a little garlic
06:51bread. These garlic butter grilled cheese hot dogs are so good you won't even need the ketchup.
06:55That's gonna be my inspiration. And that's gonna fly off the buffet table. Instead of a hot dog bun,
07:00the party's favorite rolls. Butter. All right, let's get started. These are going to act as my bun.
07:13What's happening? I knew it was too easy.
07:18For an additional challenge, cook enough for 100 people. I was about to start saying I obviously have
07:30to make a lot of these because it's for a wedding. So I'm going to take each roll, cut it in half to
07:36make little hot dog buns. That'll be cute, right? Now let me see. Can I get three out of one hot dog or two?
07:43I can get three. Got my calculator. I'm getting 24 out of each pack. 96 plus these. 105. I'm gonna make
07:54105. Everybody only gets one at this wedding. How many hot dogs do I need? 105 divided by three. I need
07:5935 hot dogs. Kids, I use math every day. I noticed in the video that you can make little cuts in them
08:06and that's going to give you better like caramelization when we go to cook these. Plus,
08:11it's going to make these look just a tiny bit fancier fit for a wedding. Got me a little system
08:15now. You can do like two or three at a time. Cut the little marks and then cut them in three. Listen,
08:22this might be a good idea and a good alternative to like expensive, you know, sausage, pigs in a blanket
08:29appetizers. We have 24 hot dogs and 24 buns out of each pack. So you could get 24 appetizers for like,
08:37you know, less than $10. It's pretty good. All right, we got to make the garlic butter,
08:41which is garlic and butter. Air on the side of more because you can always use this for other things
08:46like tossing with pasta or, you know, making more garlic bread or, you know, sauteing vegetables.
08:52I'm going to melt it all together and as it like slowly heats up, it will infuse the butter with the
08:57garlic flavor. I'm starting it in the cool pan. You could totally use olive oil here, but to really get
09:04that garlic butter and garlic bread feel, I would use the butter. Fresh garlic is going to taste the
09:09best here and you want it, you know, to be chopped very finely. Of course, you could do that with a
09:14knife, but it would take a lot longer than it does just using a garlic press. If you know me, you know,
09:19I hate chopping garlic because it always sticks to your fingers. It's one of my favorite kitchen tools.
09:24This is unsalted butter, so I'm going to add salt and just let this kind of melt slowly on the stove.
09:28You could just use salted butter and then it doesn't have to cook that long. You just want it to be
09:31fragrant and you kind of know it's done. In the video, she just cooked the hot dogs in the oven,
09:37so that's even easier than cooking them in a skillet. We're going to toss these with some of
09:42our garlic butter and then put some on our buns as well. Okay, I'm going to get my dogs in first and
09:47I'm just going to toss these. This is how to make hot dogs fancy for a wedding. Give these a good toss.
09:54I'm going in 425. She said 400, but I feel like I can get them a little crispier,
09:59add a little higher, add a little faster. I took the time to stack these up, but I've changed my mind.
10:05That's just part of the learning process. So we can get them like this, go ahead and top them with
10:10cheese, and then when the dogs come out, we'll stuff them in. So I'm going to brush these with
10:14garlic butter, then put the cheese, kind of work it in the crevice, then put the hot dog in there,
10:20then put them in the oven and they'll all kind of get gooey and toasty together at the same time.
10:25In this original recipe, she did like a grilled cheese, so it got crusty on the cheesy side,
10:29but since I'm not making individual grilled cheeses, I'm going to use some parmesan cheese
10:33on the outside because it'll form its own like cheesy crust. Now let's get those hot dogs out.
10:38Wait till you see how cute they are.
10:43Cute. All right, see how cute these are? All you had to do, just a little scoring. You could do this on
10:48your regular hot dogs. Whenever they hit the heat, it's going to expand out and make this cute design.
10:53You got to work that dog into each crevice without splitting the bun. But you know these are looking
10:59fancier than you thought they were going to. One more brush with the garlic butter,
11:04and then when they come out, we're going to make them fancy and sprinkle them with a little parsley,
11:07like what's usually on garlic bread, you know. I've never had a garlicky hot dog, so really,
11:11I don't really know what I'm in for here. These do look so cute though, don't they? I'm putting these
11:16back in at 425 because all we're looking to do at this point is just melt the cheese and toast the
11:23rolls a little bit. They have plenty of butter on them, so this should not take long. Oh yeah,
11:30I can get more in. If you were really like catering a party, you really wouldn't want to cook them all
11:34at the same time because people can't eat them that fast. You cook like half and then you save half.
11:40It's all part of the plan. All right, I'm going to garnish with some fresh parsley. I don't
11:45particularly like the dried stuff, especially for a wedding. Fresh herbs just have way more flavor
11:52and aroma. The stuff in the jar, you don't know how long it's been there. Toasty and cheesy.
11:59Got us some fancy wedding platters. The rolls have gotten like they've absorbed that garlic butter,
12:04so they're really soft and like moist in the center. If these are passed around,
12:08people are going to be chasing those waiters around. I like how I act like I'm really
12:12serving this at a wedding. Definitely a good idea to serve these with some cocktail napkins,
12:15hence the buttery fingers. What's good about using garlic butter on these is you don't have to worry
12:19about a dipping sauce. All that flavor has soaked into those rolls. A little garnish. For me,
12:24this definitely counts as wedding food. Look at that perfect wedding bite right there. How does it taste?
12:29Let me tell you.
12:30You don't understand the flavor that's underneath. You know, it might not look exciting, like super
12:38saucy to you, but it's all trapped up in those little crevices of the hot dog and the bun. It's
12:44buttery, it's cheesy, it's rich, it's salty, and just a hint of sweet. But then you get that kind of
12:49smokiness from the hot dog. I'll bring in the creator of this recipe and see what she thinks.
12:54All right, Natalie, come here. Oh, these look familiar. I want to know if I made you proud.
12:59They're so cute. Aren't they cute? Would you have these at your wedding?
13:02A hundred percent, if I was doing that again. Right, let's not.
13:05I like to dip mine in the garlic butter. Oh, in the garlic butter? You're not going to need it.
13:08It's trapped underneath. Oh, yeah. Perfect bite. I need to know if I made you proud.
13:15Turned in your TikTok sensation. The Hawaiian roll kind of ties it all together.
13:20It was a good move. I'd totally eat this at a wedding. I'd be thrilled.
13:23Do I pass the challenge? Oh, for sure. Told you.
13:31All right, I'm two for two. Can I make it three for three?
13:37Challenge number three is... I knew it. Please create a decadent dessert. Now, is this meant to be
13:44edible? It's not a joke, right? Challenge accepted. I'll only need one pack for this.
13:52Right off the bat, you got to, like, candy these things. Oh, kind of like candied bacon.
13:57Maybe, I guess, put it over some ice cream. We're going to keep it simple. It's going to be decadent.
14:01I'm going to do a caramelized hot dog sundae that's not an April Fool's joke. Can we do it? I'm going to
14:07make them small so that they get, like, really crispy to where you really don't even know what you're
14:13eating. You might think you're eating, like, candied bacon, like Bananas Foster. Hot dogs
14:17and bananas used to be a thing. Was that hot dogs? No, it was just, like, ham and bananas.
14:23I don't even think I'm going to look anything up for this. I think I've got a plan,
14:27because surely a recipe for candied hot dogs doesn't even exist. Although, I'm a little curious.
14:32I got to know now. Candied hot dog bits. All right, I'm going to start by melting some butter in here.
14:39When I do, like, candied walnuts or anything, it's really just about coating them with a fat,
14:43usually butter, and then giving them, like, a sugary glaze, and then cooking them again. And
14:50with the star of the show, adding in just a little maple syrup and then a lot of brown sugar. I think
14:56we just cook this until it's crispy. I mean, I'm kind of not mad at this, like, syrupy situation.
15:01It's almost like we're making a caramel at this point. When you're cooking down some sugar,
15:04it can burn pretty easily. So you've just got to keep your eye on it, keep stirring,
15:09and then when you go to cool it, you need to put it on something that is sticky-proof. So whether you
15:16spray it with nonstick cooking spray or do parchment or wax paper, you got to do something.
15:21At this point, I really could add the bananas in. I'm thinking about it. I'll do a little taste test.
15:27Guys, we're doing it. We're going to make hot dog banana foster, except minus the alcohol. Although
15:36a little splash of bourbon might be good. I'm not going to do the whole flame thing. I'm not trying
15:40to really burn off all the flavor here. I'm just going to add, like, a splash to enhance this. This
15:44might be y'all's new favorite dessert. All right, let's serve it up. Indulgent dessert featuring
15:50le hot dog. It's not the worst thing I've ever had. I'm actually glad I put the banana in there.
15:58I think if you get that hot dog situation really crispy, I think it can work because it really
16:02does kind of remind you of candy bacon. I mean, say what you want, but I completed that challenge.
16:10I mean, if I had to grade myself on today's challenge, I still made a solid A. What secret
16:14ingredient would you like to see come out of the box next? No.
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