Sometimes a meal just gets too insane. This was an absurd meal that i thought was delicious, but should probably be illegal to make: Grilled hot dogs with a bacon mac and cheese on top. I spotted this originally on a "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" episode. It's Nick Suarez's - aka the Brooklyn Hot Dog King - recipe and apparently a competition winner. I have a hard time thinking someone could make a richer dog.... here's the low down:
The mac is what adds the intensity, check out these pics of the process (thanks to mp for taking better pics than me!):
So you basically start with equal parts butter and flour to make a roux. Then you add in a bunch of milk, and a ton of Gruyere, a smaller amount of Parm, and a pinch of nutmeg and cayenne. Then you add a bunch of bacon chunks, and leeks (cooked in the bacon fat of course). And you finish it off with a lot of macaroni. (Original recipe at the end of the post.)
While all that is going on you grill up some hot dogs. I went with Schaller & Weber all beef dogs in the hope they would have a good beefy flavor and a "snappy" casing. They were perfect, along with some grill-toasted buns:
I wish i was able to find some top split buns around here.... but no luck. These still worked, but you just can't pile it on like you can in a top split. Though come to think of it, maybe that's a good thing. So the layering process consists of bun, dog, mustard, mac, panko/butter flakes (for crunch), fresh parsley, EAT. Here's the production line served up at the table:
And here is the final dog:
These were pretty killer. The full recipe can be found here. We had J & T over to help consume... in my mind this is the perfect meal for them. Its mac and cheese overload, and a perfectly snappy hot dog. They left by rolling themselves down the street. While all 8 dogs were in our bellies, a good pound of mac and cheese was left over. That stuff was nuts!
