Arepa Hot Dogs
These arepa hot dogs are a fun twist on corn dog flavors that are easy to make at home and are clean to eat with your hands. Biting into a freshly cooked sweet corn arepa is one of my favorite food moments. As you probably also noticed, I love hot dogs! I realized that cornmeal flavors go well with hot dogs, but it’s tricky to make them at home. Enter the arepa dog! For the sauce, I even combined things I eat with arepas like avocado, and things I eat with hot dogs, like mustard and pickles!
The inspiration for this recipe
It’s opening day in my neighborhood and I couldn’t be more excited! This is the time of the year when Fenway comes alive! I made these arepa dogs on monday for the season opener in Baltimore, and it felt great to have a few during the game. I didn’t even make the connection at first, but this arepa hot dog is a perfect dish for baseball season considering the large amount of South American players in the MLB. Arepas are huge in Venezuela, and we have several Venezuelan players on the Red Sox, like starting pitcher Felix Dubront, reliever Edward Mujich, and infielder Jonathan Herrera.
Make the avocado mustard sauce
Might seem weird to add mustard and pickles to avocado but it works so well! It wasn’t weird to me because one of my favorite sandwiches is turkey, avocado, pickles, and mustard. This dip is a one stop shop for all your arepa and hot dog needs!
Blend it up nice and smooth! I added some chili flakes on top to make it look nice, but you don’t need to.
Make the arepa dough
Mix together the masarepa with butter, milk, and water. Mix well and let it rest for a bit before using.
Form the arepa hot dogs
This is the trickiest part of this recipe. I made these a while back and fully encased the hot dog with the dough. The issue was that it ended up slipping out a bit. This time I tried a handful of ways and ended up making it kind of like a typical bun shape. The dough has a tendency to crack, so add water as needed. You can also use your thumb to rub the edges of the dough to smooth out the cracks.
Cook the arepa hot dogs
A dry pan. You can see me doing this in a nonstick but a cast iron is a better choice. I was being lazy that day and ended up switching to cast iron half way through cooking.
One benefit of the three sided arepa is that you can cook them upside-down and the hot dog actually gets some browning.
These came out great. The classic corn dog flavors with a fun twist!
The corn crust encasing a hot dog is always a timeless flavor combination. This recipe adds a different dimension to it. And that pickle avocado mustard sauce is the perfect topping! You could spread it on, or just dip like I did.
Twists on arepa hot dogs
The first time I made these I mixed pickles right into the arepa dough. I don’t think it was a very good idea. It is more traditional for some people to use water instead of milk and butter. I sometimes also use water, but I find that the butter specifically helps them be a bit more pliable in a recipe like this.
Speaking of traditional, check out this recipe for arepas if you are looking for more information on the process or history.
I love making arepas! For more of my twists on this classic dish, check out my pesto shrimp arepas, fried clam arepas, or my personal favorite, the arepa burger!
Arepa Hot Dogs
Equipment
Ingredients
Avocado Mustard Sauce
- 1 avocado
- 2 limes juice of
- 1 jalapeno seeds removed
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tablespoons mustard
- 2 pickle spears
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce
- 2 tablespoons pickle juice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Arepa Hot Dogs
- 8 hot dogs
- 1.5 cups masarepa plus more for dusting
- salt
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Mix all the avocado sauce ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Set aside in the fridge until ready to use, covering with plastic in a way that the plastic touches the surface of the sauce.
- In a large bowl, mix the masarepa, salt, butter, milk, and water. Stir to fully combine. Continue to stir for a few minutes, then allow to rest for 5 minutes before using.
- Preheat a cast iron pan to high heat
- spread out a little masarepa on a plate and dip the hot dog in it.
- Pick up some of the arepa dough and flatten it on a piece of parchment paper. Place the hot dog in the middle and wrap the dough around 3/4 of the dog, leaving the top exposed. Remove excess dough, you only want a thin layer. Flatten the 4 edges of the arepa dough so that it can cook and char evenly in the pan, and so that the hot dog is equal or higher than the top edges.
- Add the arepa to the dry pan and repeat with remaining dogs. Flip the dogs in the pan every few minutes to char evenly on all sides.
- Serve the dogs with the sauce on the side.
Great idea! I think I’ll replace the pickles with jalapeno.
This is awesome!!! I’ve cooking this twice this week. Thanks!
Would these be good if you make them ahead? I’m thinking about sending them with my husband for lunch so he can reheat in a toaster?
Seems like it should work, but I haven’t tested it
2 tablespoons of what kind of mustard? Dry mustard? Dijon mustard? American mustard?
Thanks! I am looking forward to trying these! I need a corn dog solution that doesn’t involve frying (I don’t like the way hot oil smells!) and tastes wonderful! These are the most promising I’ve seen!
Thanks! Any mustard except dry – I usually leave it open so you can use your favorite mustard. I usually use dijon. Also I made sure to touch on this in the recipe, but I have gotten some feedback that the dough is hard to work with. As it cools it dries out a bit ,so you may need to add a splash of water to the dough to soften it a bit as you go.
Thank you! Making it now!