Frugal Momma’s Test Kitchen: Slow Cooked Hot Dogs?

Did someone say slow cooked hot dogs? Yup! That wasn’t a typo at all. This week we tried a new recipe (of sorts) out of this great cookbook that I picked up from the library. The cookbook is called, “Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker,” and I can tell you that the title fits. There is no way that my mom would have made any of this stuff. They have omitted the classic French onion soup mix, condensed soup, and meat combo. They replaced this with really good recipes, full of yummy ingredients and tips for using your slow cooker in traditional (and untraditional) ways. Despite the omission of the canned soup recipes, they did include a recipe that caught my eye…a recipe for cooking your hot dogs in the slow cooker.

Let me begin by explaining why I appreciated a recipe like this. For one, I had gone to the grocery store that day and was dead tired by the time I got home, put the groceries away, and fed the baby. The last thing I felt like doing was making dinner, but I would have hated spending $100 on groceries, only to go out and pick up a pizza. I wanted something quick, easy, & did not require any effort on my part. It was 4:00 and I had zero ideas. Hmmmm…How about hot dogs?

Now I do appreciate a hot dog from the grill, but my main complaint with the grilled hot dogs is the dilemma that usually by the time we have brought the dogs in to feast on, they are already cold. I like my hot dogs really hot and my husband prefers hot dogs without charring. His solution is to boil them. Boiling hot dogs, for some odd reason, extremely grosses me out. Something about meat floating in water and then dealing with dumping the water…I don’t know, I guess I have an aversion to it.

When my husband came home from work, he leaned over to look in the slow cooker and saw what was in there. “Slow cooked hot dogs? Now that sounds like something I would want to try!” So we did. And we liked them.

These are not fancy, but it is a great meal for when you have absolutely nothing else on the agenda. It would be great for potlucks or playgroups and the cost is minimal.

When cooked in the slow cooker, they have a crisper skin (then boiled) and these tasted absolutely delicious. You know it is a hit when my son begins singing his, “Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog” song, while dipping his hot dog in ketchup. A hit with everyone in the family- then this recipe will get an encore performance in our house.

I highly recommend the cookbook, and I highly recommend trying this recipe!

Crock Hot Dogs

8 hot dogs (about one pound)

Put the hot dogs in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH until hot & slightly browned around edges, 1.5-2 hours. Remove with metal tongs and serve hot, in buns, with the fixings.