Chicago-Style Hot Dog (Chicago dog)

Chicago Style Hot Dog

Although there are some discrepancies, the creation of the Chicago dog (or "Chicago-style hot dog") is generally attributed to the fast-food restaurant "Flucky's," which welcomed its first customers at the intersection of Maxwell and Halstead Streets in Chicago in 1929.

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Its owner was Jewish. His Chicago-style hot dog contains no pork and is kosher. He serves it with a healthy dose of greens and replaces ketchup and mayonnaise with a much healthier yellow mustard and sweet relish. The Chicago dog was born, and its success was immediate.

A multitude of street vendors and fast-food restaurants added the Chicago hot dog to their menus. But Flucky's is still the place to go. It continues to serve its now "historic" hot dogs in Niles (north of Chicago), in a not-so-historic setting inside the Walmart supermarket, too bad.

Vienna beef Hot Dogs

The secrets of the Chicago dog

The sausage: A lower-fat frankfurter because it's 100% pure beef and cooked in water. It can be kosher, as in the original recipe.

The garnish: a bunch of greens. Tomatoes, fresh cucumbers, gherkins, onions, peppers.

Sauces: never, never ketchup. In fact, most hot dog stands in Chicago don't even have ketchup. Nor mayonnaise. Instead, "yellow mustard" and "sweet relish". Finally, a drop of "celery salt", a salt scented with celery seeds. All wrapped up in a "bun," a soft, long, hamburger-like roll sprinkled with poppy seeds. It's easy to swallow in a few big bites, standing up or in a corner of the table, without cutlery (but with plenty of napkins).

Portillo's hot dog in Chicago

In Chicago, the tradition of the "healthy" hot dog lives on, and it's said that the city has more hot dog vendors than McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King combined. The must-try places include Flucky's, which claims paternity of the Chicago dog (on Chicago's north side), Portillo's hot dog and its movie-theater décor from another era, Superdawg, Gene & Jude's, and The Wieners Circle.

There are many variations on the Chicago dog, including the "Chardog," with its grilled, not cooked, sausage. Some restaurants tweak the traditional recipe by adding or subtracting ingredients; pickle slices, for example, are a relatively common alternative. There's also the "corn dog" or "hot dog on a stick" a Route 66 icon: a hot dog coated in doughnut batter, stuck on a stick like an Eskimo, and deep-fried for a long time... But in a much less dietary style.

Portillo's in Chicago

Where to eat the best Chicago dogs?

Flucky's

This is where the Chicago dog was invented in 1929. Back then, the restaurant was located at Maxwell and Halsted Streets. It has since moved to a strip mall in Niles, a twenty-minute drive from Chicago.

  • 5630 Touhy Ave, Niles, IL 60714. Dans le centre commercial Walmart de Niles (au nord de Chicago).

Superdawg Drive-In

This mythical drive-in, with its two giant hot dogs dancing on the roof, has been a Route 66 icon since the 1940s. Customers are served right out of their cars.

The Wieners Circle

This hot dog stand near Lincoln Park is famous for its grilled - not steamed - version of the Chicago dog, the "char-dog" or "char-grilled dog.

Portillo's Hot Dogs

Just steps from the Magnificent Mile, Portillo's Hot Dog serves Chicago specialties, including the Chicago dog. Self service in a 1930's gangster movie atmosphere.