Chicago Style Mini Corn Dog Muffins

Good morning!.....Sort of.  I guess it is almost 11am.  It feels early though.  I am on a weird schedule that I would love to get off of.  I stay up late and sleep late.  And then I feel like half the day is gone by the time I get moving, which it is.  I guess I shouldn’t complain though….the kids sleep late too.  And by late, I mean 8am…not like noon or anything.  I know we will have to fix this once school starts again, but hey, it’s summer! 

That was quite the ramble wasn’t it. 

Anyhoo, my recipe today is a great one!  It is quick and easy, and kids love it!  I am going to show you how to make Chicago Style Corn Dog Muffins.  I have told you before, I love food on sticks.  And I especially love corn dogs.  But I never quite figured out how to make my own.  Deep frying anything with the stick already in it freaks me out.  How does it not burn?  I started making my corn dogs in muffin form a few years ago.  My kids thought it was the greatest thing ever, and I did too, mainly because it is so easy.  It is essentially just hot dogs in corn muffin batter.  Once you pop them out of the muffin tin, you have your own little corn dog that you can dip in ketchup and enjoy sans sticks.

The best part about muffin corn dogs is that you can add anything you want to the batter…..things that you wouldn’t be able to add to a regular corn dog.  Sure, you can add honey to a regular corn dog or even cheese, but you can’t add pickles!  I add pickles, tomatoes, onion, celery salt and poppy seeds…..just like a Chicago Style hot dog!  Yum!

You can also make these little babies for a great party appetizer.  Corn dogs are an international crown pleaser;)

For my recipe, I use hot dogs (duh), corn muffin mix, red onion, chopped tomato, chopped pickle, extra flour (which I will explain later), sugar, eggs, milk, celery salt and poppy seeds.

I use the cheapy muffin mix, but you can use whatever you like.  You can even make the batter from scratch if you are super chef.

I used red onion, which is actually frowned upon by true Chicagoans.  Sue me.  I prefer red.

Just FYI-a Chicago style hot dog is a hot dog on a poppy seed bun with tomatoes, pickles, onion and celery salt.  It is served with mustard, never ketchup.  I will break that rule too.  That’s just me though…..I’m a rule breaker.  And a lone wolf.

I chopped my hot dogs into coins.  It’s funny that I would use that word because I actually have a fear of coins.  I bet you didn’t know that about me.  Coins freak me out and make me feel sick.  Feel free to laugh at me and discuss my weirdness.  I ALREADY KNOW!

If you are using a mini muffin tin, you will want to chop these up pretty well.  Size matters people.

I fry my hot dogs up for extra flavor.  The browness makes for extra yumminess!

In this bowl is 2 boxes of muffin batter, 2 eggs, milk, sugar and flour.  I use a little bit of sugar to sweeten my batter.  I think this makes for a tastier corn dog.  The flour is to combat the wetness of the tomatoes and pickles.  Just a little extra binder.

The brown stuff you see is celery salt.  Every Chicago Style Hot Dog worth its salt (celery) has this.

Once I stirred that together, and the batter will be lumpy, I added my chopped tomatoes, onions and pickles.  And the hot dogs, obviously.

I mixed this all up.

I scooped my batter into a mini muffin tin.  My kids like anything mini, and I like pretending I’m at a cocktail party.

I sprinkled poppy seeds over the top to mimic a poppy seed bun.

These baked for about 10 minutes.  Once they cooled a bit, I popped them out of the tray.  Remember to grease your pans!

So cute!  And they taste just like a Chicago Style hot dog….and a corn dog.

If you don’t like Chicago Style hot dogs, you could obviously just make plain corn dog muffins.  You could also add honey to the batter, or cheese, etc.  Make these your own!  What does your family like?

So good!  And so good dipped in ketchup!  Sorry Chicago.

Look at that hot dog.  I swear it is 10 times better just because I browned the hot dogs.  This step shouldn’t be skipped.

I hope you make these for your family!  Your kids will love it!  I might even send mine over.

Chicago Style Corn Dog Muffins

2 8.5 oz. packages Corn Muffin Mix

2 eggs

2/3 cup milk

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon celery salt

5 hot dogs, chopped and browned in a sauté pan

¾ cup tomatoes, chopped

¾ cup pickles, chopped

½ cup onion, chopped

2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Cooking spray

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and spray 2 mini muffin tins (24 count) with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir together muffin mix, eggs, milk, flour, sugar and celery salt.  Batter will be lumpy.

Next, stir in chopped pickles, tomatoes and onion.  Gently fold in hot dogs.

Scoop batter into muffin tins, about 2/3 full.  Sprinkle tops with poppy seeds.

Bake at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.  Once cooled, remove from muffin tins.

Makes 48 mini muffins.