Add Hot Dogs To Your Next Pasta Salad And Taste The Magic

There's no better match for your next charred burger than a solid helping of noodles. Whether you prefer all-American macaroni salad made with elbow macaroni and signature mayo-based dressing or zesty pasta salad with vegetables, oil, and vinegar, there is one unique and delicious way you can transform any noodle-based salad into a fully-fledged meal. Sure enough, hot dogs are the ingredient you need to upgrade your favorite pasta salad recipe from simple side dish status to entree extraordinaire.

When you first consider the idea, adding hot dogs to cold pasta salad may seem strange. Yet, think about the range of ingredients that fit the bill for any classic pasta salad recipe. Next to raw or blanched veggies, hard-boiled eggs, olives, and cheese, many recipes for this popular side include cold cuts of flavorful meat like salami or ham. Since hot dogs are pre-cooked, they can easily serve as a tasty alternative to more common pasta salad ingredients. Next to enhancing your tried and true recipe with more flavor and texture, hot dogs can be incorporated into pasta salad in many different ways. If you're at a higher risk for foodborne illness, or just want to be extra diligent, make sure to heat these meaty additions before crafting your very own one-of-a-kind recipe.

Whether you're making easy mediterranean pasta salad or following your family's age-old recipe, adding hot dogs to the mix can be accomplished in more ways than one. Even though hot dogs are fully cooked when you buy them, reheating hot dogs before consumption better safeguards you from the risk of food borne illness. So along with making your dressing of choice and boiling pasta, cook your hot dogs. 

To keep the process simple, you can boil or steam hot dogs as instructed on the package then slice them. Or, slice them and sautee them in a skillet with a bit of cooking oil until the edges are crispy, which adds more satisfying texture and flavor to your pasta salad. Either way, allow hot dogs to cool for roughly 10 to 15 minutes before slicing or adding to cooked noodles. This way you don't have to worry about hot dogs' residual heat affecting the resulting consistency of your pasta. Once noodles and hot dogs have been cooked and combined, with the help of extra ingredients, you're ready to create one deliciously unique pasta salad recipe.

The best part about incorporating hot dogs to chilled pasta is that you have endless options when it comes to additional ingredients. Hot dog pasta salad can be made with both oil and mayo-based dressings, so feel free to just add the hot dogs to your traditional recipe, or, why not shift the focus to regional hot dog toppings?

Sure enough, you can make your pasta salad take on the flavors of Chicago-style hot dogs with a few simple tweaks. Incorporate sweet relish, white onion, and chopped sport peppers to give your pasta salad a savory upgrade with a bit of heat. Make sure dressing includes celery salt and a bit of pickle juice or sport pepper juice for an added burst of flavor. Or incorporate the flavors of a classic New York-style dog with caramelized onion relish, spicy brown mustard dressing, and tangy sauerkraut.

Whichever ingredients you decide to include, maximize the flavor of your pasta salad by mixing in some dressing while the cooked pasta and hot dogs remain slightly warm. Then, you can add in your cold, chopped ingredients before serving. While hot dog pasta salad can be enjoyed warm, cold, or at room temperature, remember that hot dogs can spoil easily. Therefore, refrigerate hot dog pasta salad within two hours. All in all, hot dogs prove to be a versatile and flavorful way to enhance your next bowl of pasta salad.