Grilled Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Hot Dogs

Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dogs! These are the absolute ultimate hot dog. They're stuffed with cheese, onions, and sauerkraut, wrapped in bacon, and cooked on a hot grill. THIS is how to grill hot dogs.

By
Elise Bauer
Elise Bauer
Elise Bauer
Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.
Learn about Simply Recipes' Editorial Process
Updated November 28, 2022
Elise Bauer
Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs on the Grill
Elise Bauer

Grilling Hot Dogs With Dad

I remarked to my father than we had been doing a lot of salads and veggies lately and without missing a beat dad said, "I want to make bacon wrapped hot dogs," adding, "on the grill," pointing to a particularly appetizing recipe in our Mastering the Grill cookbook.

Note that, in spite of gender stereotypes, my he-man father is the main baker in our family, and I am in charge of anything to do with the grill. (My mother avoids both grilling and baking.)

So, when my father says he wants to make bacon wrapped hot dogs "on the grill," he means that he wants me to do the cooking, while he'll do the prepping, which is more than fine by me.

Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs in sesame seed buns
Elise Bauer

Ultimate Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs

Do you like hot dogs, mustard, ketchup, cheese, onions, sauerkraut and bacon? Then this is the stuffed hot dog recipe for you!

It's all in there, held in place by a wrapping of bacon around the hot dog. You can easily exchange the toppings for others, though note that the sauerkraut does help keep the cheese inside the hot dog while cooking.

Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs in buns ready to serve
Elise Bauer

Love Hot Dogs? Try these!

Grilled Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Hot Dogs

Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 11 mins
Total Time 21 mins
Servings 4 hot dogs

Recipe adapted from Mastering the Grill: The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking by Andrew Schloss and David Joachim.

Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon ketchup
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 4 large hot dogs, knockwurst, or kielbasa
  • 1/2 ounce cheddar cheese, cut into long sticks
  • 2 tablespoons chopped onions
  • 1 cup prepared sauerkraut, drained, roughly chopped
  • 4 slices bacon
  • Vegetable oil
  • 4 long hot dog buns

Method

  1. Prepare your grill for direct medium high heat
  2. Slice open the hot dogs:

    Mix together the ketchup and mustard in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the sauerkraut with the chopped onion, set aside.

    Slice open the hot dogs, down the center, lengthwise, forming a deep pocket in each, but not cutting all the way through.

    Coat the inside of each hot dog with the mustard ketchup mixture.

  3. Stuff the hot dogs:

    Place a strip of cheese deep within the pocket of each hot dog. Top with sauerkraut and onions.

    Encapsulate the cheese at the ends with the sauerkraut mixture as well, so that no cheese is exposed (otherwise it will drip out when cooking).

    Stuffing hot dogs for bacon wrapped hot dogs
    Elise Bauer
    Stuffing hot dog with sauerkraut for bacon wrapped hot dogs
    Elise Bauer
  4. Wrap bacon around each hot dog:

    Wrap a strip of bacon around each stuffed hot dog, securing with toothpicks at each end.

    Make sure you wrap tight enough so that the stuffing stays in, but not so tight so that when the hot dog expands will cooking the bacon would tear.

    Bacon wrapped hot dogs
    Elise Bauer
    Keeping the bacon wrapped hot dogs together
    Elise Bauer
  5. Grill the hot dogs:

    Brush the grates of your grill with vegetable oil so that the hot dogs don't stick. If you have a grill screen (a screen with smaller holes so that small pieces of whatever you're cooking don't fall through the grill), you can use it, just coat it with vegetable oil first and pre-heat for a couple of minutes.

    Place the stuffed hot dogs on the grill, stuffing side down. Grill for 2 minutes, until the bacon on that side is cooked, turn the hot dogs a quarter turn and grill for a couple more minutes.

    Continue to grill for a few minutes each on all sides until the bacon is cooked. Cover the grill in between turnings to help with the cooking.

    How long to grill hot dogs wrapped in bacon
    Elise Bauer
    how to grill hot dogs stuffed with sauerkraut and wrapped in bacon
    Elise Bauer
  6. Grill the buns:

    During the last minute of cooking, open up the hot dog buns and place them open-side down on the grill to lightly toast.

  7. Serve:

    Remove the hot dogs and buns from the grill. Remove the toothpicks from the hot dogs. Place the hot dogs in the buns and serve.