I’ve always wanted to try making homemade corn dogs, but for some reason I always though it would be way too complicated. Mind you, this is despite numerous trips to the Wisconsin State Fair each year where I’ve literally stood a few feet away and watched how simple they are to make. Well, I finally gave it a shot a few weeks back and I’m happy to report that yep, it’s as easy as it looks!
Being me though I just couldn’t make a couple regular corn dogs and call it a day, so I decided to poke around my kitchen and see what I could add to them. While rummaging through my freezer I came across a bag of mini tater tots, so in additional to the traditional corn dog breading I decided to attempt to use those as well.
For the batter I just used this recipe from AllRecipes.com and it was absolutely spot on. If you’re looking for a corn dog batter recipe look no further, because I can’t image them tasting any better than this. While they instruct you to roll your hot dogs in the batter after you put a stick through them though I found out that it’s much easier to just fill a glass with batter and submerge them straight into that. Check out my video below to see what I mean.
I also found out that chopsticks work perfectly when you can’t find anywhere that sells corn dog sticks. Seriously, where do people even buy corn dog sticks? I found some for sale on Amazon, but they were well under the $35 minimum I needed to spend to get free shipping and I wasn’t about to pay $6.95 to ship $3 worth of sticks. I guess this is where Amazon Prime would come in handy….
Anyway, once I dipped my hot dogs in batter I quickly rolled them over a plate of cooked mini tater tots and then dropped them into my 375° deep fryer for three minutes. If there’s one thing I hate about tater tots it’s when they’re mushy, but the additional few minutes in the deep fryer left them extra crispy, which was perfect. Ideally I would have liked a little bit better tot coverage over the entire corn dog, but for a first try I’m pretty happy with the outcome.
The only real downfall to Tater Tot Breaded Corn Dogs is that their wonky shape makes it pretty impossible to dip them in ketchup. On the other hand though this opens up a whole new realm of possibilities in the corn dog world. What about a breakfast sausage on a stick breaded with corn dog batter that had bacon mixed in with it? For years now I’ve also wanted to make a Milwaukee Brewers themed racing sausages corn dog that has chunks of all five racing sausages on a stick, so I’m definitely giving that one a try soon. Or — and my fellow Wisconsinites will know where I’m coming from with this one — a corn dog that’s breaded in deep fried cheese curds!
Rob
July 13, 2015 at 10:21 am (9 years ago)A) When I read this headline, before seeing the picture, I imagined that you mashed up a bunch of raw tater tots, wrapped them around the hot dog, and fried it. Maybe another time…
B) In elementary school, I remember school breakfast sometimes including a breakfast corndog which used a breakfast sausage as you suggested, but breaded it with pancake batter and you dipped it in maple syrup.
Try it now, thank me later.
Nick Chipman
July 13, 2015 at 10:22 am (9 years ago)Yeah, in retrospect it probably would have worked much better had I mashed up the tots like that, so I might have to try that sometime.
Rusty
July 17, 2015 at 9:37 pm (9 years ago)I was thinking the same thing as Rob. I saw a recipe for making a quiche where you mashed defrosted tater tots and used them for the pie crust. Sounds really tasty.
Rob
August 7, 2015 at 7:23 am (9 years ago)That sounds awesome.