Weiner Wednesdays are back, kittens!
For the next four weeks it’s gonna be nothing but WIENERS, WIENER, WIENERS!
To kick off Wiener Wednesdays, I present to you the Ortega Hotter Dog.
The Hotter Dog is a baked hot dog between a slice of toasted white bread covered with American cheese and a curious green vegetable called a chile.
What makes it hotter is the chile and what makes the Chili is us–Ortega!
Since we wisely neglected to patent our hotter invention, you’re free to make it (See recipe.)
You’re also free to make other things with our chiles. And maybe invent the greatest thing since the hot dog.
So, the chile was still an oddity by the early 70’s?
That is curious.
At the bottom of the ad it says to write for a free recipe booklet, “The Hots.” Aren’t you dying to know what they expected the 1971 housewife to do with jalapenos? I wonder if I sent something to that P.O. Box in Oxnard, they’d send me something.
I already have this gem from 1972 in my collection:
At the beginning of the pandemic I made a Jose Cuervo Bloody Mary and some Huevos Rancheros:
Spoiler alert: they were delicious.
But back to the Hotter Dog! My local grocery store didn’t carry the whole green Ortega chiles, so I went with the Goya brand.
Let’s face it, you can’t get much simpler than layering American cheese, a jalapeno pepper, and a hot dog on a piece of white bread. Although I am confused as to how they nestled the wiener into a chile and swirled it around it (look at that original photo). That’d have to be one big, soft, pepper.
Results!!!
It would have been nice if the toast crisped up a bit more, but I’m quite surprised that the bread held it together while it baked.
The Hotter Dog was indeed a hotter dog. Damn the canned jalapenos were SPICY! But they were so yummy with the chiles.
Honestly, it reminded me of Stadium Nachos.
With a random hot dog.
Yes, the Hotter Dog is hot-dog-stadium-nachos.
And I liked it!
Chances are good I will make the Hotter Dog again since I have a lot of cheese/bread/jalapeno/hot dog left.
My mom got me a used old recipe book that was a collection of 100’s of the best recipes from off the back of product packaging. It was so cool! Just made me think of that.
The Benson & Hedges ones?
I have a whole bunch of them!
All I know is the long, pale green, bumpy, cubanelle peppers listed as sweet and mild, just purchased for frying were neither. Not knowing to wear gloves to prep caused a capsaicin-burn nightmare 🖐. So no Hotter-Hotdogs Weiner Wednesday; elusive Anaheim chiles + all 😵!
Marty K is correct. The canned chilis that Ortega is talking about are Anaheim chiles. They are much larger and very mild.
I swear, if I had a time machine, I’d mostly use it to get the free recipe booklets that I see in so many food ads. (The remaining time I’d use it to look at dinosaurs.)
Ahhh, memories. Cans of Ortega chiles — whole and diced — were pantry staples growing up in the ’60s and ’70s (along with water chestnuts for my mom’s rumaki and tuna casserole, but I digress). Ortega chiles are a bit milder than jalapeños. I think they use Anaheim chiles.