- 16 hours ago
Kick off grilling season with a brand new take on an American classic! In this video, Chef John teaches you how to make swicy gyro dogs, fusing your favorite American dish with a Mediterranean takeover! What gives these a sweet and spicy kick is an easy hot honey sauce that is brushed onto the sausages on the grill, giving them a sweet glaze finish. Layer homemade garlic sauce, cherry tomatoes, red onions, and diced cucumber before digging in!
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Swicey Gyro Dogs.
00:08That's right, we're giving America's favorite tube-shaped meat a Mediterranean makeover.
00:13And besides showing you how to eat a hot dog, a burger, and a gyro at the same time,
00:18we're also going to teach you a new word, since apparently calling something sweet and spicy takes too long.
00:24And to get started, we will put together our meat mixture, which we'll do with a pound of ground beef,
00:30as well as a pound of ground lamb, and feel free to use all one or the other.
00:35But I really do think half and half works best.
00:37And then to those, we will grate in some raw onion, which is not my favorite thing to do.
00:42But we only need about a quarter cup, so this will be over fast.
00:46And you can just mince it, but grating it is more traditional and more effective.
00:50But either way, we'll follow that with some crushed garlic, a little bit of plain breadcrumbs,
00:56as well as some finely minced fresh rosemary, plus a generous amount of dried oregano.
01:02We'll also need some ground cumin, some smoked paprika, some freshly ground black pepper,
01:09some salt, of course, plus a few shakes of cayenne.
01:13And then I like to do a little tiny touch of cinnamon, which apparently is controversial.
01:18But I like it, so I do.
01:20And then we'll finish up with a couple tablespoons of cold fresh water,
01:25at which point we'll get in there with two bare, clean hands,
01:28and we will start mixing, and we will keep mixing,
01:31until everything's very, very thoroughly mixed.
01:34And usually when we're mixing ground beef, we're very careful not to overmix.
01:38But in this case, we actually want to intentionally overmix,
01:41since we want this to have a firm bite and not be crumbly.
01:45In fact, a lot of people would do this in a food processor, to get a proper emulsion.
01:49But since I kind of want something that's a hybrid between a burger and a hot dog,
01:53I think just a thorough hand mixing is going to be fine.
01:56And once that's done, we can go ahead and shape our dogs,
02:00which we'll do on some plastic wrap, with some damp hands,
02:03which of course prevents the meat from sticking to our skin.
02:06And we'll take exactly one-eighth of our mixture,
02:09which yes, I did with a scale, so they're exact.
02:11And we'll form a log about seven inches long.
02:14Since seven inches is plenty, that's what I said.
02:18And the reason seven inches is plenty, is because our buns are six inches,
02:22and these are going to shrink about an inch when they cook,
02:25which means if everything goes according to plan, they will fit perfectly.
02:29But anyway, we'll roll those up, and smooth them out nice and uniformly,
02:33and we'll give those ends a little bit of a twist.
02:36And that's it, we'll do the same thing to the other seven portions.
02:39And we'll transfer those onto a pan, and then transfer them into the fridge overnight,
02:44or at the very least for three or four hours, to give the meat a chance to cure,
02:48and for those seasonings to work themselves in.
02:51And by the way, if you don't have time to form your hot dogs right when you mix the meat,
02:54you can just refrigerate the meat overnight, and then shape your hot dogs the next day.
02:59But it really doesn't matter, as long as that meat gets a chance to sit for a while.
03:03So, but either way, besides shaping our dogs, we're going to want to make our hot honey,
03:08which is what's going to make these swicey.
03:10And for that, all we need is a little bit of honey, a little bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice,
03:16or not too much, just like a teaspoon.
03:18And then we'll spice this up with two things,
03:20a nice big squeeze of shirazza hot sauce,
03:24plus a nice big spoon of cayenne,
03:26which actually came out as a big chunk, and I don't know why.
03:29Maybe high humidity.
03:31But anyway, we'll mix that up.
03:33So later, we can use that to brush on our grilling dogs.
03:37And then the other component we can mix up ahead of time would be our garlic sauce,
03:41which is nothing more than some Greek yogurt,
03:44to which we will add some crushed garlic,
03:46followed by a touch of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
03:49And then we'll finish up with a pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil.
03:53And we will give that a quick mix before we add our water.
03:57I mean, you can add the water with the rest of the ingredients,
03:59but if I do, I always splash it out of the bowl when I start to mix,
04:03and it's super annoying.
04:05So we'll give this a mix first to loosen it up
04:07before we add the amount of water that gives us our desired texture.
04:12You can leave this nice and thick,
04:13but I want to add enough so I can use a squeeze bottle
04:16for that professional magazine cover presentation.
04:20And that's it.
04:21Once everything's said, we can start cooking our dogs,
04:23which I highly suggest you do on a charcoal grill.
04:27But any standard method for cooking hot dogs will work with these.
04:30So you decide.
04:32I mean, you are, for all the god,
04:34of your swicey gyro dog.
04:36But I think all hot dogs,
04:38especially ones made out of this stuff,
04:40are at their best cooked on a grill.
04:42And what we'll do is let that first side cook for about two minutes
04:45before we give them a turn.
04:48And then I'll repeat that process every two minutes
04:50for about eight minutes total
04:52before we start brushing these with our hot honey.
04:55And I'm not going to show you every turn
04:57because they all kind of look the same.
04:59But this is what they look like
05:01when I thought I was ready to start brushing on the honey.
05:04And by the way,
05:05I had the worst luck with the wind during this video.
05:08Right during every single shot,
05:09the wind would shift and blow it right towards the camera.
05:12But anyway, we'll go ahead and give those a generous brushing.
05:15And as soon as that's applied,
05:17we're going to want to turn these over
05:19so the honey's facing the coals
05:21and it starts to caramelize a little bit.
05:23But be careful, since as you know,
05:26anytime you're basting or brushing something with a sweet sauce,
05:29it can quickly burn.
05:30So basically, as soon as we brush the other side,
05:33we'll flip these back over.
05:35And we'll keep doing that
05:36until either our honey's gone
05:38or we decide our dogs are safely cooked through.
05:41At which point, we'll pull those off the grill
05:44and we will head inside and serve up.
05:47And before dog hits bun,
05:49we'll want to take our garlic sauce
05:51and spread or squeeze some inside the bun.
05:54And as you can see,
05:55I went with the split top style,
05:57which I think makes for a much nicer presentation.
06:00And to prove it,
06:01I'm going to nestle one of our glistening
06:03gyro dogs down in.
06:05And then as far as fixings go,
06:07I'm going to squeeze in some nice sweet cherry tomatoes
06:09along the top edge.
06:11And once those were perfectly placed in,
06:14we will apply some more garlic sauce over the top.
06:16And right here,
06:17you can see the advantages of the squeeze bottle.
06:20I mean, a dollop's nice.
06:21A spread is fine.
06:23But neither of those applications
06:25is going to look as enticing as this.
06:27Especially when we finish up
06:29with some thinly sliced red onions,
06:31followed by some finely diced cucumber.
06:34And pro tip,
06:35if you soak your red onions
06:36in a mixture of half water
06:38and half red wine vinegar,
06:39they will taste better
06:41and have an even more beautiful color.
06:43And that, my friends,
06:44is one gorgeous dog.
06:46So let me grab a knife
06:47and cut this in half
06:48so we can see what's going on.
06:50And what's going on
06:51is the same meat we used for a gyro,
06:53presented in hot dog form.
06:56And above and beyond
06:57the incredible flavors here.
06:58And they really were spectacular.
07:01Texturally speaking,
07:02as I had hoped,
07:04we have something right between
07:05a burger and a hot dog.
07:07Oh, and please note,
07:08because of the salt and paprika
07:10and the fact that we let this
07:11cure in the fridge overnight,
07:13even cooked all the way through,
07:15the meat's going to retain
07:16a little bit of a pink color.
07:17So don't let that throw you off.
07:19And I actually think
07:20it's kind of a nice perk.
07:22And then getting back
07:23to the flavor for a second,
07:24those herbs and spices we used
07:26worked incredibly well
07:27with that swicy glaze.
07:29So while optional,
07:30I really hope you include that
07:32if you make these.
07:33Although I'm sorry,
07:34I'm actually going to go back
07:35to saying sweet and spicy.
07:37I'm not sure people my age
07:38should be using terms like swicy.
07:40All right, I'm sure a lot of people
07:42probably think that's sus.
07:43But no matter what term you use,
07:45or whether you say gyro or gyro,
07:48I loved everything about this,
07:50which is why I really do hope
07:52you give it a try soon.
07:54So please follow the links below
07:56for the ingredient amounts,
07:58a printable written recipe,
07:59and much more info as usual.
08:01And as always,
08:04enjoy.
Comments