Reuben Hot Dogs

🔪 Ingredients for Reuben Hot Dogs

Quantities are in the recipe card below.

• Knockwurst: a fat, snappy link that can take direct grill heat without splitting. Look for it at a deli counter or European market. A good all beef frank works, but you lose the snap.
• Sliced pastrami: not corned beef. The black pepper and coriander crust is what reads as a Reuben once the broiler hits it, and corned beef has none of it.
• Sauerkraut: drain it hard and squeeze it dry. Wet kraut is what turns the bottom of the roll to mush.
• Shredded Swiss
• Thousand island dressing
• Hot dog rolls

🌭 What Is Knockwurst?

A short, thick German sausage of beef and pork, garlic forward and already smoked and cooked when you buy it. That last part matters here: you are grilling for char and heat, not to cook it through. The casing is what gives you the snap that a standard hot dog cannot, and it stands up to being buried under kraut and cheese without disappearing.

📝 How to Make Reuben Hot Dogs

1. Preheat the grill to medium high, around 400°F, and scrape the grate clean.
2. Warm the sauerkraut and drain it dry while the grill heats. Cold kraut drops the temperature of the finished dog, and wet kraut soaks the roll.
3. Grill the knockwurst 5 to 7 minutes, turning to blister all sides, until the casings char in spots and split just slightly. They are already cooked, so you are chasing color and 160°F internal, not doneness.
4. Toast the rolls cut side down on the grill for 30 to 60 seconds, until they take on color. A toasted roll is the only thing standing between the dressing and a soggy bottom.
5. Wrap each link in pastrami and set it in a roll. Wrap while the link is hot so the pastrami relaxes around it instead of sitting on top in a stiff sheet.
6. Load the kraut and Swiss, then broil for 1 minute, until the cheese just melts and slumps into the kraut. Watch it. At a minute it is right, at two the rolls burn.
7. Finish with thousand island and eat immediately, standing up.

🔄 Substitutions

• Kosher beef franks for knockwurst: the straightforward swap if your store does not carry knockwurst, and it makes the whole build kosher. You lose some of the snap.
• Corned beef for pastrami: works, but it goes soft under the broiler and the sandwich reads flatter without the pepper crust.
• Russian dressing for thousand island: more horseradish bite, less sweetness. Arguably the more traditional Reuben call.
• Gruyère for Swiss: nuttier and it melts beautifully. Provolone is too mild to register under the kraut.
• What does not work: skipping the roll toast. The dressing goes straight through an untoasted bun and the whole thing collapses in your hand.

🍽️ What to Serve with Reuben Hot Dogs

• Dill pickle spears, cold, straight from the jar
• Salt and vinegar chips or thick cut fries
• A vinegar-based slaw rather than a creamy one, since there is already dressing on the dog
• More from our epic hot dogs roundup if you are running a whole grill of them

🧊 Leftovers and Storage

• Never store them assembled. The dressing and kraut destroy the roll within an hour.
• Fridge: grilled knockwurst keeps 3 to 4 days in an airtight container. Kraut and pastrami store separately.
• Reheat: the links go back on a hot grill or in a dry skillet for 2 to 3 minutes. Rebuild fresh from there.
• Freezer: uncooked knockwurst freezes up to 3 months. Once grilled, the casing goes rubbery on thaw.

Quick Summary

Grill knockwurst until the casings char, wrap each one in pastrami, load with dry sauerkraut and Swiss, and broil for exactly one minute. Thousand island goes on last. The two things to get right are squeezing the kraut dry and toasting the roll.

❓ FAQs