Hot Dog Burnt Ends in Oven

Best hot dog burnt ends in the oven is here. Sticky sweet caramelized wieners with barbecue sauce and brown sugar are the best appetizer. If you love chuck roast burnt ends these will be an even bigger hit with your kids!

Frozen Hot Dog Burnt Ends

It is by far better if your packages are already thawed or fresh. If you are in a pinch though we do share how to cook frozen hot dogs here. You just need to do enough to defrost the insides and then follow the instructions with our dry rub and sauce below. I love Hebrew National with a bit more of a casing but Oscar Meyers works too.

If you have never made what they call burnt ends they aren’t really burned at all. I guess the reason they say this is that you get whatever meat you’re using a really deep, somewhat crispy outside. Paired with your sauce that begins to caramelize after a while they may look overdone but OH MY they aren’t.

Hot Dog Burnt Ends Oven Recipe

Most of the time when you hear of this it is made with beef of some kind, cut into large bite size pieces. This one was more thinking outside of the box with something everyone including kids would love. You could certainly do the same thing but place your pan on your grill or Traeger. Smoked is fabulous too but will take a lot more time.

We are going to explain how it’s done baked in the oven instead. This way you can certainly make them year round, even when it’s snowing outside and you aren’t about to head out there. 😉 You’re going to need to get out;

• 2 packages of hot dogs,
  • you could certainly make just 1 if you wanted, just half everything if you do
  • hot dog pieces should be 1/3 of the dog or large bite size pieces
• 1/4 c yellow mustard
• Dark brown sugar
• Your favorite bbq sauce
• 1/3 c butter
• 1 tsp liquid smoke

Hot Dog dry rub

We have shared a lot of dry rub recipes on our site, this is the latest. If you wanted to make it spicy just add 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes into the mix.

• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 2 tsp paprika
• Onion powder and garlic powder
• Dry mustard
• Salt and pepper

Hot Dog Burnt Ends Air Fryer

Yes we have made air fryer hot dogs before too. They turn out great. If you wanted to attempt this in there you could. It wouldn’t take as long but it will get crispy fast so you’ll have to keep an eye on it. You will use the same initial sauce and then dry rub after they are cooked such as;

1. Preheat air fryer to 370 degrees F for 5 minutes
2. Brush the hot dogs with mustard & liquid smoke mixed together
3. Then roll in the dry rub mixture.
4. Spray air fryer basket with non stick spray and lay coated dogs inside for 5 minutes
5. Remove and cut into large chunks, put into a bowl
6. In a bowl mix together brown sugar, bbq sauce and butter.
7. Pour mixture on top of dogs and toss to coat
8. Put back into air fryer for 3-5 minutes depending on how crispy you want them to be, shake basket halfway thru

You can try multiple ways and see which you prefer. If yours are hard to begin with you should get them to tender with our air fryer frozen hot dogs directions. Decrease timing by 2 minutes or so because you’ll continue to cook with sauce later.

Hot Dog Burnt Ends without a Smoker

Like I said, you don’t have to make this outside set on the grill grates, you can like this later. You could use a cast iron skillet over medium high heat to decrease the initial timing to closer to 25 minutes. To get that deeper flavor with thicker sauce and crisp you would need to pop that into the oven at the end though.

• Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. In a ziplock bag (or bowl) toss the hot dogs with mustard, liquid smoke and dry rub mixture.
• Once they are evenly coated, place them on a baking sheet (lined with non stick aluminum foil).
• Bake for 1 hour. Remove the hot dogs from your oven and slice into thirds. Top them with brown sugar, bbq sauce and butter.
• Raise the temperature of your oven to 350 degrees F so they can start to caramelize
• Return the hot dogs to the oven for another 25-30 minutes. 
• Toss the hot dogs 1-2x throughout the process. Once they are caramelized and browned, remove from the oven and let cool slightly before serving.
• ** If you want them really crispy change oven to 400 degrees for last 10 minutes or so.

If you are making burnt ends with frozen hot dogs, they need to be separated and then lay on baking sheet at 400 for about 4 minutes until defrosted, drain any liquid from pan. Decrease heat to 275 F and brush mixture on instead of tossing in a bag and proceed to the rest of the instructions as listed here.

Burnt Ends with Hot Dogs

Sometimes this recipe is called poor man ______ whatever the meat is. I guess because you can use something inexpensive, like even pork belly and add all these flavors that the taste is like gourmet. When you serve and enjoy this all you really need are toothpicks. A great addition to a buffet with a large gathering for sure. Always a huge hit and never lasts long around here.

Of course if you have a sweet rub of your own then by all means try that instead but ours is MMmmm. Same is used with brisket burnt ends or sometimes I’ll toss it with leftover steak to transform into a new meal. You can print recipe below or just come back time and time again.