Win the family cookout with perfectly cooked hot dogs

Hot dogs from a microwave, slow cooker, air fryer, and grill in Studio 45 at NPR headquarters. Ayesha Rascoe hide caption

Preparing a hot dog is simple enough. But what is the best way to cook this summertime staple? Chef Kenji López-Alt, the James Beard Award winner and cookbook author, has some advice.

"Look for a hot dog that has a natural casing," he said. Natural casings are made of lamb skins and give hot dogs a bit of a curve, while the hot dogs without casing pack flat into the package.

"That's what's going to give you the snap no matter how you cook it," López-Alt said.

As far as how to cook a hot dog, there are about as many opinions as there are home cooks. Boil them in water? Roast them over a fire with a stick? We investigated a few methods for cooking hot dogs just right.

A quick fix for when you need a hot dog NOW

The best flavor emerges with time, according to Kenji López-Alt. "Low and slow is always a good idea with any kind of sausages," he said.

Ayesha Rascoe, however, confessed to cooking "hot and fast. And burnt."

As fast as a microwave might be, it did not exactly win in our testing. We wrapped the hot dog in a paper towel and cooked it for 45 seconds. But it was a mess. The skin split, the ends were shriveled, and the texture was limp.

While not his preferred method, López-Alt conceded that microwaves have their place in any kitchen with kids.

"I've cooked plenty of hot dogs in the microwave," he said. "I've had to get food on the table as quickly as possible."

Our tests found that an air fryer, on the other hand, cooked a hot dog nearly as quickly, and produced a snappier skin and much better flavor.

"An air fryer has a very strong convection fan that's pulling away excess moisture," López-Alt explained.

Our air fryer hot dog looked crispy and the color seemed right. But structurally, it came out a little misshapen.

Online chefs suggested cutting the skin to give the hot dog more surface area. It worked for our Ballpark beef franks, but López-Alt forbade that kind of hack for hot dogs with natural casings.

Slow and steady, and a little off-color?

The slowest method we tested for a hot dog was not so different from what they're doing at gas stations: a little heat for hours on end.

López-Alt shared a recipe from a Kentucky friend who puts cocktail weenies in a slow cooker with a cup of ketchup, a cup of brown sugar, and a cup of bourbon before a party. The flavor is rich. But the color of slow cooker hot dogs can be a little off-putting.

We put hot dogs in a slow cooker without any water for two hours on low heat.

"It looks kind of dead," Rascoe said, as though everything good had been cooked right out of it.

After a bite, however, Rascoe changed her mind. "Looks can be deceiving," she said.

With its wan color and swollen skin, "I would have been like, it's NASTY!" she said. But, the slow cooker brought out the hot dog's deep, meaty flavor.

It's an easy way to have cooked hot dogs on hand for as long as the party lasts. A few dozen could sit in the slow cooker for hours.

Sometimes a classic is classic for a reason

A hot grill was also a winner in our testing. We put a little Weber grill on a balcony at NPR headquarters and roasted the dogs away from the coals for a minute and a half to warm them up. Then, we put them right over the coals until they were sweating and crisp. The skin had beautiful grill marks and a perfect color.

"It's not as salty off the grill," Rascoe concluded, although as a daughter of North Carolina, she yearned for mustard, coleslaw, onions and chili to eat with it.

López-Alt, a New Yorker, prefers sauerkraut and spicy mustard.

As a chef, López-Alt is attuned to the regional preferences in hot dog toppings. Since he's been in Seattle, he's seen hot dogs topped with warm cream cheese, jalapenos, and grilled onions. Sounds suspicious, but, "if you get it right, with the right person, they're an interesting variation," he said.

Whether it's relish, ketchup, or cream cheese, and whether it's the air fryer, the grill, or the slow cooker, we hope your holiday is delicious.