← São Paulo

Cachorro Quente

The Brazilian maximalist street dog simmered in spiced tomato sauce and loaded with mashed potatoes and crunchy potato sticks.

Flag of BrazilOrigin: São Paulo, Brazil
Cachorro Quente illustrated hot dog icon

Origin region: São Paulo, Brazil

The anatomy

Vessel
Soft plain hot dog bun
Sausage
Vienna-style salsicha
Region
São Paulo
Ingredients

The Cachorro Quente is Brazil's rejection of hotdog minimalism. Sausages are simmered directly in a chunky, spiced tomato and vegetable sauce rather than grilled, keeping them plump and wet. In São Paulo, the street vendors line the soft bun with warm mashed potatoes before loading it with ground beef, corn, peas, and a mountain of crispy potato sticks. The result is structurally precarious, highly heavy, and best eaten standing up over a street curb.

Method

  1. 1Prepare a batch of warm, buttery mashed potatoes and set aside.
  2. 2Finely dice tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers, then toss with vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper to make the vinagrete.
  3. 3Warm up the canned sweet corn and green peas in separate small pans.
  4. 4In a medium saucepan, heat oil and sauté diced onions and bell peppers until soft, then add garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
  5. 5If using ground beef, add the minced meat to the aromatics, season with salt, pepper, and cumin, and cook until browned.
  6. 6Stir tomato paste, tomato sauce, water, and oregano into the pan, then simmer for 10 minutes until thick.
  7. 7Add the whole hot dog sausages directly into the simmering sauce, cover, and let them poach for six minutes.
  8. 8Slice the soft bun lengthwise, then smear a generous layer of warm mashed potatoes on both inner sides.
  9. 9Place the sauce-drenched sausage into the bun and spoon extra tomato sauce and ground beef over it.
  10. 10Immediately sprinkle grated Parmesan over the hot sauce to let it melt.
  11. 11Drizzle ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise in strips, then add spoonfuls of corn, peas, and vinagrete.
  12. 12Top with a massive heap of crispy batata palha and serve immediately.

Sources

Controversies

The addition of mashed potatoes inside the bun is either a structural necessity or a starch-on-starch crime.

Our take: The mashed potato acts as a structural mortar, keeping the wet ingredients from dissolving the cheap bun. It belongs there, if only for engineering reasons.

Adding sweet raisins to a street hot dog is either a welcome sweet-and-savory balance or a ruinous addition.

Our take: Keep dried fruit out of the sausage bun. The savory elements do not need sweet interference from a wrinkled grape.

The regional battle between São Paulo's mashed-potato-lined dog and Rio de Janeiro's quail-egg-topped dog.

Our take: São Paulo wins this on structural integrity. Rio's unpressed dog with rolling quail eggs is an accident waiting to happen.