mini corn & cheese dogs (one bowl easy!)

Ever have a dusty box of ____ in the cupboard and look at the expiration date and think "yikes, how did I let that get so old?"
That happens to me a lot,  I have good intentions of using said dusty box soon, and yet all it does it sits there for a year or more.
Said box in question is the corn bread mix from Trader Joe's.
I remember buying two boxes of the cornbread, knowing one box will be used to make corn bread muffins JUST so I can make another batch of my sweet & spicy bacon jam.
And the second box, just sat on the shelf for the longest time, it got moved from one cupboard to another in hopes I'll remember to use it to make something.
Last weekend I finally came up with a use for it:  will it will deep fry?
Yeah, let's deep fry it! (tell me your brain works this way too?).
And yes, it does deep fry, very well in fact.
One bowl easy too.
Just mix, add some cheese, dip hot dogs or mini hot dogs in batter, and deep fry.
It fries up nice and light. The batter is a little bit of a challenge to work with to coat hot dogs, but once you have the hang of it, it gets easier.
Of course if you are still weary of deep frying then make baked corn dogs!
Just pour the batter in a flat pan or brownie pan, top with a few lines of hot dogs and bake!
I made baked corn dogs ages ago, so please ignore the bad photos--it's a really old post, but a great recipe.

So easy to assemble.
Use the Trader Joe's Cornbread Mix.
Mix, add cheese if desired.
Then dip hot dogs.


You can coat the dogs one of two ways: using a small ice cream scoop.

And this will give round corn dogs or fritters.

Or you can just coat them using your fingers.

And this will give you thinner, longer corn dogs.
Of course if you had skewers then that would also work, but alas I didn't.

I served these with corn relish dipping sauce. Any excuse to eat corn relish!


mini corn & cheese dogs (one bowl easy!)
print recipe

trader joes cornbread mix (you could try another brand, but I don't know if it will deep fry)
1/2 - 1 cup grated cheddar cheese (use as much or as little as you like)
couple dashes of pepper
mini hot dogs (about 10-15) (or use tofu dogs!)

vegetable oil for deep frying

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.
Using a small ice cream scoop or your hands, coat the hot dogs in batter and fry in the oil.
They fry up pretty fast so keep an eye on them, and make sure to turn them over once during frying.
Let cool and drain on brown paper or wire racks with sheet on bottom.
They really don't need to be salted when they come out of the fryer.
Use whatever dipping sauces you like; I loved using corn relish.
One box made about 12-15 mini corn dogs.
Of course you could try baking these if you're uneasy about deep frying.
Since I have not done this, I would use a brownie pan or bigger.
Place the cornbread mix in greased pan, then place hot dogs (large or small) on top of batter.
Then bake at 350 degrees for?? 15-30 minutes (or whatever the directions on the box said??)