Cheesy Jalapeno Cornbread Hot Dogs
The flavor of corn dogs is the flavor of summertime, baseball, and state fairs. Unfortunately making corn dogs in your kitchen can be a big smelly mess. Cheesy jalapeno cornbread hot dogs are here to the rescue! This recipe lets you keep the flavors without all the work. You might even say BETTER FLAVORS! I love jalapeno, honey, and cheese in my cornbread, so you know I added lots of those. Because this was a hot dog, I also spiked it with mustard. The bread itself was perfectly sweet and spicy and balanced great with the savory hot dogs. Make these for a cookout or baseball game and all your friends will ask you for the recipe!
Inspiration for this recipe
I wanted to do a baked version of corn dogs, and I saw these “stand up” soft taco shells at the store. Quickly I realized they would be a perfect place to bake the cheesy jalapeno cornbread and make a baked version of a corn dog!
I used a soft corn bread recipe so that these Cheesy jalapeno cornbread hot dogs would be moist, tender, and delicious all the way through! I was worried the ratio of cornbread to hot dog would be wrong, but because of the softer cornbread that is loaded with cheese and jalapeno, it works perfectly!
Making the cornbread batter
Cut the jalapenos and grate the cheese! I wanted the Cheesy jalapeno cornbread hot dogs to be really cheesy and have a nice spice to it! Don’t worry though, they have a lot of sweetness and fat content that really helps balance the heat and not make them seem too spicy.
Cornbread batter ingredients
- cornmeal
- flour
- baking powder
- baking soda
- buttermilk
- eggs
- butter
- mustard
- honey
- jalapenos
- pepperjack
This starts like a normal cornbread but then gets weird when you get to the mustard! MUSTARD?!? in cornbread? yes! I wanted to add the mustard cause it is my favorite hot dog topping and a little mustard flavor running through the cornbread goes a long way! We want to match the flavors to be perfect in a corn dog taco boat.
Can you use store bought cornbread mix?
YES! It will be a little denser but it will still come out great! Many people have told me they made this with cornbread mix and it worked for them. Make the cornbread batter according to the package, then stir in the mustard, jalapenos, and cheese!
Baking the Cheesy Jalapeno Cornbread Hot Dogs
Notice how they are lined up nicely in the photo below? You need to do this on the baking sheet as well. Use a sheet or a baking dish that fits them perfectly and make sure they are pressed up against each other. If you are using a baking sheet that doesn’t have tall edges, you can use foil to prop them up – that’s what I do. If you do not do this step, the tortilla will soften as it cooks and the filling is expanding and the corn dog taco boats will overflow and get everywhere.
All lined up and ready for the oven! Bake them at 400 for about 20 minutes! After the first 10 minutes when the cornbread had mostly set, I rearranged them in the oven a bit so they would get brown evenly.
When these corn dog taco boats come out of the oven, put plenty of butter, jalapenos, and honey on top. So good! One thing you will notice at first with these corn dog taco boats is they are lighter than you might expect. That’s cause the bread is light and airy! These are unbelievable. The subtle honey and mustard in the mix really helps the cornbread pair perfectly with the hot dogs. The jalapeno gives it a nice kick.
