These Are The Only Hot Dogs Worth Buying For Your Summer BBQ (2024)

Being served a straight-from-the-grill hot dog is the harbinger of summer. With that first bite, we're promised tank tops, sunglasses, and sunscreen. Hot days and cool nights. Barbecues and pool parties. In short, hot dogs are glorious. But for something so sacred, chances are that when browsing your grocery store's frankfurter section, you're not thinking too hard. You might go with a familiar brand, or a variety that's a few cents cheaper. A hot dog is a hot dog, right? Wrong!

Turns out, when you eat a bunch of hot dogs (24 to be exact!), you learn a thing or two. Not all franks are created equal, so we decided to do the heavy lifting to determine the top dog. To level the playing field, all hot dogs were boiled. There was no grilling allowed, as we felt smokiness could mask any funky or subtle flavors. Buns, ketchup, mustard, relish, and other condiments were also off the table. This tasting was all about the dogs! (That said, if you need some ideas on how to top your dogs, here are some brilliant ones.)

Delish editors looked at flavor, texture, snap, and density when considering which hot dogs were best. So! As you make your most important summer plans, please keep this meticulous ranking in mind. If you need something to eat along side all these hot dogs, check out these side dishes for hot dogs.

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The Applegate beef hot dog took our top spot for one reason: It's the dog every one of our tasters wanted at a cookout. The texture is spot on, light but not to light. As for flavor, it's "a touch sweet and a little bit smoky," said one of our testers. "I'd eat that at a barbecue!"

If you live in New York City, you know Sabrett. It's the hot dog hawked in carts across the five boroughs, all beneath an iconic blue-and-yellow Sabrett-branded umbrella. Delish HQ is located in the Big Apple, so this brand is near and dear to many of our tasters. But nostalgia aside, it delivers. I thought it had a nice snap, and the meat was perfectly seasoned.

Hebrew National wins the best classic hot dog because "it tastes like a hot dog should taste," one of our testers said. There are no surprises, the snap isn't over the top, and the texture is dense, but not too thick. It's the hot dog you feed someone who has never had a hot dog—an introductory dog, if you will.

Niman Ranch sells a few different beef-based hot dogs, but we like this beef-and-pork dog the best. It mixes heritage pork with Angus beef to create a very smooth texture and mild taste.

What makes this Angus beef hot dog pop is, of course, the Angus beef, which famously has extra fat compared to other types of beef. The result? A hot dog that's "a little smoky, a little buttery," Associate SEO Editor Allison Arnold said.

When a hot dog is described as "plump," as Dominguez said, and "fluffy," as I said, it automatically wins best texture. This Wellshire beef frank may look like any other hot dog on the market, but the meat inside the casing is soft (but not spongy), firm (but not dense), and juicy (but not wet). Wins all around!

Sometimes you want to splurge on a hot dog. You want it to taste like a hot dog, but better. For those instances, we recommend Boar's Head uncured beef frankfurters. They're pricey at $9 for about eight links, but so worth it. Dogs boast a delightfully smoky flavor, thick casing, and a paprika-forward aftertaste.

If you're balling on a budget, these Oscar Mayer originals are the best cheap dogs around. You can find them in just about any grocery store for about $0.40 each and although the texture is a little mushy, the flavor is really beefy.

While this Oscar Mayer weiner didn't exactly stand out from the pack for its flavor, snap, or texture—in fact, it tasted pretty much identical to our Best Budget pick, Oscar Mayer's Classic Beef dogs—we can't argue with its reasonable price and what we'll call the nostalgia factor. "[It] reminds me of childhood," Smith said. Think of it like the classic cafeteria-style hot dog you used to top with too much Heinz ketchup and sweet relish.

You might be wondering: What makes us think these 365 beef hot dogs are good for grilling if our taste test only consisted of boiled franks? Well, both Arnold and myself picked out a distinctive floral flavor in these dogs, which we think would pair nicely with a grill's smokiness. Who new a hot dog could be that nuanced?

You might associate this brand with Coney Island, which is home to Nathan's original location, but it's also the official hot dog of MLB. So when Arnold said these classic franks "taste like a hot dog I would get at a baseball game," she isn't wrong. You can find them at the stadiums of the St. Louis Cardinals, Miami Marlins, New York Mets, and the New York Yankees, to name a few!