Hamburger-Wrapped Mozzarella Hot Dog

Special equipment needed: A grill, a handful of wood smoking chips or pellets and a roll of plastic wrap.

For the rub: Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl then store whatever you don’t use in this recipe in an airtight container.

For the dogs: Mix the first 8 ingredients (beef, pork, the listed amount of homemade rub, egg, soy sauce, granulated garlic, mustard powder and onion) in a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-3 hours for flavors to blend.

Divide up the hamburger mixture in six equal-sized piles. Lay out a piece of plastic wrap about 8” x 10” on a flat surface (you’ll need 6 of these sheets of plastic wrap). Take one pile of meat and spread it into a rectangle (about 6” X 4”) on one sheet of plastic. Place a hot dog in the middle of the meat pile.

By pulling, split one piece of the string cheese in half and then into quarters. Put one quarter of string cheese on each side of the hot dog. Set the other 2 quarters of cheese aside.

Carefully lift the plastic wrap and to mold the meat around the hot dog and cheese to form an approximately 1½ inch roll. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap to hold the shape. Refrigerate to hold the shape and until you need to cook them. Repeat for the remaining rolls.

Heat your grill to 350 F (gas or charcoal) with a hot zone and a cool zone

Remove the rolls from the fridge and unwrap the plastic. Place the rolls on the cool side of the grill and put some wood chips (or a handful of pellets) on the hot side to generate some smoke as you want to smoke it first. Cook indirect for 30 minutes.

Then move the hot dogs directly over the hot coals for a couple minutes flipping once, to make some nice grill marks on both sides. Toast your hot dog buns on the grill if you like. Remove the dogs and buns to a clean plate.

Place the grilled hamburger wrapped mozzarella hot dogs into each toasted bun. If you making a batch of these for a party, wrap the cooked rolls in foil and keep warm.

Serve immediately with some barbecue sauce or your favorite condiments.