Homemade Corn Dogs (Easy Corn Dog Recipe from Scratch)

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Skip the festival prices and make these easy homemade corn dogs at home! The honey buttermilk corn dog batter recipe is super yummy and doesn’t take long at all. If you’ve made pancakes, you can make a corn dog recipe easy!

Check out these helpful steps for how to make corn dogs, from the skewering, making the batter, the easy way to dip, and the best temp to deep fry. And even an easy swap: making homemade corn dogs with jiffy muffin mix will help you save a little time, too.

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Tools & Equipment

• A large heavy pot or deep Dutch oven (you won’t need the lid for this recipe) deep enough to hold about 4 inches of oil with room to spare.
• 2 dinner plates + paper towels to hold hot dogs flat after drying them and after frying them
• A deep-fry thermometer to help monitor the oil for a steady 350°F
• A large mixing bowl and a whisk or big spoon
• Wooden kebab skewers, trimmed short enough that the skewered corn dogs lay flat inside your pot
• A tall drinking glass or tall, wide-mouth jar for dipping

How to Make This Corndog Batter Recipe

Step 1: To prep your space: Get out your large pot or Dutch oven and all of the ingredients. Open the package of hot dogs and lay them out on paper towels. (The hot dogs will need to be very dry before dipping them in the corn dog batter.)

NOTE: To just use prepared Jiffy mix for the corndog batter, you can skip Steps 4 & 5 below.

Step 2: Pat dry all of the hot dogs thoroughly and completely with a clean kitchen towel or paper towel. Set them out on a plate lined with a paper towel.

Step 3: Working slowly and carefully, pick up your first hot dog and find the center of one end. Slowly insert the wooden skewer. Maintain a straight shot up the center of the hot dog about halfway to 3/4 of the way in. If the skewer goes out of alignment, withdraw it and try again. Skewer them all at once (not just one at a time) so that they will be skewered and ready to go when it’s time to dip them. Set aside.

NOTE: Eyeball (or measure with a ruler) the total length of your hot dog with two or three inches of skewer. Is your pot big enough to accommodate the corn dogs one at a time laying flat in the pot of oil? You may need to snip off the end of the skewers to ensure they fit and can float freely. (Or use a larger, oblong pot like this Lodge Dutch Oven.)

Step 3: Pour four inches of oil into the large pot and set on medium-high heat. Don’t cover with a lid (the dripping condensation will cause the hot oil to spatter.)

Step 4: While the oil heats up: Use a whisk to combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Step 5: Add the egg, honey and buttermilk, then whisk gently. If the batter is too thick to whisk, it’s okay to use a large spoon.

Step 6: Set the bowl of batter in the fridge to chill for 25 minutes. Remove bowl from the fridge and use a bowl scraper to transfer the batter into the tall glass or a tall, wide-mouth mason jar, as shown below.

Step 7: Prepare a plate with three paper towels stacked. This will be the landing place for your cooked corn dogs so they can drain off the excess oil as they cool. Set the prepared plate aside but keep it nearby since you’ll need it for the finished corny dogs.

Step 8: Holding the skewer end, slowly dunk one of the hot dogs straight down into the batter, twisting a bit.

Step 9: To ensure the hot dog is fully coated, dip into the batter a bit past the end of the hot dog where you can still see skewer. This will also help adhere batter to the corn dog.

Step 10: If you have a high-heat thermometer, it can help you maintain the oil temp to about 350F in between cooking each corn dog. Deep-fry foods like corn dogs can brown too quickly on the outside but still be cool on the inside, or take too long to cook (which causes them to soak up more oil and come out very greasy). They should take about three minutes to cook at 350F. Since the corn dogs tend to float, a gentle nudge occasionally with a long utensil or heat-safe tongs should keep them turned on every side.

Step 11: Once the corn dog has become a deep golden color, use heat-safe tongs and grasp the center of the corn dog to remove it carefully from the pot of hot oil. Place flat on the prepared plate with paper towels. Repeat Steps 8–11 for each corn dog.

Step 12: Allow the corn dogs to cool, about 6 – 10 minutes each before enjoying. Add dips alongside like bang-bang sauce, yellow mustard, honey mustard, ranch dressing, dill pickle dip, or ketchup. Feeling adventurous? Try our thick n’ clingy blue cheese dip.

Tips for Perfect Corn Dogs

• Dry dogs are good dogs. Moisture causes the batter to slide off the raw hot dogs.
• Cold batter clings better. Keep the batter in the fridge while skewering hot dogs or waiting for the oil to heat up.
• A tall glass works better than a bowl or plate. For the dip: Add the batter to a tall glass about 3/4 full. Dunk the hot dog in straight down, give it a light twist, and pull back up. It should come back up fully coated. (See photos.)
• Keep the oil at 350°F. Fry in batches so the temperature stays steady. 350F does the job so that everything cooks through but not too fast.
• Use shorter skewers. Skewers should only stick out from the dog about two inches, or they may end up too long for the pot.
• Deep fry only. You won’t hear me say that very often. I’m married to my air fryer, but this is one of those times it just won’t work. This corn dog recipe needs a hot oil bath. Save the air fryer for reheating leftover corn dogs (air fry at 350°F for about 3 minutes, or bake at 350°F until hot).

The bottom line

For an even easier recipe, you can make a corn dog batter with just Jiffy mix (make muffin mix according to package directions) and you can ignore Steps 4 & 5 above.

Here’s a list of more carnival & fair food ideas, and how to reheat funnel cake while you’re at it.