A Guide to the Hot Dogs of Latin America

Panchos, completos, shucos & beyond.

Latin American hot dogs. Photo: Nicholas Gill.

Perros calientes, the direct translation of hot dogs in Spanish, are sold under countless names from country to country in Latin America. While each are unique, the one uniting factor amongst all of them is that they are usually so overloaded with toppings that it can be hard to find the meat. Unlike hot dogs in the United States, where a sliver of ketchup and mustard, maybe even some ground beef, relish or slaw top a dog, in Latin America the condiments define it. There are layers of sauces, mashed avocado, crunchy potato sticks and other toppings that make the meat stick below them almost irrelevant. Like a taco, a Latin American hot dog is more of a vehicle for various ingredients. If you want to make them vegetarian (without some kind of veggie dog), in many cases you can just remove the meat.

There are dozens upon of variations of perros calientes and panchos, as they are often called in the region. Every city slaps them together to their own beat. We mentioned a few of them in The Latin American Cookbook, which Kate Krader wrote about at Bloomberg, but there are many others that are adapted to regional flavors. Here are some of my favorites: