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Pretzel Dogs Recipe

These pretzel dogs are easy to make and taste incredible! You’ll love these pretzel hot dogs in the air fryer or oven for a fast dinner, afterschool snack, or game day treat.
A tray of pretzel wrapped hot dogs
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These Pretzel Dogs are easy to make and taste incredible! You’ll love these pretzel hot dogs in the air fryer or oven for a fast dinner, afterschool snack, or game day treat.

A hand dipping an air fryer pretzel dog into a bowl of mustard

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Pretzel dogs are the ultimate comfort food that will be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. Though to be honest, if there is only one left on the tray, I’m totally elbowing my kids to get to the last one. 

These make such a fun dinner or snack and they freeze like a dream. Want to make mealtime simple for everyone? Of course, you do, so make a batch of air fryer pretzel dogs today!

This recipe uses the dough base from our super-popular Air Fryer Pretzel Bites. If you have any leftover bits of dough, consider making a batch of the bites or Cinnamon Apple Bites if you’re craving something sweet.

Pretzel Dog Ingredients

  • Hot dogs! Use your favorite, including veggie dogs.
  • Pretzel dough – flour, salt, a pinch of sugar, quick-rise yeast
  • Melted butter for the top, but if you’re dairy-free, vegan butter or olive oil will work too.
  • Topping suggestions – sesame seeds, pretzel salt, Everything But the Bagel seasoning

What to Serve With Pretzel Dogs

What’s a pretzel dog without an awesome dip? Sad, that’s what. You can go classic with plain mustard, or mix it up with Pub Cheese, Healthy Ranch Dressing, or Sugar-Free Pizza Sauce.

To balance everything out, I like to serve these with a big plate of veggies. They’re great with Garlic Butter Green Beans, Air Fryer Asparagus, Blistered Shishito Peppers, Cucumber and Onion Salad, or Roasted Frozen Broccoli.

6 photos showing step by step how to make air fryer pretzel dogs

Pro Tips/Recipe Notes

  • These can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance. Place a piece of parchment or waxed paper between layers if stacking dogs in a container for fridge storage.
  • To freeze, place uncooked pretzel dogs on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze for three hours. Transfer to freezer storage and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake from frozen at the normal cooking temp and time.
  • You can do a baking soda bath to create a deeper brown pretzel texture on the dough. Gently place the wrapped dogs in 4 cups of boiling water mixed with 1/3 cup of baking soda prior to cooking in the air fryer.
  • There is no need to flip halfway through cooking unless you desire.
A tray of pretzel wrapped hot dogs
A tray of pretzel wrapped hot dogs
Print Recipe
5 from 8 ratings

Pretzel Dogs Recipe

Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time7 minutes
Total Time27 minutes
These pretzel dogs are easy to make and taste incredible! You’ll love these pretzel hot dogs in the air fryer or oven for a fast dinner, afterschool snack, or game day treat.

Ingredients

  • 8 hot dogs
  • 1/2 cup warm water {-110 degrees F}
  • 3/4 tsp quick rise yeast
  • 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour {plus more for dusting}
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 tsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp butter {melted}
  • pretzel salt {optional}
  • sesame seeds {optional}
  • olive oil {for air fryer basket}

Instructions

  • In a medium mixing bowl combine water and yeast. Stir.
    1/2 cup warm water, 3/4 tsp quick rise yeast
  • Add the flour, sugar, and sea salt and stir until it is mostly combined.
    1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • Lightly flour your hands and knead the dough by hand for 1 minute, bringing it into a ball. Divide the dough into eighths.
  • On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into ropes about 14-20 inches long depending on the size of the hot dog.
  • Starting at one of the end hot dog, wrap the dough around the entire length, rolling as you go. Gently pinch the dough at each end so they’ll stay together.
    8 hot dogs

Air Fryer Baking Instructions

  • Brush the basket of the air fryer with olive oil. Place pretzel dogs into the basket, giving them enough room to expand slightly.
    olive oil
  • Cook for 7 minutes at 390 degrees F, or until lightly browned on top. Brush melted butter on top of hot pretzel bites and sprinkle with pretzel salt and/or sesame seeds.
    2 tbsp butter, sesame seeds, pretzel salt

Oven Baking Instructions

  • Bake in a preheated oven at 425F degrees on a parchment-lined sheet for 10-12 minutes.

Notes

  1. These can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance. Place a piece of parchment or waxed paper between layers.
  2. To freeze, place uncooked pretzel dogs on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze for three hours. Transfer to freezer storage and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake from frozen at the normal cooking temp and time.
Nutrition Facts
Pretzel Dogs Recipe
Amount Per Serving (1 hot dog)
Calories 213 Calories from Fat 90
% Daily Value*
Fat 10g15%
Saturated Fat 4g25%
Cholesterol 28mg9%
Sodium 406mg18%
Potassium 88mg3%
Carbohydrates 24g8%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 1g1%
Protein 7g14%
Vitamin A 89IU2%
Calcium 14mg1%
Iron 2mg11%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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18 comments on “Pretzel Dogs Recipe”

  1. I have the hot dogs – just need to go and get some quick rising yeast. Made this with Cresent roll dough, and they came out fantastic; but now I want to try them with the pretzel dough. I have an XL Power Air Fryer Grill so this will be a snap. Thanks so much for posting this recipe. Oh – I also love all of your Air Fryer recipies – they are so each and delicious.5 stars

    • Kathi, if you have active yeast you can still make the dough. It will just require a rise time of 30-45 minutes. That being said, the crescent rolls dough sounds fantastic too!

  2. Seriously, the best camping dinner! I made these a day ahead and they were easy (and fast!) to make and and a definite kid favorite. We are always on the look out for easy less-mess and less-“things to remember” dinners for camping. Will be trying this at home next time we have hot dog night, which won’t be far off!5 stars

  3. These are a family favorite!!! We tend to use the pretzel dough recipe (same things just more dough) so that I make a batch of pretzel dogs and pretzels in one dinner. Bonus snacks with minimal extra effort = Win! Sarah’s recipes are so easy to follow and are just yummy!! 5 stars

  4. I made these for the 1st time past night, they were super easy to make and really tasty.

    We got an air fryer recently and Im always on the look out for new things to try in it.

    These will be a firm favourite in my house from now on 10 out of 10 🙂5 stars

  5. I’m a truck driver and love to try new recipes but I don’t have the space to make dough from scratch can I use pre-made pretzel dough for these?

  6. I never serve hotdogs because, besides the fact that I don’t like them, the bun situation is super annoying (that the number of buns never matches the number of dogs and I don’t like them enough to want to DIY the buns). But my kid asked for them recently, so I made a batch of these and all parties were satisfied.
    I actually made the full batch of the pretzel bites dough and used 1/3 for standard hotdogs, 1/3 wrapped around jalapeño-cheddar bratwurst (so much better than hotdogs!), and 1/3 in pretzel bites. All but two each of the dogs and brats went directly in the freezer for later. 
    I also subbed whole wheat for 1/4 of the AP flour, which worked swell. Oh, and I followed the oven directions since I don’t have an air fryer (yet…).  Thanks for another great recipe!5 stars

    • Haha, YES to the buns never matching up to the dogs. It’s the weirdest!!!

      I think that air fryer situation needs to change soon. 🙂

  7. The 12 year old asked to help make dinner so we made these. They were easy enough for a kid to make and delicious! We made them in the oven because our tiny free air fryer would only fit one at a time. All 5 family members gave it 2 thumbs up, even the picky 4yo who only eats fruit snacks and goldfish. Definitely adding to our rotation! Kids have already requested this again. 🙂5 stars

  8. These are ridiculously easy, quick, and delicious!5 stars

  9. We made the air fryer pretzel dogs last week and they were great! I really played them up to my picky eater, and he was so nervous to try them but gave them a big thumbs up.5 stars