Shoyu Hot Dogs are a popular local treat, often found at potlucks and okazuyas! Hot dogs are simmered with ginger, soy sauce, and brown sugar. They're saucy, sweet and salty, and best with a bowl of rice.
Shoyu hot dogs over a bowl of rice. Simple and easy lunch.
Don't underestimate the humble hot dog...
What Are Shoyu Hot Dogs?
Shoyu Hot Dogs are a popular local dish in Hawaii. It's made by searing hot dogs and then simmering them in a mixture of ginger, water, soy sauce, and brown sugar.
It's a sweet and savory dish, and super saucy...the best of all worlds! This is a dish many Hawaii kids grew up with and still embrace as adults.
Note: Shoyu Hot Dogs is considered local food, not Hawaiian food. Read more about the difference here.
Garlic chicken bento from Mitsu-Ken (Oahu). Comes with shoyu hot dogs and tamago (egg).
Shoyu Hot Dogs In Hawaii
You won't find shoyu hot dogs at fancy restaurants...but you will find them in many other places like:
- Local potluck parties - someone always brings a giant tray/container of shoyu hot dogs. P.S. Shoyu hot dogs are also an excellent beer snack.
- Lunch boxes (lucky is the kid who gets shoyu hot dogs for home lunch)
- Plate lunch and casual take out spots - this is where you'll also find hot dog musubi (like Spam musubi but with hot dogs in place of Spam).
- Okazuyas (a kind of local deli with Japanese roots) - pictured above is shoyu hot dog as part of a garlic chicken bento from Mitsu-Ken. I have a post about the local Hawaii okazuyas coming soon, they are a very special part of our culture.
Shoyu hot dogs, plated and ready to eat.
How Do You Eat Shoyu Hot Dogs
With rice! You can eat it with plain rice, brown rice, fried rice. Why rice? Mainly because we eat almost everything with rice in Hawaii. And also because these hot dogs are saucy! The rice soaks up the sauce all nice and good. Shoyu hot dogs over rice makes for a super comforting meal.
P.S. We also eat shoyu hot dogs with noodles. It's a great side dish with fried saimin or chow mein.
You only need four ingredients for Shoyu Hot Dogs: hot dogs, ginger, shoyu, and brown sugar.
Shoyu Versus Soy Sauce
Shoyu and soy sauce are the same thing.
Most of the US calls it soy sauce, but in Hawaii we use the Japanese word which is shoyu.
There are two main brands that we use...
My Two Shoyu Picks:
Fyi, I’ve included affiliate links below. I may earn a small commission (at no cost to you), if you purchase through the links.
We always keep a big (Costco-size!) bottle of Kikkoman Shoyu (also called soy sauce) at home. This 33.8 ounce size is a little more manageable. It is a pantry staple that comes it handy for many local recipes. We use soy sauce / shoyu in many local recipes. Aloha Soy Sauce is especially popular in Hawaii and can be found at almost every supermarket. We use shoyu in everything from Shoyu Chicken (a super delicious local dish) to Shoyu Hot Dogs and Hot Sesame Oil Tofu! If you can't find Aloha brand soy sauce, you can also use Kikkoman, another very popular brand.
Kikkoman Shoyu
Soy Sauce / Shoyu
Once you got your shoyu, we can start cooking! Here's how...
Right after adding in the water, shoyu, and brown sugar. Let simmer away for 15 minutes.
Shoyu Hot Dogs Method
Shoyu Hot Dogs are really, really easy to make. Just make sure you cook rice first! From start to finish, this dish takes only 30 minutes to make (and that is if you are slow :).
First, gather your ingredients:
- 12 ounces hot dogs (about 5-6 hot dogs)
- 1 tablespoon ginger, minced (I use 1 tablespoon but you can use more or less depending how ginger-y you want this)
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup brown sugar
Got everything? Good!
Ok, first cut the hot dogs into bite-size pieces. I usually cut them into five pieces each. I like cutting at an angle (looks prettier, and I like when the ends curl up and get a little crisp).
Put some oil in a small pot. Over medium-high heat, sear the hot dog pieces for a few minutes. You just want to get them slightly browned with a nice sear.
Then add the minced ginger. Stir it around so that the ginger bits "coat" the hot dogs. Keep stir frying until the ginger smells all nice and fragrant. This should just take a minute.
Now add the water, shoyu, and brown sugar. Mix and bring everything to a boil. Then turn the heat down to low and let simmer for 15 minutes. Do not cover with a lid.
Once the 15 minutes are over, turn the heat to medium-high and let the sauce bubble away and reduce. Reduce until it thicker and sticky and forms a slight glaze over the hot dogs. The dish is ready!
Pour it into a bowl and eat with rice. Ahhhhh, super satisfying ^_^
Substitutions and Additions
Shoyu Hot Dogs is a forgiving dish, and is open to many adaptions. From simmering sliced onions (use sweet Maui onions if you can) to adding sake and/or mirin, there are many ways to personalize this dish:
- Add thinly sliced onions (at the same time you add the water, shoyu, and brown sugar). The onions get all sweet-salty, they are so delicious with the hot dogs (over a bowl of rice, of course).
- Replace half the brown sugar with mirin. Mirin is a sweet Japanese rice wine often used for cooking.
- Add ¼ cup of sake to the mixture. Gives it yet another dimension!
All nice and glazed, ready to eat.
Shoyu Hot Dogs Recipe
See below ^_^
Shoyu Hot Dogs
Shoyu Hot Dogs are a popular local snack, often found at potluck gatherings, okazuyas, and in lunch boxes! Hot dogs are simmered with ginger, soy sauce, and brown sugar. They're saucy, sweet and salty, and best with a bowl of rice!
Ingredients
- 12 ounces hot dogs (about 5-6 hot dogs)
- 1 tablespoon ginger, minced
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup brown sugar
Instructions
- Cut each hot dog into 5 pieces. In a small pot with a spoonful of oil, sear the hot dogs for a few minutes. Add the ginger. Fry for another minute until the ginger is fragrant.
- Add the water, soy sauce, and brown sugar to the pot. Bring to a boil. Then simmer on low for 15 minutes.
- Turn the heat to medium-high for 5 minutes. Cook till the sauce reduces and lightly glazes the hot dogs. Pour into a bowl. Eat with rice!
I add now lots of onions after the sear, sometimes a few celery thin angle cuts and a bit of Del Monte ketchup.
My mother would make a batch for my bento when I worked construction. Always had the 3 margarine containers in a stack, sanbai zuk, takuan or kim chee on top, rice and then something like shoyu hot dogs at the bottom.
A magical food. Foolproof. I love the technique. It took me 10 minutes to reduce the liquid. // I added a large onion and lots of ginger. On my own I can dig a strong taste. Also when you read health recommendation of food, the serving is big. People don't realize that. // Will try with mirin and sake next time. I almost ate the whole 6 jumbo hot dogs. LOL. I did share some pieces. Hot dogs are light so you can eat a lot of it. Instead of rice, had a large bowl of salad with vinaigrette dressing. It worked well with the sweet sauce. I know my nephews are going to love this. But until covid is down. I'm enjoying this all to myself.
Aloha Leo - So happy you liked the recipe! Ahaha the serving size is indeed large. Love that you added onions, that's a super good idea. Enjoy, enjoy! 🙂
- Kathy
Tried these for the first time today, they were delicious. Just wanted to let you all know that the recipe works great with soy dogs, too. Soy dogs can stick in the frypan a bit, so best to use plenty of oil and be diligent with stirring them while you’re searing the dogs.
Aloha Linden - I'm so happy you enjoyed the recipe! Super thank you for the soy dogs tip, that is good to know 🙂
- Kathy
Oh man this takes me waaaaay back! I can't believe I forgot about shoyu hot dogs! And I just so happen to have some mino hot dogs in the fridge.
Never knew these were so easy - super thankful you shared this!! Wonderful to have a sense of home even when so far away and in this crazy, crazy time. Much much mahalos!
Hi Jess! Hooray for hot dogs in the fridge, glad they are coming in handy! And yes, these are super easy!! So comforting to eat...big bowl of rice and shoyu dogs ^_^
- Kathy
I saw this post and said Wow! to myself. As a kid, and still till today, I am a big fan of "okazu" types of dinners. My Mom used to make these types of dinners for us once in a while, way back when. Even today, living on the Mainland with my haole girlfriend, I still make simple okazu foods for dinners sometimes. Even my girlfriend and my dogs love it.
My typical types of okazu are sato-shoyu hotdogs (or sometimes Vienna sausages), egg omelets (among my favorites are takenoko omelet, sato-shoyu Japanese omelet, or julienned green beans omelet). Sometimes I fry some fish too - ahi, or salmon; and belly pieces if I can find it. And of course, I gotta make some kind of rice -- either musubis or sometimes yaki-musubi.
These were the foods that I loved growing up in Hawaii.
Hi Alan! Hope you are doing well 🙂 Love the idea of making okazu type dinner at home (I never wake up early enough to get all the good stuff from the okazuyas anyways hahah)!
I hope to eventually do recipe posts on all the goodies we find at the okazuya ...so many wonderful treats, and now I am big time craving takenoko omelet ^_^
- Kathy