Are you wondering how to cook french fries on a hot dog cart? Read on to find out how.

Simple is best.  The first thing we teach aspiring hot dog cart owners in our Premium course is to keep it simple. It can be a real challenge dealing with a lot of complicated condiments and tricky food items on your first day.

You will be stressed enough as it is just serving hot dogs, chips, and canned soda. Don’t worry, that’s perfectly natural and it will pass quickly.

After the newbie slinger jitters are over, you can start thinking about serving more complicated foods. In this article we will show you a few different ways to cook french fries on a hot dog cart.  First, we need to be concerned with safety.

When you cook french fries on a hot dog cart (or anywhere else) it involves hot oil. Hot oil can be very dangerous, especially in a hot dog cart situation where people tend to congregate on all sides of the cart.  As usual, be sure you are complying with your local codes.

Your top priority is to restrict access to the area where you are cooking french fries on the cart. Rope off an area using stanchions (fancy schmancy word for poles) and yellow plastic chain. I use umbrella bases with 3 foot long wooden poles in them for the stanchions.  Screw a three inch screw straight into the top of each wooden pole, leaving enough sticking out to drape your chain over.

When you get to your slingin’ site, place the umbrella bases where they need to go, drop a wooden pole in each one, and place a link of the chain over the screw to keep it in place.  A couple of screw eyes on your cart will complete the enclosure.  Easy peasy.

Best bases.  Since we’re not concerned with wind as we would be with a big umbrella, we can go light and cheap on the bases.  Here are the umbrella bases I recommend.  They are from Home Depot but they are not usually available in-store.  No worries, click this link and Home Depot will ship them to your local store for free.

While you’re at it, here’s a trick that will make you more money.  Smart hot doggers also use the umbrella bases and yellow plastic chain to create a line up area for ordering (50 feet of chain will give you a 25 foot long line).  That’s a smart idea for a few different reasons.

It keeps folks nice and orderly, you always know who is up next, and most importantly, you’ll generate more customers.  Just like full parking lots are a sign of a good restaurant, long lines at a hot dog cart attract hungry crowds.  It’s a fact.

O.K. Let’s learn how to cook french fries on a hot dog cart.  There are two main ways to do this.  You can buy a commercial grade frier, or you can use a portable frier.

Commercial fryers can be built into your cart or added on to an existing cart with a bit of engineering.  They are available in gas or electric models.  If you know that you will always have access to electricity then you could choose something like this small electric fryer.

However, most of us hot doggers choose propane which allows us to go anywhere.  Here is a nice low cost commercial propane fryer.  Either one of these will fit in a smaller footprint and allow you to cook delicious french fries on a hot dog cart.

Portable fryers are my favorite choice for two reasons.  They are much, much cheaper than commercial units and they can be left at home if your gig doesn’t require fries.  A lot of promo gigs such as store openings or car dealer promotions only want dogs, or at most hot dogs and sodas.

Here is a nice 6.5 quart portable aluminum fryer that would be perfect for cooking french fries at a hot dog cart.  It comes complete with a basket, regulator, and everything you need.  Always set up your portable fryer inside your yellow plastic chain enclosure as described above.

So there you have it.  If you’ve always wanted to cook french fries on your hot dog cart, why not give it a shot?