The Chicago-Style Hot Dog and the Maxwell Street Polish

The Chicago-style hot dog and the Maxwell Street Polish are two delicious staples of Chicago cuisine that trace their roots to the Maxwell Street Market. I’ll take you through the history of both dishes. But first, here’s a little background on Chicago’s most famous street market.

The Maxwell Street Market, located near Halsted Street and Roosevelt Road, was originally established as an open-air street market by Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the late 1800s. The market was officially recognized by the City of Chicago in 1912. Eventually, other European immigrants and African Americans started to come to the market. It was known as a place where you could buy everything from shoelaces to expensive clothes to ethnic food. It was also known as much for its outdoor musical performances as its goods for sale. When blues musicians plugged in their amplifiers on Maxwell Street so that they could be heard above the din of the market, Chicago-style blues, a forerunner of rock n’ roll, was born.  

The Chicago-style hot dog evolved during the 1920s through the 1950s, while the Maxwell Street Polish was invented in 1943 by the owner of Jim’s Original hot dog stand. Here’s the history of each one.

The Chicago-style hot dog consists of an all-beef wiener on a steamed poppy-seed bun topped with mustard, relish, chopped onions, two tomato wedges, a pickle spear, two sport peppers, and a sprinkling of celery salt. One of the earliest places where the Chicago-style hot dog was sold was the Maxwell Street Market.

An early version of the Chicago-style hot dog was the “Depression Dog” sold by Chicago street vendors during the Great Depression of the 1930s; it consisted of a beef frankfurter topped with mustard, onions, sport peppers, and maybe relish served on a plain bun or wrapped in fries and was known to sell for a nickel. When the depression ended, people began to experiment with adding additional ingredients to the hot dog. Eventually, a variety of influences would come together to make the Chicago-style hot dog what we know and love today.

First of all, the sausage, the bun, the mustard, and the pickle all stem from German cuisine. Jewish influence and the fact that the Chicago stockyards produced 80% of the country’s beef made the all-beef wiener a Chicago staple. Sport peppers came from Mexico and likely made their way to Chicago via the railroad as early as the 1870s. This ingredient became popular with Chicagoans after tamales were sold at the Columbian Exposition in 1893. Pickle relish came from England and was first known to appear on hot dogs in Chicago at a Cubs vs. Sox baseball game in 1928.

Greek and Italian immigrants were probably the first to add tomato slices to the dog, and poppy seeds were likely added to the bun due to Jewish Eastern European influence. Finally, celery was widely touted as a health food during this time, and the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago was once a major celery-growing area. Many describe the Chicago-style hot dog as being “dragged through the garden” because of this abundance of veggie toppings.

Finally, there is the notable absence of ketchup on the Chicago-style dog. Ketchup is believed to overpower the taste of the hot dog and upset the delicate balance of flavors and textures from the other toppings. Some local hot dog vendors may offer ketchup to those who ask for it, but many refuse to put it on the hot dog themselves.

It took many years and many different cultures to create the Chicago-style hot dog, an inexpensive yet nourishing dish that came out of the hard times of the Great Depression. Today it continues to serve as a delicious testament to the resilience and uniqueness of Chicago. The recipe for this iconic dish appears below.

The Maxwell Street polish sausage sandwich, referred to as the “Maxwell Street Polish” for short, consists of Polish sausage topped with yellow mustard and grilled onions served on a steamed bun. It may also be topped with pickled sport peppers.

Unlike the Chicago-style hot dog, which was created by many different people, the Maxwell Street Polish was invented by one man. The sandwich was invented in 1945 by James “Jimmy” Stefanovic, an immigrant from Macedonia who ran Jim’s Original hot dog stand on the corner of Maxwell and Halsted streets, right in the heart of the Maxwell Street market.

According to Chicago food historian Bruce Kraig, sausage is eaten with grilled onions and mustard in Germany, and many Jewish immigrants who lived in the neighborhood at the time hailed from Germany. Joe Stefanovic, son of James, thinks his dad grilled the onions for the smell. The sport peppers may have been added because of the influence of Greek or Italian vendors at the Maxwell Street Market, or it may have been due to early Mexican influence.   

To make things more interesting, the Express Grill, located next door to Jim’s Original, also advertised the “original Maxwell St. Polish” on its marquee, although it opened after Jim’s Original.

The original Maxwell Street Market area has seen new construction and development with the expansion of the University of Illinois at Chicago campus and the addition of high-income housing to the area. However, the outdoor market has since moved to Des Plaines Street, and both Jim’s Original and the Express Grill have relocated to Union Avenue to continue their rivalry.

Maxwell Street Polish sandwiches are now served at hot dog stands across the Chicago area. They can also be found at chains such as Portillo’s and Brown’s Chicken. It’s no wonder this humble sandwich is so popular; just a few simple ingredients come together to make something unique to Chicago and truly delicious.

Here are instructions on how to make your own Chicago-style hot dog and Maxwell Street Polish, for the times when you’re not able to get them directly from Maxwell Street.

Chicago-Style Hot Dogs

Ingredients:

Frankfurters of your choice—use Vienna Beef to be extra authentic

Poppyseed buns

Sliced tomato wedges

Finely chopped onion

Mustard

Relish

Pickle spears

Sport peppers

Celery salt

Instructions:

Heat up the frankfurters following the directions on the package.

For each hot dog, do the following:

Place the wiener on the bun. Add the mustard and relish. Sprinkle with chopped onion. Place two tomato wedges on one side of the hot dog, a pickle spear on the other side, and two sport peppers in the middle. Shudder at the thought of adding ketchup. Sprinkle with celery salt.

Maxwell Street Polish

*This recipe has been adapted from a recipe found on Carolyn’s Cooking blog.

Yields: 8 sandwiches

Ingredients:

For the onions:

2 tbsp. oil

1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced

Salt to taste

For the sausages:

2 tbsp. oil

Polish sausage sliced to fit on 8 buns

8 plain hot dog buns

Yellow mustard

Pickled sport peppers (optional)

Instructions:

In a large nonstick skillet, heat 2 tbsp. of oil over medium heat. Add the onions and let them sit for a few minutes to develop some color, then stir. Add salt to taste. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, until the onions are browned and translucent but not quite carmelized. Place the onions in a bowl and cover with foil to keep warm.

In the same skillet, heat the remaining 2 tbsp. of oil and add the sausages. Cook the sausages for 5 minutes on each side, until browned and crisp.

Place the buns on a plate and cover with a damp paper towel. Microwave for 15-20 seconds until steamy. Add a sausage to each bun and top with onions, mustard, and sport peppers, if desired.

Sources:

“History of the Maxwell Street Market,” City of Chicago website.

Eng, Monica. “Deconstructing the Chicago-Style Hot Dog: The Origins of a Local Favorite.” WBEZ.org (March 5, 2017). 

Hot Dog Chicago Style website.

Eng, Monica, and Leroux, Charles. “The Original Maxwell Street Market—First with Its…” Chicago Tribune (October 1, 2004). 

Lee, Dennis. “Meet the Maxwell Street Polish, the Unsung Hero of Chicago’s Hot Dog Stands,” The Takeout (April 28, 2021). 

“Maxwell Street Polish,” Wikipedia. 

Mazzocco, Carolyn. “What Is A Maxwell Street Polish?” Carolyn’s Cooking (March 15, 2022). 

“The Original Maxwell Street Polish Sausage Stand,” Jim’s Original. 

Ruzich, Joseph. “The Maxwell Street Market.” Forgotten Chicago: Examining Vintage Postcards (April 14, 2020).