Easy Air-Fryer Hot Dogs

There is no virtuous reason to write a hot dog recipe. The recipe is: open the package, heat the hot dog. But the air fryer does something the microwave doesn't and the boiling pot definitely doesn't — it splits the skin lengthwise, gives you those slightly burnt edges that the rest of the cooking world calls "good char," and toasts the bun on top of itself in the same five-minute window.

Which is to say: yes, this is just hot dogs. But it's better hot dogs, in less time, with one less pan. The photo is what you're going to make: ketchup and mustard in zigzag, relish underneath, the bun slightly toasted, side of plain potato chips for crunch. (The chips are not optional. They are the recipe.)

A note on the dog itself: this works for everything — beef, pork, all- beef kosher, the cheap ones, the fancy ones, the chicken sausages pretending to be hot dogs, the plant-based ones. Different brands cook in slightly different times — start checking at four minutes. You want the skin just split, not burst entirely.