Creepy Corn Dog Centipedes for Halloween or a bug themed party.

You have to make these Creepy Corn Dog Centipedes! They’re perfect for a Halloween or a bug themed party… or to just scare your kids with!

Hot dogs were a staple in my childhood diet.  They were inexpensive and easy to prepare for a family of six. Corn dogs, on the other hand, were only seen at fairs and amusement parks and I didn’t want anything to do with them.  I didn’t like corn bread back then and couldn’t image how a hot dog would taste wrapped in a fried dough made from it.

My first experience eating a corn dog was as an adult and was by mistake.  I was at a party and saw a tray of tiny little fried puffs of dough. Thinking they must have cheese inside, I popped one in my mouth. As the nugget hit my tongue, I found the breading to have a nice slightly sweet flavor so I bit into it and was surprised to find a hot dog lurking inside. What surprised me even more, was just how much I like it. Eventually I even tried a full sized corn dog and realized I liked those too.

If you’ve been following Hungry Happenings for a while, you know that I have used hot dogs in a few different recipes – they make great themed cuisine.  When I decided to make some food look like a centipede for the Creepy Crawler themed parties, I did some research and found that these little creatures have lots of oval/rectangle shaped body segments each with a pair of legs attached.

The shape of the mini corn dogs was a great match for the shape of the centipedes body segments. Also, it was easy to attach chow mein noodle (or potato stick) legs and antennae and pipe on some ketchup eyes for a truly creepy looking edible centipede.

At first I thought I’d have to make a very long corn dog centipede to get all 100 legs on it. I didn’t know, until I did a quick search, that centipedes can have fewer than 20 legs and up to 300 legs, so that means you can make your centipedes short or really really long. The important thing to remember is that each body segment only has one pair of legs attached.

Creepy Corn Dog Centipedes

Ingredients:

mini corn dogs (use at least 9 per centipede, but you can use many more)
chow mein noodles or potato sticks
ketchup

Special Equipment Needed:

baking sheet

Instructions:

Bake corn dogs on baking sheet according to package instructions. Remove from oven and reduce oven heat to 200 degrees.

Line up corn dogs into a squiggly line (use 9 or more per line.) I moved my corn dogs to a work surface, because I wasn’t planning to heat them back up to take pictures.  I suggest you create your centipedes on your baking sheet.

Press two long chow mein noodles (or potato sticks) into the first corn dog to create antenna. Press two long, but shorter chow mein noodles (or potato sticks) into the last corn dog to create the back legs.  Then on all remaining corn dogs, press one chow mein noodle (or potato stick) on either side, creating legs. Place in oven to keep warm until you are ready to serve. Note: don’t bake the corn dogs at 350 degrees with the appendages attached as the chow mein noodles or potato sticks will burn.

Before serving, add two ketchup eyes.

When I began working on recipe ideas for this Creepy Crawler theme, I had so many caterpillar ideas that I thought I’d do a whole series of them.  I changed my mind after I came up with the centipede idea but had already taken pictures of some corn dog caterpillars, so I thought I’d show you them too. You can see just how versatile these mini corn dogs can be.  If you decide to make caterpillars, just keep the bodies short using 5 or so corn dogs, put the corn dogs together longwise instead of widthwise, and attach lots of legs (I did 3 per body segment.) Add antenna and eyes and you are ready to serve them to you party guests.

Be sure to check out all the Halloween recipes here on Hungry Happenings.