Here's How Much Protein Is In A Hot Dog

In 2024, Americans shopping at supermarkets spent more than $8.5 billion on hot dogs and sausages — and that's not counting the 20 million sold at baseball stadiums every year. But you may be wondering if all those dogs we're eating are providing a substantial amount of protein. Well, relative to other foods you'd find on your backyard grill, not so much. According to the Food Data Central, the USDA's nutrition analysis database, one hot dog — weighing approximately 48.6 grams — has just 5.7 grams of protein. Add a hot dog bun, and you'll add around 4 grams more protein.

The hot dog alone has just 10% of the National Academies of Science's daily recommended intake (DRI) of 56 grams for men aged 19 and older. For women, it's 46 grams — though the FDA simplifies this as 50 grams for all adults. Children, individuals over 50 years of age, as well as those who are pregnant or breastfeeding, may need a little more protein. Even so, most Americans are meeting or exceeding their protein needs.

Hot dogs are traditionally made of pork or beef, so if you're at a barbecue and hoping that either of those meats will give you more protein, there are a few other choices to consider. For example, consider a hamburger. A three-ounce cooked burger, according to the USDA database, has 22 grams of protein, assuming your burgers aren't more generously sized. Add a slice of American cheese to the burger, and you'll up the protein by nearly 5 grams.

If you're strictly looking for links, both bratwurst and sausage will be better bets. Sausage typically has nearly 16 grams of protein in an 86.6-gram link, and pork bratwurst has nearly 12 grams for an 85-gram link (though a chicken one will give you more than 16 grams of protein). The best bet of all? A chicken breast. A medium chicken breast with the skin on has 37 grams of protein.

The many different ways to cook hot dogs probably won't affect the amount of protein you consume much — different cooking methods can change the nature of proteins but have little impact on the total amount of protein. To up the amount, you'd just have to have more franks. For example, if you were Joey Chestnut, who ate a record 76 hot dogs and buns in 2021, you would end up eating a whopping 684 grams of protein — or just a little less in 2025 when he won by just eating 70.5 hot dogs and buns – and 634.5 grams of protein.