This classic appetizer Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Smokies is great for game day, picnics, barbecues, and holiday gatherings! Play around with the flavors by using a different flavor of bacon to see what you like the best.
For something a little bit different, why not try and make these Sausage Balls Recipe (Classic Bisquick® Sausage Balls)? Or keep it simple and make some Amazing Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings instead?
Classic Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Smokies
Cocktail sausages, also known as smokies, are a classic party appetizer. They are easy to make, savory, salty, and tasty, and super easy to pick up and eat while enjoying a party.
This recipe takes regular, boring cocktail sausages and cranks them up to 11. Wrapped in bacon and glazed in caramelized brown sugar, these smokies are also spiced and seasoned, so they each bite is a mini taste explosion.
Classic Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Smokies Ingredients
Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.
• Bacon, sliced into thirds
• Cocktail smokies
• Brown sugar
• Garlic powder
• Cayenne pepper
How To Make Classic Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Smokies
• Whisk together the brown sugar and spices
• Wrap each cocktail wiener with a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick
• Place them into the bowl of brown sugar mixture and coat the cocktail wieners, and then place on a large baking sheet and repeat until all wieners are done
• Bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the sugar is bubbly on the bacon and they are crispy
• Remove and let cool for 5 minutes before placing and serve
Should You Use High-Quality Smokies For This Recipe?
Whenever it comes to cooking with sausages, it is always tempting to skimp out a little bit and get the cheaper sausages when they are offered.
Sausages can sometimes be easy to buy pretty cheaply, and they don’t really seem like they should be a problem if you get them cheaply.
However, considering the sausages themselves are so much of the flavor of these smokies, it is super important only to use the highest quality sausages you can find.
This might mean going to your local butcher, or even hunting around for those artisanal, organic butcheries that stock higher-quality meats.
While it might seem strange to spend more money on sausages, considering their flavor impact, it will make such a huge difference if the sausages themselves are of high quality.
Instead of people biting down on your smokies and remarking on the caramelized sugar and spices, they will instead be hit with a burst of flavorful meatiness; if you get the right sausages, your smokies will become the main attraction at the party, no matter what it is.
Could You Use Something Other Than Bacon For This Recipe?
Bacon is one of life’s greatest pleasures, and for a good reason. It is fatty, salty, delicious, and packed with an intense umami flavor that makes everything it touches taste like bacon.
However, not everyone can or likes to eat pork; either that or they want to avoid eating so much fat.
So what can you do if you aren’t a bacon eater?
Well, the classic bacon substitutes work pretty well for this recipe – turkey bacon might be a bit dry, but it should still work just fine, as long as you don’t mind the fact that your smokies will be a little bit less fatty.
There are also quite a few surprisingly good vegetarian or vegan options for bacon replacements, and they can work well in a pinch. Just make sure that you can easily roll them around your smokies and that they won’t immediately bunch up and set hard, ruining the texture of your wrapped smokies.
Failing all of those options, you could certainly just skip the bacon or bacon alternatives altogether – simply get a high-quality, fatty sausage and bake that on its own when covered in spices, and you will end up with something almost as delicious; it will just be lacking that little extra something special.
Looking for more delicious Appetizer recipes? Try these out:
• Simply Delicious Stuffed Mushrooms
• Crispy, Buttery Fried Zucchini
Happy Cooking
Love,
Karlynn
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Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Smokies
Ingredients
- 1 pound sliced bacon cut into thirds
- one 500 gram package cocktail smokies
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper optional but awesome!
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Whisk together the brown sugar and spices.
- Wrap each cocktail wiener with a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Place into the bowl of brown sugar mixture and coat the cocktail weiner, then place on a large baking sheet. Repeat until all weiners are done.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the sugar is bubbly on the bacon and they are crispy. Remove and let cool for 5-10 minutes, then plate and serve.
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