Day 7 of “The 12 Days of a Bacon-Wrapped Christmas“ brings us a bacon-wrapped ‘Lil Smokies. That’s right, the cocktail weenies you knew & loved as a kid — now wrapped in bacon and covered in carmelized brown sugar. This recipe is sure to be a hit at your New Year’s Eve party.
Start off with a whole pack of your favorite bacon and some patience. This recipe takes over an hour to complete, but is well worth the effort.
Have some brown sugar at the ready.
Cut your bacon into three sections. This is just about the perfect size for a slice of bacon to wrap around the smokies.
Get a whole pack of Beef Lil’ Smokies. Alternatively, you may use another flavor of Hillshire Farm’s Cocktail Links.
They don’t look like much now, but we’re just getting started…
Wrap each smokie in a small strip of bacon and secure the bacon to the smokie with a toothpick. Arrange the smokies on a baking sheet.
Sprinkle a good amount of brown sugar on the smokies. Try to get as much brown sugar on the bacon-wrapped smokies themselves, as this is the sugar that will carmelize onto them and taste oh so delicious.
Bake for about 45 minutes at 325 degrees. You want the brown sugar to have melted onto the smokies and be bubbling along the pan.
What you’ll end up with is a candied meat delight with an off-the-charts Smaste™ rating of 43.75. We gave these treats to about a dozen different people and the opinion was unanimous — OMG GOOD!!! Highly recommended.
I’ve loved these for years and usually make them for our Superbowl Party. I always [lovingly] called them my Redneck Tapas. They’re so awesome because they’re meat…AND candy! The hardest part is waiting for the sugar to cool. Coming out of the oven, it’s like napalm if you eat them too soon.
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for the bacon wrapped lil smokes, you coulda went one step farther and made bacon wrapped pigs in a blanket… im so trying that for the superbowl
Something quite similar and for the slightly more health conscious is bacon wrapped dates (stoneless of course). The toffee-like flavour and texture of the dates really complement the richness of the bacon. Give it a try!
We get apple wood smoked baken from Trader Joe’s – a great extra touch!
awesome!! thanks for the recipe! my daughter and i cracked up at all the pics, so easy!
I also make another similar recipe and its always a hit. I take whole water chestnuts soak them in soy sauce and a little sugar then wrap in bacon bake just like the sausages.
We just made these for our bank Christmas luncheon. SO GOOD!! EVERYONE loved them.
OMG!!!!! i just had the brown sugar bacon wrapped smokies for the first time…im almost thirty and ive missed 30 yrs worth of bacon goodness….wow these rock
can’t wait to try this on family weekend.
Two things I have learned
1. Put the smokies closer together and just cover the whole thing with the brown sugar. They get more of the brown sugar glaze that way
2. Put them under the broiler for 5-10 minutes after they are done cooking to crisp them up a little.
Yum.
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I just want to know how you deal with all the grease that comes from the bacon and the sausage. I am afraid it is going to run off the side of the baking sheet. Any suggestions?
use the broiler pan in the oven..the grease drips though into the bottom pan so it won’t run all over the oven
For Dwan:
I used a wire rack for baking the smokies. The pan below the rack is covered with foil. Remove smokies and rack. Carefully fold up foil with all the grease and place in Ziplock
bag and toss. Easy clean up.
Sounds totally yummy! What about just tossing the bacon wrapped smokies in a bowl with the brown sugar. Seems that would really coat them all over (top, bottom and sides).
I actually toss the bacon strips in the brown sugar before I wrap them up – everything is coated and the sugar cooks right into the bite. One of the gals at work call these “meat lollipops” and they disappear FAST.
Does the bacon get fully cooked and crispy with this temp and time?
These are a go to favorite for parties, in fact I just made 80 of them today for our 4th of July BBQ. Mmmmm, candied meat.
[...] was happy. And when Mama Bender brought out her infamous Brown Sugar Bacon-Wrapped Little Smokies (similar recipe here), I was even happier. I highly suggest making these as soon as [...]
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