Description
When it comes to a good creative appetizer for a party that doesn’t take all day to prepare our “go to” is the Bacon Explosion. It's always a hit!
Ingredients
Meat used: 1 lb of bacon, 1 lb of Italian sausage
Seasoning: Your seasoning of choice (or The BBQ Brother's All Purpose BBQ Rub), BBQ sauce of choice
Other Ingredients: Any other toppings you want (cheese, jalapeños, hot sauce, more bacon, etc.)
Wood Used: Apple and Cherry
Grill Temperature: ~225-250 F
Meat Temperature:165 F
Smoke time: ~3 hours
Instructions
- The first thing you will need to do is construct your bacon weave. Typically you want to make it 5x5 which I find will leave a couple extra pieces in the bacon package so in case one tears you can perform a repair to your weave with the extra slices.
- Once the weave is completed, sprinkle some of that good ol' rub on there.
- The next step is to put your sausage on the bacon weave. Be sure to press the sausage to the outer edges of the bacon creating a patty that is the same thickness all the way across.
- Once the sausage has been laid down sprinkle some more rub liberally to the sausage.
- Now this is the part where you can get creative. For our spicy one, we threw on some jalapeños, hot sauce, and cheese. On our mild one, we simply took the leftover slices of bacon, fried them up and threw them on top of the sausage. (Pictured below)
- Now comes the critical moment where we have to roll all of this pork goodness up. It helps to have another person with you to help you roll it up and then use toothpicks to hold down the loose ends of bacon to keep it together.
- Sprinkle some more of the rub on the outside of the bacon weave, and now this bad boy is ready for the smoker. Put the bacon explosion over indirect heat at 225 – 250 degrees in a constant cloud of smoke until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. I used apple and cherry wood for my smoke as I found the sweetness works well with the bacon.
- Normally this will take about 1 hour for each inch of thickness, but that could vary depending on how well you maintain your fire and also how many times you open the smoker to take a peek. Mine took about 3 hours.
- Now when your explosion is almost done (temp of about 145-150) baste the roll with your favorite sauce and let it finish off for the last 30 mins, allowing the sauce to get sticky.
- Now remove the roll from the smoker and remove the toothpicks as the heat should have seared the bacon together.
- Slice the bacon explosion into quarter to half inch rounds to serve.
Notes
Use your favorite sauce but make sure it is a thick one as the thinner Carolina vinegar based sauces won’t create that nice thick, sticky finish.
