All your favorite pizza toppings stuffed inside of a bacon weave, rolled together then smoked to perfection! This Pizza Bacon Explosion is exactly what you never knew you needed!
**Post written by The BBQ Brothers. For all meat prep, grill set up, temperature and humidity control, recommended tools, and techniques for The BBQ Brothers recipes, check out The BBQ Brothers Beginner’s Guide To Grilling first, then get to cookin!
The Superbowl is coming up, so what better to feed your guests than meat wrapped around more meat and pizza toppings? We have already shared our creative appetizer called the bacon explosion and its holiday counterpart called the Thanksgiving bacon explosion, but now we have a slight Italian twist! Think about it....who doesn’t love bacon and who doesn’t love pizza?! Roll them up into one giant smoked appetizer and you've got yourself a party.
So let’s get started.....
The first thing you will need to do is construct your bacon weave. You can visit the bacon explosion post if you want to see pics of how to construct this. Typically you want to make it 5 slices by 5 slices, which I find will leave a couple extra pieces in the bacon package. You know, just in case one tears then you can perform a repair to your weave with the extra slices. Instead of sprinkling on our BBQ rub I chose to sprinkle with some garlic powder.
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. I chose Italian mild as that is what most pizza places use on their pizza.
Now this is the part where you can get creative. I just chose to put on what I like on a pizza when I order it. I put on salami, pepperoni, and banana peppers, but you can choose whatever toppings you like.
I then covered with provolone cheese and pizza sauce and then sprinkled fresh basil.
Now comes the moment of truth where we have to roll all of this pizza 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. Once you have gotten to this part take a sigh of relief, grab a glass of wine, and smile…as the hard part is over and you will be smooth sailing moving forward.
Sprinkle some more of the garlic powder on the outside of the bacon weave, and now this pizza roll is ready for the smoker. Put the roll 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 wood chips 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 simply slice and serve! You may want to provide a side of marinara for dipping or a slice of garlic bread on the side. However you choose to do it you can’t go wrong as pizza and bacon go great with everything!
Pizza Bacon Explosion (Pizza Fatty)
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: Smoked
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
All your favorite pizza toppings stuffed inside of a bacon weave, rolled together then smoked to perfection! This Pizza Bacon Explosion is exactly what you never knew you needed!
Ingredients
Meat used: 1 lb Bacon and 1 lb Sausage (Italian mild sausage is commonly used on pizza)
Other ingredients: Your favorite pizza toppings! We used salami, pepperoni, and banana peppers. You could also use green peppers, mushrooms, onions, or ham. You'll also need provolone, pizza sauce and fresh basil.
Seasoning: Garlic powder
Wood Used: Apple
Grill Temperature: ~225 to 250 F, indirect heat
Meat Temperature:165 F
Smoke time: ~3 hours
Instructions
- The first thing you will need to do is construct your bacon weave. You can visit the bacon explosion post if you want to see pics of how to construct this. Typically you want to make it 5 slices by 5 slices, which I find will leave a couple extra pieces in the bacon package. You know, just in case one tears then you can perform a repair to your weave with the extra slices. Instead of sprinkling on our BBQ rub I chose to sprinkle with some garlic powder.
- 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. I chose Italian mild as that is what most pizza places use on their pizza.
- Now this is the part where you can get creative. I just chose to put on what I like on a pizza when I order it. I put on salami, pepperoni, and banana peppers, but you can choose whatever toppings you like.
- I then covered with provolone cheese and pizza sauce and then sprinkled fresh basil.
- Now comes the moment of truth where we have to roll all of this pizza 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 garlic powder on the outside of the bacon weave, and now this pizza roll is ready for the smoker. Put the roll 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 wood chips 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 simply slice and serve! You may want to provide a side of marinara for dipping or a slice of garlic bread on the side. However you choose to do it you can’t go wrong as pizza and bacon go great with everything!
Notes
See our original Bacon Explosion post for photos on baking a bacon weave!
Keywords: pizza bacon fatty, smoker bacon explosion, bacon fatty alternative, unique game day appetizer, meat lovers party
So let us know what you think….did this recipe smoke the competition or go up in flames? Leave a comment below! 🙂
Richard says
This is insane!!!! Insanely off the chain! This was a lot of fun to make, but even better to taste. This is one of the most favorite things I’ve done on my smoker. A true winner. Thank you so much for sharing this .
★★★★★
Caitlin says
Hey Richard! So glad you loved it! Thank you for the great review! 🙂