Bacon wrapped smokies are mini sausages wrapped in a third of a bacon slice, rolled in brown sugar and cayenne, then baked. Four ingredients, and there is no mixing bowl involved. One pack makes twelve servings in about thirty minutes.
Drop the oven to 375F rather than the 425F the recipe gives, because brown sugar burns long before bacon crisps. Readers report scorched pans at the higher setting again and again, and the author has never addressed it. Lower and slower gets you candy instead of carbon.
Bake them on a wire rack set over the sheet pan, not flat on the foil. Sitting in their own rendered fat and melting sugar is what leaves the underside pale and soft while the top burns. A rack lets the fat drip away and the bacon crisp all round.
Bacon Wrapped Smokies
Course: AppetizerCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy4
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalThey freeze raw once wrapped and coated, then bake straight from the freezer with an extra five minutes. The toothpicks do not need soaking first, despite what people assume about wood in a hot oven.
Ingredients
1 pound bacon
14 oz mini smokies
½ cup brown sugar
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
Directions
- Heat: Preheat the oven to 425F and line a baking pan with foil.
- Wrap: Cut each bacon slice into thirds, wrap one piece around each smokie and secure it with a toothpick.
- Coat: Mix the brown sugar and cayenne together, then roll each wrapped smokie in it away from the pan.
- Bake: Arrange them on the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.
- Flip: Turn them over and bake for 10 minutes more, until the bacon is crisp.
The comments on this one are more useful than the recipe, and they all say the same thing.
FAQs
Why does my sugar burn?
The oven is too hot at 425F, which is the most common complaint on this recipe. Brown sugar starts scorching around 350F, so twenty minutes at 425F gives it plenty of time to catch. Drop to 375F and add a few minutes instead.
Why is my bacon not crispy?
Usually because the smokies are sitting in rendered fat on a flat pan. The underside steams rather than crisps, and no amount of extra time fixes it once that has happened. A wire rack over the pan solves it in one move.
How do I get a thicker coating?
Rub the sugar into the bacon before wrapping, then chill the wrapped smokies for an hour and coat them again. The salt and sugar draw water out of the bacon, so the second coat has something dry to cling to. A reader worked this out, not the recipe.
Can I use the air fryer?
It works, but the element sits much closer to the food than in an oven, so the sugar catches faster. Start lower than you would in the oven and check at five minutes rather than walking away. The recipe itself has never answered this question.
What do people serve them with?
A grainy mustard is the classic, since the sharpness cuts straight through the sugar. If you want something to dip into, a bowl of french onion dip does the job without competing on sweetness. Beer works better than wine here.
What else can I put out while the oven is busy?
Anything that needs no heat, because these take the oven for half an hour at high temperature. A dish of warm marinated olives can sit on the stovetop and gives the table something salty and sharp. Save other baked items for afterwards.
The source recipe bakes at 425F. Multiple readers in its comments report the brown sugar burning at that temperature, with two independently settling on 375F and one on 325F to 350F, and the author has not addressed it in the recipe. The wire rack and double-coating methods described above also come from reader comments rather than the recipe. Nutrition is as published by the source and should be treated as an approximation.
