Smoked shotgun shells, my sister-in-law said. As she described this new and fun barbeque treat, I was initially trepidatious, then intrigued. We love finger foods, and anytime I can fire up my smoker and make a fun appetizer, I am on board. Sausage, cheese, manicotti, bacon, bbq sauce, the smoker. What was this odd thing that sounded actually quite tasty? Interesting, right?
Why This Recipe Works
This recipe makes a decent amount of appetizer bites. It’s chock full of flavor. The bacon and sausage play very well with the barbecue sauce. The pasta shell still has texture and holds up well. It doesn’t call for any crazy ingredients. You probably already have everything you need. And if you don’t, a quick trip to the grocery store will have everything you need. You can also get very creative and mix it up with different fillings. It’s a delicious appetizer that might become the star of your next cookout. The actual cook time of this recipe is pretty quick as well, which means you can prepare these ahead of time, toss them on, and eat them in less than two hours.
Tips And Variations
We prepared ours with Italian sausage, cream cheese, and mozzarella cheese. Some fun ways of mixing it up would be using:
Hot or mild breakfast sausage with cheddar cheese.A 50/50 mix of ground pork and ground beef.Adding jalapeno, green onions, and cilantro to the meat and cheese mixture would be amazing.Try different cheeses, such as Monterey Jack cheese, Pepper Jack, or smoked gouda.Playing around with the various rubs and barbecue sauces would quickly change it.
This is one of those recipes where you can put your own flair into it and make it your own. The combinations are endless.
How To Make Smoked Shotgun Shells
Set the cream cheese out until it’s room temperature. Shred the mozzarella cheese and set it aside until you’re ready to make the shotgun shells. Prepare a wire rack with a large sheet pan underneath (aluminum foil-lined, or you may hear it from your wife after). Combine the ground Italian sausage, room temperature cream cheese, shredded cheese, and two teaspoons of your favorite rub in a large bowl. Add the meat mixture to a disposable piping bag with the tip cut off. Squeeze the pork mixture into the uncooked manicotti shells halfway. Turn the pasta tube around and fill in the other half. If you don’t have a piping bag, use any kitchen utensil (we love our Tolovo mini spatula)to stuff the manicotti pasta. We tried both ways, and neither was superior to the other. You just want to make sure you stuff it completely. Doing one end halfway, then filling from the other end, makes it quick work. Next, wrap the stuffed shells with bacon. Make sure you cover the entire shell with the bacon. You want the slices of bacon to go to the ends of the shells. That bacon fat, with the meat mixture inside the manicotti tubes, will soften the noodle during the resting period. This will prevent crunchy spots in your bacon-wrapped shotgun shells. Nobody likes crunchy pasta! Place the wrapped shells on the prepared wire rack in a large sheet pan. Apply a generous amount of your favorite rub. Make sure to cover it completely. These shotgun shells need to rest for a minimum of four to six hours before smoking. As mentioned, this will allow all the meats to release moisture into the raw pasta. Our recommendation would be to rest them overnight. If you do this, just cover the sheet pan with plastic wrap and pull them out about an hour before you’re going to smoke them. When you’re ready, set the smoker to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Use your preferred choice of wood. Honestly, there is no real bad choice here. I prefer an aggressive hickory wood. I could see apple wood being a good choice as well. Place the shotgun shells far from the heat source and allow them to smoke for one hour. You can leave them in the sheet pan (we find this easier) or just place them on the grill grates. After the first 30 minutes, turn the shells (rotate the baking sheet) to guarantee even cooking. After an hour of smoke, turn the heat up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes to crisp up the bacon. Once the bacon has crisped up enough for your liking, apply your favorite barbeque sauce and continue to cook at 350 for about 15 minutes. Once done, remove the shotgun shells from the smoker and allow them to rest, setting up the sauce for about 5 minutes. After that, serve them up. This bacon-wrapped shotgun shells recipe is perfect for people with a pellet grill or other electric smokers, where you can control the temperature by turning the knob. But if you’re working with an offset smoker or weber, no problem. Just smoke the shotgun shells over indirect heat. You can easily fire up the oven or air fryer to crisp up the bacon to finish it off. We liked cutting them into bite-sized morsels. It was perfect. Plenty for everybody to have some bites of this yummy, smoked appetizer. The piece of bacon with the sausage and cheese and the spicy sweet bbq sauce we used was a fabulous bite. The layers of the flavor came together beautifully. We served these up for a couple of guests who thought they were delicious. So much so that the leftovers left with them. We have made these with the listed ingredients and made them using breakfast sausage and cheddar. The Italian sausage and mozzarella, we believe, have more flavor than using a breakfast sausage. If you did end up with leftovers, store them in an airtight container, then reheat at 325 for about 20 minutes to re-crisp the bacon. Also, add a touch more barbecue sauce to them. I noticed they were a little dry without it. So, if you’re looking for something new and fun, this is definitely one worth exploring. After munching and discussing, we thought these would be perfect for those people having a big cookout. You could do up a couple of big batches and either serve them at your party or take them to the next upcoming gathering of your friends or family. Either way, they’ll be a big hit.
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BBQ Chicken Thighs With Bite-Through SkinSt. Louis Ribs – Learn How To Do Smoked Ribs Like A ProFall-Apart Smoked Chuck Roast RecipeSmoked Meatloaf RecipePork Butt Burnt Ends Recipe
