I am all about easy appetizers these days. From crockpot grape jelly meatballs to the best buffalo chicken dip, I like things that take very few ingredients and very little time to make. This weekend I shared these amazing bacon wrapped dates and yesterday I shared bacon brie bites. Since we’re on a bacon trend, I figured I might as well share these bacon wrapped smokies now! I mean they’re delicious and great if you’re looking for Christmas appetizers, Super Bowl food, or really appetizers for any occasion!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Sweet heat – each appetizer is glazed with a brown sugar and hot honey glaze, giving it a tiny bit of heat but not enough to be dangerous.Only 4-ingredients – who doesn’t love recipes with just a few ingredients?? These bacon wrapped smokies only use four, and they’re four you should keep at home anyway. Easy to make – you open, you wrap, you glaze, and you bake. That’s it. They’re fancy – fancy sounding that is, at the end of the day they’re really not that fancy, but anything bacon wrapped sounds fancy. Great for cocktail parties or anytime you need a yummy appetizer.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Hot honey – hot honey is a specific kind of honey you can buy at most grocery stores or order online here. It’s definitely key to the sweet heat flavor of these lil smokies! It’s infused with chilis, so it has a bit of heat but nothing over the top. Bacon – any bacon works (we prefer anything nitrate free) as long as it’s not the thick cut kind. You need to be able to wrap it. Lil Smokies – this recipe is written for a package of 14 oz lil smokies. If you get a smaller package, you may need two. A typical bag of smokies includes 37-42 smokies, and the recipe is written for that many smokies. Brown sugar – light brown sugar Cayenne pepper – this is totally optional and not recommended if you’re serving these to the kiddos since they definitely add a little heat
You’ll also need some water, but I figured you would all have that in your kitchen on hand so didn’t list it above.
Instructions
It seems like every time I write a recipe, I talk about how it’s the easiest recipe ever. Apparently I just like easy recipes. This one is super simple too. Just a few steps until you’re on your way to enjoying some delicious bacon wrapped smokies! Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. The parchment paper will help these not stick (and make cleanup a breeze) with the sticky honey. Pat the lil smokies down with a paper towel to remove any excess moisture. Cut each piece of bacon into three strips to giving you 36 pieces. Wrap each lil smokie in a piece of bacon and secure it with a toothpick. Place the bacon wrapped lil smokies on the prepared baking sheet, spacing them out from each other just slightly to make for each flipping. In a small bowl, whisk the hot honey, brown sugar, water, and cayenne (if using) together until well combined. Brush the top of each of the lil smokies with the mixture, making sure to coat the top portion of the mixture as much as possible. I like to use a silicone basting brush like this one for this. Bake the lil smokies for 15 minutes then remove from the oven and flip the smokies. Brush them with the remaining brown sugar honey mixture then bake for an additional 8 to 15 minutes depending on how crispy you want the bacon. I tend to like my bacon crispier, so I go more towards cooking longer but know some people prefer bacon to be less crispy. Remove from the oven and let the bacon wrapped smokies cool before eating (the glaze will be HOT!). Serve either with the toothpicks in for serving or remove carefully, making sure to remove from the non-end side of the bacon so that it doesn’t begin to unwrap the bacon.
Expert Tips
Place the bacon wrapped smokies on the baking sheet with the toothpicks pointing to the sides to allow for easy flipping. You can grab the toothpicks to flip them over quickly, just be careful that you don’t break them. Store leftover bacon wrapped smokies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days. Reheat smokies in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes or until they’re warmed through. Don’t microwave these or they’ll lose their crisp bite. Use regular honey with 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper in place of the hot honey if you can’t find hot honey.
More Easy Appetizers
If you like these bacon wrapped smokies, you’re going to love these other simple appetizers!
Bacon wrapped dates – stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, it really doesn’t get better than this! Fruit salsa – a super easy fruit salsa that pairs perfectly with sweet and crispy cinnamon chipsHomemade pepperoni rolls – pizza toppings rolled up in dough then baked to pizza perfection.Queso fundido – homemade chorizo mixed with cheese, cheese, and more cheese! The ideal game day appetizer! Pulled pork sliders – sweet BBQ pulled pork topped with a delicious cabbage slaw all piled in the middle of a sweet Hawaiian roll.
