Bacon wrapped little smokies are an easy and tasty BBQ side dish at any time of the year, but particularly suited to the festive season.

Little smokies with bacon are really easy to make and cook very quickly on the grills.

Easy Bacon Wrapped Little Smokies BBQ Recipe

Ingredients

• 6 rashers good quality smoked streaky bacon cut in half
• 12 good quality cocktail sausages
• BBQ rub of choice – we used a Traeger rub but Meat Church Honey Hog rub is a great option too (see Recipe Notes below if you want to make your own rub)
• BBQ sauce (see Recipe Notes for other options)
• 12 Toothpicks

Steps

1 Wrap the Smokies

To wrap these little smokies take a half slice of streaky bacon and wrap it round one of your sausages, securing it with a toothpick as the video above shows. Repeat until all the sausages are wrapped.

2 Season the Little Smokies

Liberally dust your lil smokies with your BBQ rub of choice.

3 Grill the Smokies Lid Down

Place your smokies onto medium hot BBQ grills and put the lid down. It will take around 35-40 minutes for your smokies to cook. Check them regularly and flip them a few times when required.

4 Brush with BBQ Sauce

When the smokies register an internal temperature of 165F (74C) brush them on both sides with BBQ sauce to coat. Leave for a couple of minutes to caramelise and then take them off the grill.

Bacon Wrapped Lil Smokies with Brown Sugar

Many people like to sprinkle brown sugar onto their smokies. We have left this out because there is sugar in both the dry rub and the BBQ sauce, and we don’t want our bacon wrapped smokies to be too sweet.

Bacon Wrapped Smokies with Maple Syrup

You can definitely substitute BBQ sauce for maple syrup or honey. You will get plenty of sweetness from maple syrup or honey, but a good BBQ sauce has more complex flavours and levels.

Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs

If you want to this side dish into more of a main dish, use large sausages (e.g. Bratwurst sausages) wrapped in bacon. You’ll have to cook your bacon wrapped hot dogs for longer because the sausages will be bigger, but your target internal temperature is still the same – 165F or 74C.

Serve in a bun with mustard, ketchup and maybe a little fried onion.

Recipe Notes

If you want to make your own rub for your smokies – this one has a great balance of sweet, savoury and spicy notes.

Personalise it by adding a bit more cayenne for extra (or less if you prefer), a little more sugar for sweetness or if you prefer a more savoury taste add a little more garlic or onion powder.

• 3 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons of Sweet Smoked Paprika
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Chilli Powder (or more if you like heat)
• 1 Teaspoon of Onion Powder 
• 1 Teaspoon of Granulated Garlic
• 1/2 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
• 2 Teaspoons of Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 1 Tablespoon of Fine Sea Salt

Other Ideas for Smokies Wrapped In Bacon

Instead of brushing the smokies with BBQ sauce try maple syrup or honey mixed with butter and Worcestershire sauce.

Instead of using sage you could also substitute rosemary or thyme leaves.

If you enjoyed this article you might also enjoy this one:

For another authoritative article on grilling bacon wrapped smokies try here: