Sybil's Spoon: Bacon Explosion 2014

So the Bacon Explosion has become a Super Bowl staple in our house, and each year we've updated it a bit (seen here and here). This year, I think we really outdid ourselves. Jamie got me a sausage maker, so we actually made our own sausage for it (totally unnecessary, you can use regular sausage, but it was great). We also smoked it for a few minutes which gave a great smoky flavor. Yum! For our sausage, we used a mix of pork shoulder, green apple, leek, garlic, chipotle, jarlsburg cheese, and a little maple syrup. It's a real crowd pleaser.

Ingredients:

2 packages regular bacon

1 package thick cut bacon

3 lb sausage

1/4 cup spice rub (I use a mix of brown sugar, chipotle, oregano, cumin, thyme, salt, and pepper, usually)

1/4 cup diced Jarlsburg or other melty cheese

big handful of grape tomatoes, cut up

big handful arugula

1/2 onion, diced, and 2 clove garlic, minced, sauted (saute the onion until soft then add the garlic for 1 minute)

BBQ sauce

toothpicks

If you're smoking it, 2 tbsp hickory chips soaked in water for a few minutes

Directions:

Create a square bacon weave, about 6 pieces by 6 pieces, on a large piece of tinfoil on a baking sheet.

Sprinkle with some of the rub.

Spread the sausage over the bacon in an even layer. With the thicker bacon, saute it until crispy and break up into pieces.

Sprinkle with sauted onions, tomatoes, arugula, cheese, and crispy bacon, and a little salt and pepper. Drizzle with a little BBQ sauce. Roll the sausage up around the filling, then roll the bacon around the sausage roll and secure it with toothpicks. If you find yourself with too much filling (we did), you can create another bacon weave to cover up areas that aren't covered by the main one. Cover the outside with more rub. Preheat the oven to 250.

If you're smoking it, put tin foil in a heave bottom pot (to protect the bottom). Put in the hickory chips and cover with more foil. Turn the heat to medium and watch until you see the smoke - you can smell it, too. Lift the bacon explosion up by the foil and put in the pot. Cover it with the lid, tightly, and let it smoke for 10 minutes.

Lift it up by the foil and return to the cookie sheet. Stick it in the oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees (about 45 minutes to an hour).