Stuffed Sausage Poppers
Smoking-Meat.com is supported by its readers. We may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you if you buy through a link on this page.
Read this article without ads
These stuffed sausage poppers are great for almost anytime and especially when you have hungry people coming to your house. Easy to make and brings a smile every time!
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 2.5 hours
Smoker temperature: 225°F (107°C)
Meat finish temperature: N/A
Recommended wood: Hickory
- Smoked sausage (about 9 poppers per link)
- Jalapeños (about 12 slices each)
- Bacon, thin sliced (2 poppers per slice)
- Cream cheese, 8 oz box
- 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
- Jeff's original rub recipe
- Jeff's barbecue sauce recipe
Most of the smoked sausage that I purchase locally comes (2) per package. Lay the links parallel with sides touching to speed up the cutting.
You can use kielbasa, smoked sausage, or whatever you like.
Cut them into ¾ to 1-inch long pieces.
Use a knife to cut an “X” in the top side of each piece of sausage down about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through. Make sure to NOT cut all the way through.
Leave the cream cheese on the cabinet for about an hour so it can soften and be easier to work with.
Place the eight ounces of cream cheese into a medium sized mixing bowl. Add a good handful of grated cheddar (about a cup if you want to measure) and 3-4 TBS of Jeff's original rub .
Please note: I halved the recipe to make about 20 of these and had some left over.. the full recipe will make enough for about 40-50 depending on how much you use in each one
Combine all of the ingredients with a fork or similar instrument.
If you have an icing tool or bag, that will work well for operations like this.
You can also put the cheese mixture into a small zipper bag. Cut off a corner to squeeze the mixture out.
Use one hand or a helper to open up the “X” in the sausage. Put the cut corner of the stuffing tool into the opening and squeeze until it oozes out of the sides and top of the sausage pieces. Be as generous as you like. You can't get too much of this stuff.
Cut off the stem of the peppers and carefully clean out the seeds and ribs of the peppers if you want to. The peppers will be hotter if you leave some of the seeds in there.
I recommend using gloves any time you deal with hot peppers in any way.
Once cleaned, cut the peppers into slices that are about 1/8-inch thick. Thicker is fine if you want more of the pepper flavor to come through.
Lay a pepper slice on top of each piece of stuffed sausage.
Cut pieces of bacon in half.
Use ½ slice for each piece of sausage.
Wrap the bacon across the top and bottom of the stuffed sausage pieces.
No toothpick is needed in most cases as the bacon is sticky and will usually hold fine with no further pinning required.
Sprinkle Jeff's original rub onto the tops of the stuffed and wrapped sausage pieces. Be generous with the rub as it is low on salt and high on flavor.
Place the wrapped and stuffed sausage poppers onto a pan with a rack or a cookie sheet to aid in transporting them out to the smoker.
Setup your smoker for cooking at 225°F (107°C) using indirect heat. If your smokers uses a water pan, it's okay to keep it dry to help the bacon to crisp up.
Once the smoker is preheated, place the stuffed sausage poppers into the smoker and close the lid.
Let the sausage pieces cook in the smoker until the bacon starts to get done (about 2 hours).
Paint on some sauce about 30 minutes before they are finished cooking.
These will go fast once you take them into the house. Eat a couple before you announce “done” and then rearrange them on the serving platter so no one will notice that a couple are missing ;-)
Enjoy!
Can recipes like this be cooked in the home oven?
Although these recipes are intended for the smoker, they can also be cooked in the oven if necessary.
You will miss out on the smoked flavor but they will still be very good.
Printable Recipe
Stuffed Sausage Poppers
Ingredients
- Smoked sausage (about 9 poppers per link)
- Jalapeños (about 12 slices each)
- Bacon (thin sliced (2 poppers per slice)
- Cream cheese (8 oz box)
- 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
- Jeff's original rub
- Jeff's barbecue sauce
Instructions
- Most of the smoked sausage that I purchase locally comes in two packages (2) per package. Lay the links parallel with sides touching to speed up the cutting and cut them into ¾ to 1-inch long pieces.
- Use a knife to cut an "X" in the top side of each piece of sausage down about ½ to ⅔ of the way through. Make sure not to cut all the way through.
- Leave the cream cheese on the cabinet for about an hour prior to use, so it can soften..
- Place the 8 oz of cream cheese into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add a good handful of grated cheddar (about a cup if you want to measure) and 3 to 4 TBS of Jeff's original rub. Combine all of the ingredients. Please note: I halved the recipe to make about 20 of these and had some left over. The full recipe will make enough for about 40-50 depending on how much you use in each one.
- Fill an icing tool or zip top bag with the corner cut off with the cream cheese mixture. Use one hand or a helper to open up the "X" in the sausage. Put the cut corner of the stuffing tool into the opening and squeeze until it oozes out of the sides and top of the sausage pieces.
- Cut off the stem of the peppers and carefully clean out the seeds and ribs of the peppers. Cut the peppers into slices that are about 1/8-inch thick. Thicker is fine. Lay a pepper slice on top of each piece of stuffed sausage.
- Cut pieces of bacon in half and use ½ slice for each piece of sausage. Wrap the bacon across the top and bottom of the stuffed sausage pieces. Try to end up with the ends of the bacon under the sausage to help hold it. Tip: Bacon can easily be stretched to adjust the length. No toothpick is needed in most cases as the bacon is sticky and will usually hold fine with no further pinning required.
- Sprinkle Jeff's original rub onto the tops of the stuffed and wrapped sausage pieces.
- Place the wrapped and stuffed sausage poppers onto a pan with a rack or a cookie sheet to aid in transporting them out to the smoker.
- Setup your smoker for cooking at 225°F (107°C) using indirect heat. If your smoker uses a water pan, it's okay to leave it dry to help the bacon to crisp up.
- Once the smoker is ready, place the stuffed sausage poppers onto the grate and close the lid. Let them cook for about 2.5 hours or until the bacon has a good bite thru. Apply Jeff's barbecue sauce about 30 minutes before they are finished cooking.
- Bring the poppers into the house and enjoy!
My wife got some chicken sausage from Costco. I was immediately unenthused and decided I needed to find a way to make it edible.
As they said in The Mandalorean, “This is the way.”
I just wish I could post a pic of them here! Yumm!!!
These are literally the same as Atomic Buffalo Turds but you use lil’ smokies knatead of hotdogs
I love this idea but I can see this making a huge mess on the smoker with cheese oozing out. Anyone else experience this?
Jeff, I’ve been getting your emails for a long time. Why all the sudden did you add all the ad junk?
Like most people, I’m sure Jeff has a mortgage to pay and monthly bills. He provides this content to us at no charge; kind of hard to have a problem with getting some ad revenue to help cover some bills while he generously gives us inspiration every single week for nothing! Someone has to buy the sausage he is smoking while creating and testing the recipes he shares with us all!
As I said one before your prep time is way off. It takes all of twenty minutes just to cut the sausages. I make 50 at a time and it takes me almost 2 hours before they go in the smoker. As a side note I just did a batch of these for an afternoon get together and I prepped them the night before and covered them without the rub sprinkled and refrigerated overnight.
Lyle, I will double check my prep time on this. I take pictures of the entire process from start to finish and I usually look at the time of my first prep picture and my last prep picture to calculate how much time it took me. I’m not really what most would call a “fast” cook so it normally works out well. As always, your feedback is appreciated.
Jeff, just an update on the sausage poppers above. As of 2017 they are undefeated 3 time champion of our Wind Energy Capital of Texas cook-off in the Open meat category. We have renamed them though. The new name is “Good Bastards” because every time we eat one we say ” that’s a good bastard!”
Great name!
Jeff, just thought I’d let you know I entered the Stuffed Sausage Poppers in the Wind Energy Capital of Texas Cook-off this past weekend. We won 1st place in the Open Meat category where you could enter any meat except chicken, ribs or brisket. Those had their own category. We also placed 3rd in chicken, which I used the Naked Rib Rub on as well, along with 2nd in beans! We’ll run at ’em with brisket & ribs next time.
Well done and thank you for sharing the exciting news with me!
Are we using raw sausage or cooked sausage? It looks like in the pictures that it’s cooked; however I’d like to try this using raw sausage, you know smoke it all together.