Bacon Wrapped Meatballs aka Moink Balls
Bacon Wrapped Meatballs have been around for at least 40 years and possibly longer than that but were named "MOINK balls" and made widely popular in or around 2008 by a man named Larry Gaian. The name is quite significant in that they are made from beef meatballs and half slices of thin pork bacon. Together you have moo + oink or moink balls. If you have tried them, then you know they are simply delicious and if you haven't, well, then you are in for a wonderful surprise.
Servings 8
Ingredients
- 24 + frozen or fresh (store-bought or homemade is fine
- ½ slice of bacon per meatball. 1 lb of thin or original sliced bacon will usually do about 2 dozen meatballs.
- Jeff's original rub
- Jeff's barbecue sauce
- Beer
- Hot pepper jelly optional
Instructions
- If meatballs are frozen, place them in the fridge for a few hours or up to a day to thaw.
- Wrap half pieces of bacon around each meatball and secure with a toothpick.
- Place the meatballs on a Bradley rack, Weber grill pan or a cooling rack to make them easy to carry to and from the smoker.
- Season on all sides with a low salt barbecue rub such as my original rub.
- Set up your smoker for cooking at about 240°F using indirect heat and hickory or pecan for smoke.
- If your smoker has a water pan, fill it up with hot water.
- When the smoker is ready to go place the wrapped meatballs on the smoker grate and let them cook for 2 hours or until they reach an internal temperature of 160 and the bacon is firm.
- When the meatballs are finished or nearly finished cooking, glaze the outside of the meatballs with barbecue sauce thinned with beer, juice, melted butter, etc.
- Let the glaze set for about 10 minutes then bring them in and serve right away.