Bacon-wrapped Beer Brat Bites Recipe | Hallmark Ideas & Inspiration (2024)

Bacon-wrapped Beer Brat Bites Recipe | Hallmark Ideas & Inspiration (1)

By Jennifer Fujita on August 7, 2016

Bratwurst and bacon join forces to blindside your taste buds in our Li'l Pigskins appetizer recipe perfect for your next football party. Bratwurst is simmered in beer, cut into bite-sized pieces, wrapped in bacon, and then glazed with a sweet and spicy sauce. Go for extra points with our free printables to flag these addictive bacon-wrapped brat bites on the buffet table.

Yield: 24 pigskins

Inspired? Create and share by tagging @hallmarkstores.

Ingredients

For the brats

6, 12 in.-wooden skewers, cut into fourths, soaked in water about 30 minutes

6 brats

1 can or bottle of beer

12 slices bacon, cut in half

For the glaze

¼ cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp. yellow mustard

1 Tbsp. soy sauce

2 tsp. sriracha garlic chili sauce, or to taste

Hot, honey and yellow mustards for serving

"Li'l Pigskins" printables

Directions

Soak the skewers in water while preparing the brats.
Preheat oven to 450°F.
Pierce brats and place in a pan. Pour beer over the brats. Bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until brats are no longer pink inside.
Remove pan from heat. Cut each brat into 4 equal pieces.
Wrap each brat bite in a half slice of bacon and secure with skewer. Place on a cookie sheet.
To make the glaze, combine brown sugar, yellow mustard, soy sauce and sriracha sauce until smooth. Brush each brat with a generous amount.
Bake glazed brats 17 to 20 minutes, turning once halfway through and basting as needed with extra glaze.
Serve with hot, yellow and honey mustards.

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FAQs

Marinating your brats before grilling in beer and onions keeps them extra juicy! A longer marinate time = more flavor! Be sure to prep this step ahead of time and pop 'em in the fridge to give the brats enough time to marinate in the beer and soak up all the flavor.

Roll the hot link to wrap the bacon around itself. Allow the bacon to overlap a bit with each round and keep it tight while it wraps. Perform the same task on all of the hot links, sausages, brats, or hotdogs. Setup your smoker for cooking with indirect heat at about 240°F (116°C) for 2-3 hours.

Boiling brats in beer will ensure that they are cooked through before grilling so that they don't burn and dry out on the grill. This will make them more flavorful and juicy. The boiling time will vary, but the general rule of thumb is that they will be fully cooked with 10 minutes of boiling.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make while cooking a brat is breaking the outside layer of the sausage. The outer layer of the brat is what makes it so delicious at the end of your cooking, as it holds in all the meat and juice that gives the meat its flavor.

While I love beer brats, I actually recommend NOT boiling them before smoking. Boiling them first in beer will reduce how much flavor is imparted by the grill. We want the smoke flavor to really shine, so starting with raw brats directly on the pellet grill is the best way to go!

Place a deep disposable aluminum foil pan on one side of the grill grates. Carefully pour the beer and onions from the saucepan into the pan on the grill. Arrange the brats on the other side of the grill grates. Close the lid and grill the brats, turning frequently with tongs, until cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes.

Perfect for cookouts and gatherings, these smoked sausages are fully cooked, made with 100% premium pork and a perfect blend of spices.

The idea is to get some nice caramelization on the meat prior to braising it in the beer. That caramelization gives the brats an extra pop of flavor. If the bratwurst is fresh and not precooked, don't worry, the meat will finish cooking in the beer.

Beer brats actually don't have any alcohol in them because the alcohol is burned off during the boiling process. Thus, beer brats are non-alcoholic and kid-friendly.

But PAHs can also form on meat when it's cooked at very high temperatures, such as on a backyard grill. Yikes. Marinating meat in beer can help guard against this formation of PAHs.

While cooked bratwursts are usually delicious to use, you really need to start from scratch to impart the flavor from the beer. We boil for about 10 minutes with the beer and onions, then finish them for about 10 more minutes off on the grill for a gorgeous char exterior and caramelized flavor.

Bacon-wrapped Beer Brat Bites Recipe | Hallmark Ideas & Inspiration (2024)

Ingredients

For the brats

For the glaze

Directions

Shop Home Decor

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FAQs

What does soaking brats in beer do? ›

Does beer add flavor to brats? ›

References