I made these twice for Christmas parties this year and all of the non-keto people loved them. The one or two low carb people especially loved them.
I’m a barbecue guy, and all my favorite treats involve the smoker. And usually bacon. Super simple. 20 - 30 minutes prep time plus 1&1/2ish hours in the smoker.
2 pounds pure pork sausage.
4 ounces grated sharp cheddar or pepper jack
1 TBSP Kosher salt
1 TBSP Onion Powder
1 TBSP Garlic Powder
1 lb bacon, thinly sliced.
This makes around 36-40 sausage balls. Start by just cutting the package of bacon in half crosswise. That gives you two packages of half strips.
Put a handful of toothpicks (like 48 or so) aside in something that you don’t mind getting covered in sausage. If you work like me, your hands will be covered in raw sausage within seconds and you’ll be touching everything in your work space with sausage.
Combine all the rest of the ingredients. I used that famous “pure pork sausage” from a guy who used to be a singer in the 50s for one batch, and grocery store spicy pork sausage for the other. I always start using a big plastic spoon and end up mixing this all by hand.
Once it’s all mixed up, make up a small meatball, about a tablespoon of sausage/spice/cheese mix, wrap it in a half slice of bacon and stick a toothpick in it to hold the bacon in place.
Place on a rack in your smoker (I use an electric smoker) preheated to 235. My favorite wood lately is pecan with some hickory added. Smoke until the internal temperature is 175 or 180.
That’s it. Easy peasy. Almost took as much time to describe this as to make them.
I serve with my version of Alabama white barbecue sauce (no carb or low traces of carb) as a dipping sauce. That’s a recipe I posted here before. I love ketchup-based barbecue sauces, but not enough to have the carbs. This white sauce is very low carb.
(I made one batch with pepper jack I had smoked a few weeks ago. Definitely not worth using that cheese for this; it gets plenty of smoke flavor.)
Enjoy.
Bob