SMOKED SAUSAGE FATTY

By á-99226

Ingredients

• 3 lbs quality, thick sliced bacon
• 2 lbs regular Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage
• 8 oz Pepper Jack cheese slices
• 2 jalapeno peppers
• 1 batch rib rub
• 1 batch barbecue sauce
• 2 gallon sizes ziploc bags
• 2 pieces of wax paper (I use parchment paper)

Details

Adapted from smoking-meat.com

Preparation

Step 1

This may look difficult but once you do it one time, you will see how easy it really is.

Lay out 7 pieces of bacon horizontally on the wax paper butting them up to each other with no overlapping.

7 Pieces Laid Out Horizontally

Now remove the 2nd, 4th, and 6th piece and lay them aside.

2,4 and 6 Removed

Lay a piece of bacon vertically all the way to the left and on top of the horizontal pieces.

First Vertical Piece of Bacon

Replace pieces 2,4 and 6 that you removed earlier to the exact location that you removed them from.

2,4 and 6 Replaced

Fold horizontal pieces 1, 3, 5, and 7 back to the left over the top of the first vertical piece.

1,3,5 and 7 Folded Back

Lay down the 2nd vertical piece just to the right of the 1st vertical piece and lay horizontal pieces 1, 3, 5, and 7 back down into their original location.

Second Vertical Piece

You get the idea.. continue this alternating pattern until you have 6-7 vertical pieces of bacon woven into the 7 horizontal pieces.

This completes the weave that will be wrapped around the roll of stuffed sausage.

Sprinkly a healthy portion of my rib rub onto the bacon weave(s) and set aside.

Bacon Weave with Rub Applied
Flattening out the Sausage

Place the one pound sausage roll into a gallon sized ziploc bag and seal it up.

Sausage into Ziploc Bag

Then use your hand or a rolling pin to flatten it out to an even square. To avoid air pockets you can snip off a corner or two of the bag to allow some air to escape.

You can also just flatten the sausage out into a square that is approximately the same size as your bacon weave or slightly smaller without using a bag.

Roll out Sausage with Rolling Pin

If you used the bag to make the square of sausage, use a very sharp knife to cut the top of the plastic away from the sausage.. down one side, across the bottom and up the other side to where the zipper is located.

Cutting Bag to Remove Sausage

You should then be able to lift the sausage square up and flip it over carefully onto the wax paper allowing you to then remove the remaining bottom of the plastic bag from the sausage.


Stuffing the Sausage

What you put on the sausage is a matter of preference.. I made one the traditional way with a layer of my sauce, 5-6 slices of pepper jack cheese, 10 pieces of bacon fried crispy and torn into small one inch pieces.

Sauce on Sausage Square Pepper Jack Cheese on Sausage Square

Bacon on Sausage Square

The second one was simply 5-6 pieces of pepper jack cheese, spinach greens, chopped red onion, and one seeded, chopped jalapeno.

Note: place all of the stuffing in the bottom two thirds of the sausage square for best results.

Cheese, Onions, Jalapenos and Spinach on Sausage Square
Rolling the Stuffed Sausage

Lift up the wax paper and roll the sausage as tightly as possible making sure that the ingredients are rolled up into the sausage. An assistant is very helpful with this process.

Be sure to remove the wax paper as you go so it does not get rolled into the sausage as well.

When it is completely rolled up, very carefully lift up the roll of sausage and place it on top of the bacon weave at the bottom end.

Fatty all Rolled Up Fatty Laid on Bacon Weave
Rolling the Bacon Weave Around the Sausage Roll

As with the sausage, lift the bottom of the wax paper up to help start the bacon weave around the sausage.

Continue to roll the bacon weave until it is completely around the sausage roll. Be sure to keep the wax paper pulled back so it does not get rolled up with the bacon weave.

Brush on another coating of the barbecue sauce and you are ready to place on the smoker.

Sausage Roll Wrapped in Bacon
Preparing the Smoker

Prepare your wood, charcoal, electric or gas smoker for about 230-240 degrees. I used mesquite for this experiment since I wanted a really nice robust smoke flavor.

Feel free to use your favorite type of wood. I would imagine that pecan, oak, apple, cherry, etc. would all be wonderful woods to use.


Smoking the Fatties (some of you just got excited when you read that)

Place the fatties on the grate. The bacon wrapped stuffed sausage rolls will take about 2-3 hours to reach 165° in the center. I recommend that you keep the smoke flowing for at least 2 hours. Use a thermometer and remove them from the smoker when they reach 165°.

Sausage Fatty's on Smoker

I have read that it takes about one hour per inch of thickness. I am not sure how well that holds true but one of mine got done about 30 minutes before the other one. The one that got done early was thicker than the one that took the longest so.. go figure.

Let the temperature tell you when it is done no matter how long it takes.

Bacon Wrapped Sausage Fatty Stuffed with Cheese and Bacon Bacon Wrapped Sausage Fatty Stuffed with Cheese, Spinach, Onions and Jalapeno
Crisping up the Bacon on the Outside

When you first remove the fatty from the smoker, the bacon on the outside will not be crispy. If you prefer crispy bacon then simply pop it into a 500° broiler for a couple of minutes but keep a very close eye on it will burn.