Name: Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Smokies
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 25 min
Ingredients: 1 pound sliced bacon (cut into thirds); one 500 gram package cocktail smokies (approximately 30 sausages); 1 cup brown sugar; ⅓ teaspoon garlic powder; ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional but awesome!)

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Why You’ll Love My Recipe

This recipe takes regular, boring cocktail sausages and cranks them up to 11! Wrapped in bacon, spiced and seasoned, and glazed in caramelized brown sugar, each bite is a mini taste explosion! Just make sure you grab a couple for yourself before they all disappear!

Looking for something a little bit different? Why not try to make our Sausage Balls Recipe (Classic Bisquick® Sausage Balls) as a party appetizer or holiday breakfast treat? Or try another game-day staple and make some Amazing Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings instead!

A plate of bacon-wrapped mini sausages secured with toothpicks, sprinkled with brown sugar, surrounds a bowl of dark dipping sauce on a white surface.

Karlynn’s Recipe Notes

Skill Level: This recipe is easy to make and can be put into the oven alongside other baked appetizers if your oven has the space!
Total Time: You can toss them in the oven while you take care of some last-minute party prep—ready in 30 to 35 minutes!
Variations: Play around with the flavours of this recipe by using different varieties of bacon! Maple bacon, applewood smoked bacon, or even black pepper bacon will add a special twist!
Tools For This Recipe: You will need a whisk, unflavoured toothpicks, and a large baking sheet.

A hand holds a toothpick with a piece of bacon-wrapped food above a bowl of dark dipping sauce, with more bacon-wrapped bites and toothpicks visible in the background.

What You’ll Need For Ingredients

Cocktail Smokies: Although it might be tempting to reach for whatever’s on sale, it’s important to use the highest-quality sausages you can find for this recipe since they’re the real stars!

Bacon: Cut each strip of bacon into thirds to make it easy to wrap the mini sausages. Karlynn’s Tips: You can absolutely skip the bacon in this recipe and just toss your sausages in the spice mix before baking, but the bacon definitely adds a little something special!

A marble countertop displays mini sausages on a tray, a dish of raw bacon slices, a measuring cup of brown sugar, and two small bowls containing spices.

How to Make Classic Brown Sugar Bacon-Wrapped Smokies

This is a quick overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients & complete step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.

A glass bowl filled with brown sugar and spices sits on a marble countertop, surrounded by a whisk, a tray of mini sausages, a bowl of bacon slices, and a white kitchen towel.

A hand holds a bacon-wrapped mini sausage on a toothpick above a bowl of brown sugar, with a whisk, kitchen towel, and baking tray of more bacon-wrapped sausages in the background.

Preheat the oven to 350° F and whisk the brown sugar and spices together in a bowl.
Wrap each cocktail sausage with bacon and secure with a toothpick.
Place the bacon-wrapped wiener into the bowl of brown sugar mixture and coat each bacon-wrapped wiener thoroughly.
Place wieners on a large baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the sugar is bubbly and the bacon is crispy. Remove and let cool for 5-10 minutes, then plate and serve!

A baking tray filled with bacon-wrapped sausages, each secured with a toothpick, arranged in rows. Some parsley is in the foreground, and sauces and a bowl are blurred in the background.

Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for the Perfect Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Smokies

Quality Counts: Consider going to your local butcher, or hunting down a ranch stall at your local farmer’s market for high-quality, artisanal sausages that will make this appetizer really stand out! You don’t have to use the usual cocktail weiners.
No Pork, No Problem: If you can’t eat pork, or want something lower in fat, consider turkey or beef cocktail links! Bacon alternatives such as turkey bacon and veggie bacon will work for this recipe, as long as they are pliable enough to wrap around the sausages and won’t shrink too much or set too hard after baking. If they turn out a little dry, consider serving them alongside our Homemade BBQ Sauce as a dip!

Bacon-wrapped smokies secured with toothpicks sit on a baking sheet, coated in a caramelized glaze. The bacon is browned and crispy, with syrupy sauce pooled around each piece.

Storage Instructions

These glorious, meaty little bites are so smoky, sweet, and poppable that we bet they’ll all be gone long before your guests have said their goodbyes, but in the event that you do have extras, here are some tips on how to store them.

Refigerator: You can store leftover smokies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat in the oven for 10 minutes at 350°F—or in the air fryer—for best results!

Freezer: We don’t recommend freezing the cooked sausages, but you can wrap your sausages in bacon ahead of time and freeze them for later! Just roll them in the brown sugar mix and pop them into the oven frozen and add 5 minutes to the final cook time to allow for defrosting!

More Delicious Appetizer Recipes

Got a little extra room in the oven? Slide our Meat Lover’s Pizza Dip or Simply Delicious Stuffed Mushrooms in next to your tray of smokies!
Bacon lovers will also love our Smoky Bacon Devilled Eggs!
Looking to add a little crunch to your next party buffet? Try our Crispy, Buttery Fried Zucchini!
Have time for a little extra prep work? Why not try our Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts for a delicious throwback to the dinner parties of the ’80s?

Sweet, salty, fatty and spicy, these are the ultimate snack! Give these brown sugar bacon-wrapped smokies a try at your next get-together, and tell us how they came out for you in the comments below!

Happy Cooking!

Karlynn