Bacon Wrapped Pickle Bloody Mary shots will always be words that are meaningful to me. It’s a long, odd combination of words that reminds me of a fun annual trip each year to California. Every February a number of food social media content creators head out to California to celebrate the birthday of our good friend Tone of TFTIBBQ.com.

There are a few highlights of the long weekend that always stand out like hanging out and catching up with friends that we see once or twice a year. Cooking and eating every animal in existence, and recording video content for what we’re all cooking.

That’s how this recipe came about. My friend Matt of Cabezon_BBQ mentioned that he had an idea for a bacon wrapped pickle cocktail idea and asked if I’d be interested in taking part. That’s how it all started. We spent a day or so bouncing ideas off one another, then finally came up with this ultimate brunch item!

At the birthday party were Gold Bar Whiskey, and Bear and Burtons so since we had the whiskey and bloody marry mix handy – we used those products, we were sure glad that we did! If you’d rather a more traditional Bloody Mary, you can sub the whiskey for vodka.

Let’s Prep:

Prepare Bacon Wrapped Pickles

Preparing the pickles will seem like it’s the most complicated part, but it’s actually pretty simple. The very first thing you’re going to want to do is cut the ends off of each pickles. This is going to give you a flat surface to allow the pickle to stand upright when you cook and serve.

Next, once you’ve gotten your pickle sliced, it’s time to hollow out the middle to from the “shot glass” You can do this a couple different ways. You can use a corer tool or the smallest measuring spoon you have and hollow out the inside of a whole dill pickle sliced in half.

Next wrap each “pickle shot cup” with half of a strip of bacon. Secure with toothpicks. Matt and I were concerned about the toothpick holes allowing the liquid to leak out, but don’t worry here. The holes are too small for the thick liquid to leak from.

Let’s Cook:

Once you have everything wrapped up it’s time to put the pickles into the smoker. Cook them until the bacon is crispy to your liking without burning. The inside of your cups will fill with pickle juice, you can dump that out. I like to do this at the halfway point.

I checked on them while they were on the smoker to check if they were cooking evenly. It’s worth noting that each smoker cooks differently and has hot and cool spots on it, so as was the case here, I needed to rotate the tray they were on halfway through.

Get the seasoning for this recipe!

Let’s Eat:

Once the bacon wrapped pickles are done cooking, it’s time to mix the Bloody Mary drinks up! This is a really simple process that doesn’t take much time to do. Simply fill each shot cup with whiskey halfway, then top with the Bloody Mary mix. I prefer this order because the bloody mar mix is thicker and heavier than the whiskey so there will be a natural mixing of the drinks happening without you having to stir.

If you like this recipe – my “Bacon, Brisket, Bourbon” Shirt is probably perfect for you!

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