Watch Me Make It!

You know that one thing that your friend makes that you love them for? This will be that for you. Your friends will be praising you like crazy for putting this out at your next party, game day or get-together.

When it comes to the perfect appetizer, I'm always on the go to try to create the perfect creation. I like to marry together flavors that I like individually and try to find a way to make them work well together. Honestly, sometimes it works well. Sometimes it doesn't. This one though - came out perfectly.

You've got only 3 ingredients (four if you count the seasoning) Say it with me now: Pickles. Slices of Bacon. Cream Cheese (if you want a little creamier you could even add some sour cream.

How could any 3 words make a more delicious appetizer? Put them all together and cook them! This is a recipe that you'll be coming back to as your go-to over and over again.

You'll love cooking this super easy appetizer recipe just as much as your friends and family love talking about how great of a cook you are! Even better, you can smoke this in the smoker, or bake in the oven!

Let's Prep:

Ready to get this appetizer ready? Let's go! Prep your ingredients:

The majority of the prep work for this appetizer recipe is going to come in getting your pickles ready. More on that in a second.

The most important part of getting ready to cook is to make sure you have a clean and de-cluttered work surface and all of your tools and utensils are clean and within reach. This makes your work so much easier than trying to have to find things as you go along.

Prep your pickles by slicing the ends off of a whole dill pickle. This is solely to make this pickle appetizer stand up on it's end to create a "shot glass" effect. Next grab a corer tool <----- link to buy one. Carefully stick the corer took into the thick part of the pickle (what was the middle) and twist your pickle with one hand, while holding the corer tool with the other. It's just that simple.

Work the tool around inside the pickles flesh until you feel the middle come loose and pull out your core. It might take a little practice, but after your first couple you'll be all set.

Complete as many tasks as you can for this appetite recipe in assembly-line fashion. Do all of your pickles first as described above. Nice slice your slab of bacon in half as close to the middle as possible. This will help with the evenness of wrapping it all up.

Appetizer TIP: Put your softened cream cheese in a Ziploc bag instead of a bowl and use that as a piping bag and cut one of the corners off of it. It's easy and very effective! Fill your pickle shot glasses with cream cheese up to the top.

Appetizer TIP: Believe it or not, slabs of bacon can vary in size. Pretty widely in fact. The differentiation will come in the length of the strips of bacon primarily. I say that to tell you that for this appetizer recipe, you may need to trim the ends of the pieces of bacon if they are a little too long. You don't want much overhang on your bacon, in fact you want it as close to touching the ends as possible, while still making sure that you have just enough overlap to be able to stick a toothpick into.

Wrap in the pickle shot in bacon and season with Rub My Meat Seasoning then put them on a wire rack to make them easy to transport and move on and off the grill/smoker/oven.

Let's Cook:

Cooking is pretty simple and self explanatory with this one, however there are a couple things to be aware of in this appetizer recipe as you're cooking it.

• The cream cheese could expand out of the top of your pickle as cooking. This is fine!
• You want your bacon to be a golden-amber color and not beginning to char or begin to turn black.
• Yes, you can make these in the oven - however you won't be getting the smoke flavor, which I love.

Let's Eat:

Listen to me very carefully here. Are you listening? Good. This will be one of the most delicious appetizer recipes you ever make or eat. I promise you - you'll have a hard time finding an appetizer that is easier to make and more delicious. (Except maybe my other appetizer recipes). Read below:

These dill pickle bacon shots will be hot! Give them a few minutes when done. The cream cheese will be at a near-molten level and will burn your tongue if you dig into this as quickly as you're going to want to. I get it. Give it a few minutes to cool down before you dive in and you'll be way happier!

Variations

The best way to vary this recipe is via the seasonings, feel free to add some fresh dill, garlic powder or your favorite hot sauce to the cream cheese mixture.

Serve with a ranch or sour cream dip and a garish of some small dill pickle slices on top is really good.

Other Recipes You'll Love:

• EASY Chopped Italian Sandwich Recipe in a Pickle Bun
• Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog with Pickle Hot Dog Bun
• Fried Pickle Mozzarella Sticks: Crispy & Cheesy!
• Baked Cool Ranch Crusted Pickles Recipe
• Dill Pickle Deviled Eggs Recipe – The Best Egg Recipe