Smoked shotgun shells

[Goldeneagle]

My cousin makes these and said the secret is to make them the night ahead and cover with foil. I think Kent's recipe says to sit a few hours before. The moisture from the stuffing and the bacon softens the manicotti up

Let the bacon warm up to where it will stretch. Then wrap the whole thing. I've wrapped thousands of Texas Twinkies and this is the easiest way. No need to ever toothpick unless you're one of those people who are stingy with bacon. I'm not. I serve to the public so the last thing I need is somebody chomping down on a forgotten toothpick. I don't do the shotgun shells because I don't like the pasta texture with the other stuff going on. Same principle though. You can easily wrap an entire shotgun shell(ends included) with one piece of bacon

The kids made them the night before. All I did was cook them. I'll over see the wrapping next time.

[dclifton]

picked up stuff last night to make these this weekend. Planning on just eating them as a dinner. with kids its always on the go so this will be good.

[WinslowBoy]

I second the 1) make sure the bacon covers the entire noodle and 2) make them the night before and set in the refrigerator. The "juice" from the sausage/bacon works into the noodle to soften it. I've found the cheap skinny bacon works best because it stretches better over the noodles.

I do a mix of ground italian sausage (1/3) and spicy breakfast sausage (2/3). Just like that combo better. Add the cheese (even add some cream cheese in addition to shredded), jalapenos, onions and I use MeatChurch Hot Honey Hog seasoning. I also don't add bbq sauce at the end. Just thought they were better without the sauce.

I end up cutting them into thirds and serve them as finger food appetizers.