How To Bring The Best Sides At The Party!

Hello Grilling Family!  Here in the USA, 4th of July weekend always means people coming together for food, family, and fun.   

If you find yourself headed to a cookout and looking to bring a smoked appetizer or two, here are three snack cooks from Josh and Jeremy with the Smokin Brother’s Pro team. 

From our family to yours, we hope everyone at your cookout enjoys this “Party Edition” of the Smoker’s Guide to What’s For Dinner! 

A quick and easy 5-ingredient recipe your family’s gonna love.  These seasoned, smoked crackers are crispy, full of flavor, and bring a little kick. They’re also a low-maintenance dish to toss together a fun sharable off the smoker for your next potluck. 

Ingredients

  • Box of small crackers (we used Saltine’s minis) 
  • Package dry ranch seasoning mix 
  • 2 tbl spoons cooking oil (canola, olive, grapeseed, etc) 
  • Double butter garlic rub, or garlic powder 
  • Crushed red pepper to taste (1-2 tbl spoons) 

 

Recipe

  1. Turn on smoker, set to 300°F 
  2. Remove the entire bag of crackers, open, and pour into a large mixing bowl 
  3. Drizzle the oil over the crackers to get a good coating, and mix 
  4. Open and pour in dry ranch seasoning mix and stir 
  5. Add 1 to 1 ½ tbl spoon of garlic rub or powder and stir 
  6. Add crushed red pepper to taste, mix thoroughly 
  7. Spread seasoned crackers onto a cookie sheet and spread evenly 
  8. Place cookie sheet on smoker grates.  Every 15 minutes check and stir. 
  9. Firecrackers are ready when they’re golden brown, crispy, and edges are beginning to turn dark – about 45 minutes. 
  10. Transfer to your serving dish and enjoy!

Here’s an easy layered dip recipe with a flavorful surprise your friends will request again and again.  And we call it the “Perfect 180” because it turns out perfectly every time.  This bean and cheese dip doesn’t require any cook time (shhh, it never touches a smoker) – and that makes it one of the simplest appetizers to prepare the next time you’re headed to a cookout. 

Ingredients

  • can of black beans  
  • 2 8oz packages cream cheese 
  • ½ cup or more diced green onions, to taste 
  • 9 oz jar of fruit-infused spicy pepper spread/jam (We used a Strawbanero) 
  • Package of shredded cheese.  We like a finely-shredded Mexican blend 


Recipe

  1. Let cream cheese warm toward room temperature until softened 
  2. rinse the black beans in a colander, let drip fairly dry 
  3. transfer the beans to a 9” or similar baking or serving dish, spread evenly. 
  4. Put cream cheese and green onions in a bowl and mix thoroughly 
  5. Spread the cheese and onion mixture evenly over the base layer of beans 
  6. Place the dish into the refrigerator for about an hour 
  7. Remove the dish from the fridge about 30 minutes before serving 
  8. Spread entire jar of fruit and pepper jam evenly over the dish 
  9. Pour 1 cup or more shredded cheese over the top of the mixture to taste 
  10. Serve with your favorite scoopable tortilla or corn chips, and include a spoon for easy dipping. Enjoy! 

Bring some tasty, smoky variety to your next party with this assortment of stuffed jalapenos, portabello mushrooms, and poblano peppers.  We fill each one to the top with lots of the breakfast sausage and cream cheese stuffing mixture, and brown sugar gives a candied flavor and texture to the bacon wrapping our “cowboy candy” jalapenos.   

Ingredients

  • 6-8 portabello mushroom caps, 3-4” diameter 
  • 1 large poblano pepper 
  • 4 jalapeno peppers 
  • 8 slices of thin-cut bacon (one per jalapeno half) 
  • Package breakfast sausage (we chose a spicy sausage) 
  • 2 oz packages cream cheese 
  • 1 package shredded cheese 
  • Butt The Kitchen Sink sweet bbq rub 
  • Brown sugar 
  • toothpicks 

 

Recipe

  1. let cream cheese warm toward room temperature and soften in a large bowl 
  2. Break up and brown the breakfast sausage in a large skillet 
  3. Preheat smoker to 250-275°F 
  4. Mix the shredded cheese into the softened cream cheese in the large bowl 
  5. Add the browned breakfast sausage to the cheeses and mix 
  6. Add 2 tablespoons of Butt The Kitchen Sink rub to bowl and mix in and complete the stuffing mixture 
  7. Use a knife and/or spoon to core and empty the mushrooms 
  8. Use a knife to slice the peppers in half longways, then a spoon to de-seed (leave a few seeds in if you want extra heat) 
  9. Use a spoon to fill each mushroom and pepper with the stuffing mixture 
  10. Wrap the bacon around the stuffed jalapenos, using a toothpick to hold the bacon on 
  11. Roll the wrapped jalapenos in brown sugar to get a coating on the bacon 
  12. Place stuffed peppers and mushrooms onto a baker’s drying rack over a foil-wrapped cookie sheet to help keep your grill clean 
  13. Dust all the veggies one more time with Butt The Kitchen Sink 
  14. Place the veggies and cookie tray on the grill racks 
  15. Cook until the veggies firm up and the bacon is cooked thoroughly – we pulled the mushrooms and poblanos off at around 1 hour, and the cowboy candies at about 1 hour and 30 minutes for the bacon to be completely cooked. 
  16. Remove the toothpicks or make sure your family and friends are aware 
  17. Place veggies onto serving tray and enjoy!
Skip to content