Bacon Explosion

How I hickory smoked downtown Lawrence.

By now I’m sure you’ve heard of the Bacon Explosion, created right here in Kansas City by BBQ Addicts. It’s a bacon tapestry layered with sausage, more bacon, barbecue sauce and rub, that’s then rolled up and hickory smoked before being finished off with a barbecue sauce glaze. Nick and I had been talking about making it for a while, so we seized the opportunity at last week’s company picnic at South Park, down the street from our agency. We actually made two Bacon Explosions, cooking the bacon for the interior and performing the assembly in our lunchroom, which does still and may forever reek of bacon.

Rather than drag a smoker down to the park, we used a gas grill, setting a smoker box of hickory chips on the grate and indirectly cooking the Bacon Explosion. Admittedly not ideal conditions, but we made it work. You could smell the hickory smoke a good 50 feet away.

My favorite moment of the day happened while I was embarrassing myself playing a game of washers. Nick came up to me and said, “The Bacon Explosion is on fire -- and I’m not sure how long it’s been on fire for.”

So the ends got a little bit charred, and by charred I mean crazy burnt. But the Bacon Explosion was still delicious, if on the salty side -- we followed the measurements for everything in the recipe pretty close, and three tablespoons of rub is probably a bit too much. As with all recipes, I figure the first time is practice. The next time will be perfection.