Bacon Wrapped Bratwurst Bites

About two months ago we were planning my mom’s trip out to visit us. As excited as we all were, I was having a bit of anxiety about feeding her! She is used to the wonderful fresh food that the farmers markets in Maryland have to offer. Along with many other healthy food limitations she has made for herself, she is primarily grain free.

Personally, we eat A LOT of grain. We eat some form of bread or pasta at nearly every meal. So we sure had a task trying to find variations of some of our favorites.
Bratwurst is among our top favorite meals. Sure, we could just skip the bun and eat it plain but how boring!

Hmm....

What is the one thing you could add to just about ANYTHING, to make it better? Bacon, duh. I took to Pinterest to get some ideas, and gathered from a few, not using any one directly. Here is what we came up with!

Bacon Wrapped Brat Bites

Ingredients:

1 12oz bottle of beer
1 5pk of bratwurst
1/2 cup of maple syrup
2 tablespoons of Tapatio Hot Sauce
1 lb thawed pork bacon
toothpicks

Directions:

Simmer bratwurst in beer. It should cover nearly half the width of the brats.  Cover, and simmer for 10 minutes on low, then turn bratwurst over.  Watch carefully to prevent beer from scorching! Simmer for additional 5-8 minutes or until most water has cooked out and you are left with a thick sauce.

While brats are simmering, preheat oven to 400F and cover a cookie sheet in foil and place a broiling rack on top.

Turn heat off the brats, and turn brats to coat in leftover beer sauce. Remove the brats from pan and let cool to soak in juices. Don’t cut right away!

In a bowl add syrup and hot sauce and mix together.

Cut your bacon in half, so you are dealing with pieces roughly 3 inches in length.
Slice each bratwurst into 3 pieces.

Wrap a single piece of bacon around each bratwurst slice, securing with a toothpick. (You will have leftover bacon)

Place onto baking sheet and spoon drizzle maple syrup/hot sauce glaze over each piece.

Bake for 35 minutes on until bacon is cooked.
Enjoy!

Tips:

When choosing your beer, take a few aspects into consideration. We used to always use Sam Adams Summer Ale, now we only use my husband's home-brew. I personally would suggest your favorite craft-brew!

The goal for the sauce is simply a sweet/spicy combo. Use whatever your heart desires to achieve that. Honey would make a decent substitute, as would whatever your favorite hot sauce is.

While I personally prefer the thinner bacon cuts to get a crisper bite going on, my husband prefers thick cuts, that retain more of the glaze - use your own judgment.

We personally do not own a broiler rack, or cooling rack or anything to raise meat to catch dripping. So we remove the brats about 10 minutes early to drain the grease and turn.

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