Bachelor Cooking: Bacon-Burger-Dogs (a/k/a “Shotgun Shells”)

Apparently there’s a tasty concoction among the barbecue cognoscenti that creates something called a “shotgun shell,” meat stuffed in a pasta and wrapped in bacon and grilled. Okay, you could arguably call them “cholesterol bullets,” but that’s on you.

I don’t own a barbecue grill. So I have to modify this recipe for my oven. And my recipe looks more like a “bacon-burger-dog,” so that’s where I’m going with it.

But modify I did. And wow did it work out for me.

Okay. Let’s get the ingredients out of the way.

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound ground country pork sausage
• Shredded cheese
• 1 packet Italian seasoning mix
• 1 package manicotti shells, uncooked
• 1 package bacon, thin cut
• 1 bottle barbecue sauce
• Kosher salt (every recipe needs Kosher salt)

Blend the beef and pork together in a bowl. Mix in the shredded cheese and Italian seasoning mix. Mix well. Mix mix mix.

Pack mixture into manicotti shells. This will take some time, so be patient. Try not to break the shells.

After you’ve packed approximately seven of the manicotti shells, place the remaining mix in a plastic storage bag and put the bag in the fridge for future use.

Wrap the bacon around the packed manicotti shells. If you use thin strips, you should be able to wrap each shell in one strip apiece.

Place on cooking sheet. Preheat oven to 300. Cook in oven for 60 minutes at 300.

After 60 minutes, take out of the oven. Brush or coat with barbecue sauce. Put back in oven for another 30 minutes at 300. Put the Kosher salt back in the cupboard.

And when you’re done …

Look at that.

Does that look tasty or does that look tasty?

Now you can adjust some of the ingredients for your specific taste palate. In this case, I used Vermont maple-cured bacon and a spicy barbecue sauce. Your mileage may vary.

Leftovers can be nuked in the microwave for 4 minutes to get that really sweet-spicy kick going, and to let everyone in the office know what you’re eating for lunch when they try to use the microwave a few minutes later. Ha.

There you go. Bacon-burger-dogs, also known as “shotgun shells,” load up and enjoy.