Grilled Appetizers with Bacon: Ripping Off My Buddies

Springtime is in full swing down here in Baton Rouge and life is a blast.  It’s the time of year that most folks are boiling crawfish and breaking out their bay boats.  I have been eating a few crawfish but have spent most of my time goofing off on Twitter and stealing some awesome new grilling ideas from my buddies.

Here are four of the best grilled appetizers with bacon that I have come across so far…by the way, I used my Weber kettle for all of these and it was incredibly easy because I was using GrillGrates.  If you don’t have a set yet then read my GrillGrate review and buy them now.

Grilled Chicken Alfredo Ravioli with Bacon

I stole this idea from my buddy Jack over at GrateTV.com.

These are super easy to make and the technique is highly adaptable to all kinds of stuffing.  You are going to make these using won-ton wrappers.

For the filling I I used some leftover rotisserie chicken, Italian cheese, basil, bacon and a little Alfredo sauce to hold everything together.

Lay out some won-ton wrappers and add about a tablespoon of the filling onto each wrapper.

Paint the edges of the won-ton with some egg wash, place another wrapper on top and press the edges to seal.  I paint the top of the assembled ravioli with a little more egg wash to get a nice shine and a little puff on the ravioli.

I grill these over direct high heat (GrillGrates make this so dang easy) for about a minute per side.  Watch these like a hawk..these get super crunchy (which is awesome) very fast and get burnt (which sucks) soon after.  Top the finished ravioli with a little Alfredo sauce and you have got some bite sized awesomeness on your hands! My buddy Joe did a version of these with grilled shrimp; good stuff.

Grilled Bacon Wrapped Onion Rings

Speaking of my buddy Joe…he has been stirring up trouble and posting pictures of some delicious bacon wrapped onion rings that he grilled up on his kettle. They looked so nice I figured I had to try them myself.

The process is pretty simple.  Slice a large onion rather thick and leave about three rings together.  Wrap the rings with thin sliced bacon and dust with a 50:50 mixture of turbinado sugar and chili powder.

I smoked these guys with indirect medium heat for about 60 minutes then crisped them up over direct heat for about ten.  I was using GrillGrates when I was crisping them up which prevented any flareups from dripping bacon grease.

Simple and delicious..the onions get soft and creamy, the bacon is crispy and a little sweet.  Go make a few dozen and try not to hurt yourself with them!

Grilled Stuffed Avocados

Next up are grilled and stuffed avocado halves from the GrillinFool himself, Scott Thomas.  This is another pretty simple concept that comes out extremely well. I started by grilling some marinated shrimp over high heat until they were cooked through and then moved them to the cool side of the grill.  I made sure I didn’t drop any shrimp into the charcoal by using..you guessed it…GrillGrates.

If you don’t have GrillGrates then you could always grill the shrimp on skewers.

Throw your avocado halves onto direct heat, flesh side down, for about 5 minutes.

When the avocados have taken up some grill marks flip them over and stuff them with some chopped up shrimp, bacon and cheese.

Close the lid to let the cheese melt while the avocado finishes cooking; about another 2-3 minutes.  You know, long enough to go grab another beer.  Here is what these bad boys look like when they are finished.

Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Mushrooms

Here is a great idea from my buddy, Kinger over at BbqFood4U.  I didn’t go as elaborate as Kinger did in his recipe.  In fact I was flat out lazy and started with some store bought sausage stuffed mushrooms 🙂

These guys got wrapped in bacon, dusted with some Bone Sucking Sauce dry rub and then grilled with Medium direct heat on a set of GrillGrate panels for about 35 minutes.

After the bacon had crisped up I drizzled some honey over these bad boys.  Awesome!

Kinger took these to a whole new level in his video. Watch it, give it a Thumbs Up and then subscribe to his channel!!

Grilled Bacon Wrapped Potato Wedges

Last up is an idea that I stole from somebody but dang if I can remember who.  If this is yours leave a comment below and I’ll link up to you later.  Why not grill up some bacon wrapped potato wedges?

Cut up some baking potatoes into some thick wedges, wrap in thin sliced bacon and dust with sugar and chili powder.  Throw these onto your grill with indirect medium heat.  Yep, I used my GrillGrates for these as well.

These took about 30 minutes to get the potatoes fully cooked and a few minutes over direct heat to crisp up the bacon.

Serve these up with some sour cream for dipping and your guests are going to love you!

I hope you got a little bit of grilling inspiration out of this post.  In all seriousness, do yourself a favor and buy yourself a set of GrillGrates.  You will be thanking yourself all summer long.

Gotta run now..I think there might be something cool happening over on Twitter!!