Green Chili Cream Cheese Pig Shots

This appetizer is a must try. Create a shot glass using bacon and sausage, stuff it with a cream cheese green chili mix, top it with a sweet bbq rub, and glaze it with bbq sauce and you have yourself a pig shot. The combined flavors in this dish are just amazing.

This recipe had me as soon as I heard the description of fashioning a shot glass out of sausage and bacon. The prep for this recipe is suprisingly simple and these only take about an hour to cook. Another thing I love about this recipe is how dynaic it can because you can choose whatever you want as a filling for it. I decided to try out cream cheesem and green chilis but I have seen some other imaginative ideas for fillings for these as well. It is something that could be fun to expriment with.

Cooking Basics

The 2 pieces of prep work that we have to do is make our filling for the shots and actually fashion the shot glasses. Lets start by talking about the filling. You will want to take a package of cream cheese and leave it out to warm up to room temperature. This makes creating the filling and actually filling the shot glasses much easier. Once this is done you will combine this with he rest of the ingreiants listed in the recipe for the filling and allow this to sit while you create the shot glasses.

Forming the shot glasses took a little trial and error to come up with the best way to fashion these. The first thing you will need to do is chop up your sausage into about half inch slices. We need to make them thick enough to easily stick a tooth pick through. This is what will hold our shot glasses together initially. Once you have your sliced sausage you know how many shot glasses you can make. You will cut your strips of baocn in half and use a half strip to form the glass. I would reccomend thick cut bacon for these to make sure they hold their shape. The trick I found to making these easier to fashion is to lay the sausage down flat on the ground and wrap the bacon around it that way. Once you have the bacon in place take a tooth pick and stick it through the ends of the bacon and then through the sausage and through the bacon on the other side. I made sure to push the tops of the 2 ends of the bacon to make sure they had a nice cup shape to them. Once you have all the glasses created you are ready to fill them

Filling the glasses was a little tricky as they are pretty fragile before the bacon is cooked. After trying a few different methods the easiest way I found was to use a spoon or a knife and scoop out a little of the filling and form a ball and then place it within the glass. You dont have to mash it down as it will settle as it cooks. I did this and then when i had gotten each glass filled I added any remaining mixture to the glasses that seemed to be less full than others. Once this has been completed you will sprinkle some bbq rub over the top and these will be ready to cook.

Preheat your smoker or grill to 325. You will want to use indirect heat to cook if using a grill. If using a smoker I suggest using some type of fruit wood or hickory. If you only have a grill but would still like to smoke the shots you can buy yourself a smoke tube which can sit on your grill and produce the same effect as a smoker. This could be used with most of the recipes on my blog. I have included a link below if you are interested. Once the smoker / grill is up to tmeperature throw the pig shots on and let them cook for about 45 minutes. I cooked the batch in the pictures directly on the grate to allow for more smoke. If you want them to be a little easier to deal with you can place them on a grate. After 45 minutes you will brush the shots with yoru favorite bbq sauce and leave them for the last 15 minutes so the bbq sauce has a chance to carmelize.

Once the hour is up remove the pig shots from the heat and let them rest for a few minutes to allow the cream cheese to cool slightly before eating.

Final Thoughts

Alternatives - I love recipes that you can use over and over again and change up to try out different flavors. This is definitely one of those recipes.

• Sausage - I used kelbasa for the base of the shot glasses but you could use any kind of sausage that is similar size to try some different flavors. I even heard of some people trying breakfast sausage.
• Stuffing - You coud make a variety of stuffing mixes for this recipe. I used chesse and green chilis. You could definitely stick with this for the most part but use different peppers for a different flavor or a little more heat. You could also go with something completely different. I saw a recipe that used a combination of pineapple and cheese to stuff these. I would like to try something like that out to see how those flavors would combine with the bacon and sausage.

Recipe