Bite into these Smoked Beef Shots, layered with beef kielbasa, jalapenos, a savory cheese filling, and wrapped with strips of beef bacon. These beefy bites tend to disappear quickly, so make plenty.

Grab a few beef shots while you can, because they will disappear.

Table of Contents

Snacks wrapped in bacon are a very popular thing in the world of BBQ. Smoked Pig Shots are showing up everywhere, these bite-sized snacks with kielbasa wrapped in bacon, filled with a cream cheese mixture, and dusted with BBQ seasoning. The sweet bites of smoked, crispy bacon and sausage are irresistible.

Smoked Beef Shots are a natural progression, forgetting about the pig and doubling down with the cow. Beef bacon is the real star, surprising guests with the incredible smoky, crispy strips of beef belly.

Want more Smoked Beef Recipes? Try out Smoked Pulled Beef, Smoked Chuck Roast, Brisket Burnt Ends, or the big Beef Plate Ribs!

This smoked beef shot is mine, make your own!

Why This Recipe Works

Beef bacon and beef sausage. Double the beef with a bath of smoke and it’s a win. The combination of the juicy kielbasa wrapped with the crispy beef bacon is a savory bomb of delicious meat.
Savory filling. If you don’t like sweet BBQ, then this recipe is for you. Cream cheese is mixed with sour cream, scallions, Worcestershire, gouda, Dijon, and more.

Get out the beef bacon and beef kielbasa to prep for the beef shots. — Beef bacon and beef kielbasa

Key Ingredients

You can customize the flavors inside as much as you’d like, but there are a few key ingredients to the mix that we should discuss briefly.

Beef Bacon – This unique ingredient is just what it sounds like. Cut from the belly area of the cow, these strips are seasoned, sometimes cured, and are ready to be used in the same way that you’d prepare regular bacon. Look for it online from a few vendors such as Certified Piedmontese or Porter Road.
Beef Kielbasa – Make sure you use kielbasa for this recipe. Raw, uncooked sausages will obviously not work, and hotdogs just don’t have enough seasoning. My favorite brand of beef kielbasa is from Kiolbassa, which can be purchased in many major stores.

The filling for the beef shots includes cream cheese, gouda, sour cream, and more.

Prepare the Cheese Filling

The creamy cheese filling inside the beef shots is just as important as the beef. Most recipes for Pig Shots are cream cheese based, but I’ve found them to be clumpy. Combining the cheese with sour cream and other ingredients really keeps the filling creamy, even through the smoking process.

8 oz cream cheese softened, at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup grated Gouda cheese
1 tablespoon smooth Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3 green onions, thinly sliced
Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Mix the ingredients together for the creamy filling.

Mix the ingredients together well, and taste. Season with black pepper, or add a touch of hot sauce. It’s all your choice, this is where you get to play with the flavors.

The filling can be made ahead of time, minus the green onions. Stir them in when you’re ready to make the beef shots.

It’s important that you don’t try to pipe this into the beef shots while it’s cold. It’ll be OK to leave everything at room temperature while you’re assembling the food.

Slice the kielbasa to be wrapped with the beef bacon.

Assembling the Beef Shots

Slice the kielbasa to about 1/3 of the thickness of the bacon. Beef bacon is much wider than typical bacon, so each sausage will be cut to about 1/2-inch or more.

Slice the beef bacon in half. One full slice should be enough for 2 slices of the kielbasa.

Obviously, measure twice and cut once.

Wrap the kielbasa pieces with a half slice of beef bacon and secure with a toothpick.

Wrap the beef bacon around the kielbasa and secure it with a toothpick.

I highly recommend using a wire rack with a baking sheet for this recipe. Smoking the beef bacon will render out quite a bit of fat, which makes a mess for the smoker. It’s also difficult to handle each individual beef shot to and from the smoker, so this tray really helps out.

Place a slice of jalapeno inside, on top of the kielbasa. This is a nice surprise when you bite in, and helps to cut through the rich flavors.

The prepared beef shots are ready to be smoked.

Pipe the filling into each shot, just to the top of the bacon. The cream cheese will expand slightly when cooking.

At this point, you can place the tray of prepared beef shots in the fridge if you aren’t ready to cook them. These can be prepared hours ahead of time, but I would not recommend making them the day before.

Go ahead and preheat the smoker to 300°F.

Place the tray of prepared beef shots in the smoker at 300°F.

Smoking the Beef Shots

Place the tray of prepared beef shots in the smoker once it has been preheated to 300°F.

You may set the tray in the smoker directly from the fridge, it will hardly affect the time needed to cook.

Allow the beef shots to smoke for an hour at 300°F.

Smoked beef shots are almost done cooking.

Serve Immediately

Check on the beef shots after about 45-50 minutes, and they should be very close to crispy. This will depend on the thickness of the beef bacon, but with testing, I’ve found that most are sliced the same way.

Once they are crispy on the outside and to your liking, remove the tray from the smoker and allow them to cool off. The inside is molten cheese, so be warned! Obviously, you’ll have to burn the roof of your mouth to test one out.

Smoked beef shots are cooled off, but the filling might still be very hot. Be careful biting in!

More Smoked Snacks to Enjoy

If you like these beef shots, chances are we have more for you! Check out some of our favorites here: