Raise your hand if you’re ready for a super easy, super spicy, super addictive appetizer recipe! Little tiny sausages are wrapped with bacon, brushed with spicy maple sriracha sauce, and baked until nice and crispy. This recipe is a total keeper!

I don’t know about you, but appetizers – and finger food in general – make me a little giddy every time I think about them. Then again, I’m that girl who – when dining out – would rather order 3 starters than one main…so I guess it’s not that surprising 😉 I just love options! And to me three tiny meals is always a better option than getting one big plate of the same thing.

Plus… mini food almost always means there will be room left for DESSERT. #Priorities… 🙂

I should warn you now that these Bacon Wrapped Maple Sriracha Little Smokies are SPICY. Sriracha has a great kick of heat! It does get a kiss of sweetness from the addition of maple syrup, but on the grand scale of things, this recipe is definitely more spicy than sweet. If you’re making these for a party I would suggest making half with a lot of sauce (for the spice lovers) and half with just a brush of sauce (for the wimps… er, I mean, faint of heart). This way everyone wins! Little smokies for all. Hooray!

The first step to getting your little smokie on is wrapping each little sausage/hot dog link with a piece of bacon. I’ve made these with pork bacon and turkey bacon, and although the pork variety crisps up a little better (thank you, bacon fat), the recipe with work fine with either.

You’ll want to secure the bacon with a wooden toothpick. Please, for the love of smoke detectors, do not use plastic toothpicks for this recipe EVER. I’m sure that’s commonsense for 99.9% of y’all. But for the .1%, now you know. Plastic + broilers —> Oh hell no.

Also, I’ve heard there’s some trick that involves soaking the wood toothpicks in water before using them so they don’t char…? You can totally do that if you want. I don’t mind a slightly browned toothpick, so I don’t.

Once you’ve got the bacon wrapped around those little guys, you’ll need to make your sauce.

This simply means you’ll pour some sriracha in a dish, add some maple syrup, and stir. As uncomplicated as it gets, folks.

Next you’ll want to grab a pastry brush (or something like it), and paint the town red! I mean, paint the dogs red. Like this…

Mmm! So saucy and devilish. You can really slather it on… or go easy on them. That part is up to you! Also, you can always add a little more post-baking if the spice isn’t intense enough.

At this point it’s time for the smokies to hit the oven. They will bake for 22 minutes at a lower temperature (350), then they get hit with the broiler for just a minute or two. You should stay close by during this time as broilers, well, get super hot and have a tendency to burn things. The second the bacon looks like it’s sizzling, pull them from the oven. 2 minutes is generally perfect for my oven, but since yours may run a little lower/higher temperature wise, 1-4 minutes is a good guesstimate.

This recipe makes enough for 4 or 5 hungry people, but I suggest doubling or even tripling if you’re hosting a party. They go FAST! xo