There has been a bit of a hubbub in the BBQ world about a certain side dish that has taken the BBQ scene by storm. I am referring to ‘Shotgun Shells’ and everywhere you look people are lighting up their smokers to give these fantastic things a try.
Today I am going to give you the recipe for about ten of these shells so you can do some simple math and scale it up or down depending on the size of your gathering. If you are going to make ten of them you are going to need about 300 grams of ground beef. 20 slices of bacon, 2 chilis, 100 grams of gouda and 50 grams of parmesan. The beauty of this recipe is that it is so flexible. Many people are making them with cream cheese and if that’s what you want then just change it up. Don’t like gouda? no problem, just switch it our for a cheese you do like.
Get started by finely dicing the chili and the cheese. Add the mix to your ground beef and season it. I chose to season with salt and pepper, but if you have a favorite BBQ rub then throw this into the mix at this point. Once the whole thing is bound together it is time to get the mixture inside your cannelloni shells. Preferably you will be using some that are oven ready as generally it means they will cook slightly better on the BBQ. You need to get your mixture stuffed inside the pasta shells. We are making ten for this recipe and did it by spoon but people have been known to use their sausage machines to quicken the process.
With the shells stuffed it is time to wrap them in bacon. I said twenty pieces earlier in the recipe because i love bacon and i think a couple of pieces each shell is probably about the right amount. So, with that in mind wrap each of the shells with two pieces of bacon and set aside.
Grill Those Shotgun Shells!
It is time to get outside to the grill. Get your BBQ alight and with the lid down bring it up to a temperature of about 180-200 degrees. It does not matter if this takes a while because whilst the BBQ is heating up all that moisture inside the shotgun shells is seeping into the pasta which will help the cooking process.
Once you are up to temperature you want to place the shells on the grills so that they can cook indirectly. Leave the for about 25 minutes for the pasta to cook through and the bacon to crisp up. After this time give them a brushing of BBQ sauce to glaze and allow them to cook for another ten minutes.
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