Smoked Bacon Roses

Roses are synonymous with Valentine’s Day, but they look pretty for a few days, and then they die.

Instead of buying your Valentine roses this year, whip up these bacon roses! They’re a fun and easy snack that your Valentine will love.

Ingredients required

• Thick-cut Bacon – skip the thinner sliced bacon for this recipe. You want to use a thicker cut variety, as it will hold the shape of the rose better during the cooking process.

• BBQ Rub – to add a burst of flavor to these roses, you want to season the bacon with a bit of barbecue rub. I recommend a rub made for pork with a little sweetness and spice. Our Smoke Kitchen Honey Garlic rub is the perfect rub for these roses!

Tools required

• Smoker or Pellet Grill – you can cook these on virtually any smoker or pellet grill, but you need to make sure that your grill can hold a steady temperature of 350°F for about an hour. Another option is to cook these in the oven, so if you don’t have a smoker – no worries!
• Wood or Pellets – you can use any type of smoke wood for this recipe. Remember that bacon is already pre-smoked, so you’re adding an extra layer of smoky flavor here.
• Wire Rack & Baking Sheet – while you can smoke these directly on the grates of your smoker, I recommend using a wire rack and baking sheet under your roses. It will catch the bacon drippings, prevent flare-ups, and make clean-up a breeze.

How to make Smoked Bacon Roses

Bacon roses are extremely easy to make and only take about an hour. Plus, you can play around with the flavors and make the recipe your own.

1. Season

While you can make these roses without any additional seasoning, I find that a great barbecue rub adds an extra punch of flavor that brings them to the next level.

I also chose to use maple bacon for this recipe. It has an extra layer of maple sweetness that brings the flavors up a notch.

You can use whatever bacon you like, but make sure to grab a thick-cut variety. Thinner bacon will be more difficult to manage and your roses won’t look as pretty at the end.

Lay out your strips of bacon onto a cutting board and sprinkle on a bit of the barbecue rub.

I recommend something with a little sweetness and spice like our Smoke Kitchen Honey Garlic rub. It has a touch of sweetness from the granulated honey, plus an added kick of garlic, salt, and pepper.

2. Roll the roses

Once your bacon is seasoned, roll up each slice tightly. Start at one end and roll it tightly in a circular motion.

To ensure the roses keep their shape during the cooking process, secure them with a couple of toothpicks at the bottom in a cross-shape.

This will prevent the bacon from tipping over as it cooks and help to maintain that beautiful rose-like shape.

Once you’ve rolled up all of your roses and secured them with toothpicks, transfer them to a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.

3. Fire up the smoker

I chose to cook them on my Grilla Grills Alpha Connect (AKA: The OG) pellet smoker for this cook.

Wood choice doesn’t matter much with this recipe.

Bacon is already pre-smoked, so you only add an extra layer of smoky flavor while they cook. I used the Bear Mountain Sweet BBQ pellets for this recipe.

Once your smoker is preheated to 350°F, place your rack with the roses onto the grates.

4. Smoke until crispy

These smoked bacon roses will take about an hour to cook.

I recommend starting to check on them around the 45-minute mark as temperatures can vary from smoker to smoker.

Pull them off when the fat is fully rendered, and the bacon is crisped to your liking.

If you want to add an extra layer of flavor, you can brush a bit of maple syrup or barbecue sauce onto the tops of your roses at the very end.

Since I used maple bacon for this recipe, I skipped adding anything else, but it’s a great way to get creative with flavors!

Serve and enjoy!

You can enjoy your bacon roses immediately straight off the rack, or you can assemble them into a bouquet nested inside some butcher paper to make a great gift.

I stuffed some butcher paper into a few Valentine’s themed buckets and filled each one with roses, but feel free to be creative with how you want to serve your roses to your Valentine!

I wouldn’t recommend scattering these over the bed, though.

Gifts your BBQ-loving valentine will love

• Butcher blocks and wood cutting boards
• Best knife for slicing brisket
• Best grilling gifts under $50