Slathering bacon with BBQ Sauce while it cooks, not only adds incredible flavor, but makes the bacon pliable to turn deviled eggs into football deviled eggs. Cut bacon into thin strips and deviled eggs become perfect little football shaped appetizers. Tasty football finger food, you simply can’t beat a deviled eggs with bacon. Learn how:
I have been compensated and provided with product by Stubbs Legendary Bar-B-Q sauces for this article. My opinions are my own.
Game Day Food Ideas
Tailgating is a uniquely American tradition …a practice of gathering, eating and drinking before one’s favorite team heads into battle.
Tailgating has gotten pretty involved. No longer just sitting on the back of your pickup with a sandwich and a beer. Parties have become elaborate entertaining affairs, all taking place in ones parking space.
And with elaborate comes clever. Wow your crowd with some football shaped food in the form of football deviled eggs.
After all, people go crazy over deviled eggs, and especially a deviled eggs recipe with bacon. And it seems within minutes of hitting the table, they disappear. Everyone loves deviled eggs and it seems like you can never bring too many.
It’s the ultimate idea when thinking about football shaped appetizers.
I don’t particularly subscribe to the theory that the simple classic mixture of mayo and mustard is the end all. I’ve been wanting to play around with some unique flavor combos, and this is a perfect opportunity to do so.
With some fine minced pieces of that Stubbs glazed BBQ bacon added to the deviled egg mixture, and added to the top to look like football laces, these Western style little football shaped appetizers are simply flat out fun.
Let’s take a look at how to make these football deviled eggs.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Bacon: We all know that bacon makes everything better. This recipe calls for 4 slices thick cut bacon, fried or baked until just starting to crisp. Don’t over-cook because you need those bacon pieces to be pliable.
- Eggs: 10 large eggs, hard boiled
- Sour Cream: I prefer the flavor and texture of full fat sour cream for this recipe. It’s thicker, creamier and oh-so luxurious.
- Mayo: Good quality mayonnaise such as Hellmans, Best Foods or Dukes.
- Brown Sugar: Light or dark brown sugar will work for this recipe.
- Stubb’s Bar-B-Q Sauce: Whenever I reach for bottled store purchased bbq sauce, Stubbs Original is my choice. It provides a perfect and western-style bbq flavored glaze for bacon. And their Bar-B-Q Rub a killer garnish to sprinkle and finish the flavor profile.
- Sugar, just a touch to elevate the flavor of the deviled egg yolk mixture.
- Spicy Mustard: Spicy brown mustard works well for this recipe. French’s is a brand that is readily found on your condiment aisle at the grocery store.
Ingredient Swaps and Substitutes
- Mayonnaise: Lighten things up by using reduced fat mayo.
- Brown Sugar: If you can find smoked brown sugar, you’re in for a real treat.
- BBQ Sauce: Use your favorite brand of BBQ sauce or even better, make your own.
- Mustard: If you don’t keep spicy brown mustard on hand, prepared yellow mustard will work just fine. It just won’t be as exciting.
- Stubbs BBQ Rub: If you don’t have Stubbs dry BBQ rub on hand, simply use a traditional sprinkle of paprika, or even smoked paprika to finish these deviled eggs.
Step By Step Instructions
How to make this deviled eggs recipe with bacon to look like little footballs. How did I get the bacon to do that?
Step 1: Hard boil the eggs. For me, the easiest way is to use this instant pot recipe. Or cover eggs with cold water in a saucepan. Place the eggs on low heat and gently bring them to a simmer. Simmer for 15 – 17 minutes. Remove from heat and place in an ice bath. Separate egg yolks from egg whites.
Step 2: Add the mustard, mayonnaise, sour cream and sugar to egg yolks. Using the back of a fork, mix the ingredients until smooth. Set aside.
- Step 3: Either fry or bake the bacon. To bake, lay the bacon on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle the brown sugar on the bacon. Cook at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
- Step 4: Remove bacon from oven, drain fat and with a pastry brush, brush the bacon with the Stubbs Original BBQ Sauce. The bbq sauce will keep the bacon somewhat soft enough to be easy slice-able. Return the bacon to oven and cook for another 10 minutes or until just starting to crisp. You don’t want the bacon too crispy or it will be hard to dice and slice.
Step 5: After preparing the bacon and with a very sharp knife, cut the meaty part of the bacon into thin strips. And I mean as thin as you can get them. These strips will be used for the football lace decorations.
Step 6: Save the strips that were successfully thin and perfectly shaped to decorate the deviled eggs. Chop about 3 tablespoons of the misfit pieces to add extra flavor to the deviled egg yolk mixture.
Please know that this will take a little time to decorate these eggs. It’s tedious, but the end result is a fun appetizer. And you’ve got a good football game day appetizer that people will devour.
Perfect little football shaped appetizers that will wow your crowd.
Step 7: Finish by sprinkling with Stubbs BBQ Rub This extra step will add just another layer of western flair to these deviled eggs with bacon.
FAQ’s and Tips
Yes. You can make deviled eggs a couple of days in advance. Just store them on a plate covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator.
Since there’s mayonnaise involved, foodsafety.gov recommends not to leave them at room temperature over 2 hours.
I simply don’t like to use a piping bag to fill deviled eggs. It makes it look too “purchased” rather than coming out of your own kitchen. Deviled eggs are a rustic comfort food appetizer. Use a fork to pat the egg mixture into the egg white shell. Mound it nicely. You may not have enough filling for exactly 20 deviled egg white shells, which also give you a chance to pick out the best looking white shells for presentation. Use a spatula to get every last drop of filling out of the bowl. One little spatula full will fill an extra egg white shell.
I have a set of kitchen tweezers that I received through Culinary School. They come in handy for many projects, but especially for this one. They work great to place the little bacon laces on top of the eggs. Regular tweezers will will work also.
Absolutely! Just skip the decoration part and chop a little more of the bacon to make simple deviled eggs with bacon. They’re still great for game day food ideas.
Recipe for BBQ Deviled Eggs with Bacon
I hope you give this football appetizer recipe a try, and if you do, please come back and give the recipe a star rating. And scroll down and leave a comment about your experience with the recipe.
And if you have any favorite game day food ideas, let me know, I’d love to give it a try. We’re big football watching fans around here and always looking for ideas.
And if you’re looking for more finger food appetizer recipes, don’t miss my appetizer category. You’ll find lots of great recipes including more deviled egg recipes like Spicy Deviled Eggs, and Mexican Deviled Eggs with Chorizo. Along with the most popular appetizer recipe on my site for Campechana.
More Game Day Food Ideas
- Baked Cheese and Chorizo Empanadas
- Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
- Santa Fe Baked Chicken Wings
- Honey Sriracha Meatballs with Cranberry Sauce
And, don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter for more delicious recipes and cooking tips. Make it a delicious day … every day.
If you’ve tried this or any other recipe on my website, please leave a star rating in the recipe card below. And write a review in the comment section. I always appreciate your feedback.
Deviled Eggs with Bacon, Football Deviled Eggs
Ingredients
- FOR THE EGGS
- 10 Large Eggs Hard boiled
- 1 Tablespoon Sour Cream
- 2 Tablespoon Spicy Mustard
- 3 Tablespoons Mayonnaise
- 1/2 teaspoon Sugar
- FOR THE BACON
- 4 slices Thick Cut Bacon
- 1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar or regular brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Stubbs Original BBQ Sauce
- Stubbs BBQ Rub for garnish
Instructions
- Lay the bacon on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle the brown sugar on the bacon. Cook at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
- Remove bacon from oven, drain fat and with a pastry brush, brush the bacon with the Stubbs Original BBQ Sauce. Return to oven and cook for another 10 minutes or until starting to crisp. You don't want the bacon too crispy or it will be hard to dice and slice.
- When bacon is done, remove from pan and let rest on paper towels.
- Meanwhile, hard boil the eggs. Shell and slice eggs in half. Separating the yolks from the whites. Place whites on a plate and yolks in a bowl.
- With a fork, blend the mustard, sour cream, sugar, mayo and salt and pepper (to taste) with the eggs yolks. Taste and adjust for flavor.
- With a very sharp knife, slice the bacon as thin as you can. These strips will be used for the football lace decorations. Fine dice about 3 tablespoons of the bacon and add to the egg yolk mixture.
- Fill the egg white shells with the egg yolk mixture. Decorate the tops of the eggs with the strips of bacon making a football lace pattern. Sprinkle with Stubbs BBQ seasoning.
Notes
Nutrition
Deviled Eggs Recipe With Bacon … Its what’s for your next football party
Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.
Thank you so much for sharing my instant pot egg recipe, Lea Ann!! I will have to give your football eggs a try, they are so stinking cute!
Your eggs are so cute and must be very tasty. I do have to say that in all honesty they might be a little too tedious for me. I think I would probably just crumble that delicious bacon. I’ll never tell my friends they were supposed to be decorated as little footballs 😁 so please don’t tell.
Let me first say that slathering bacon with BBQ sauce while it’s cooking makes me want to jump up and fry some bacon. I happen to have a little homemade BBQ sauce in the fridge just waiting for a purpose. Now for the eggs – WOW! I can’t wait to make these. I know I’ll have to fight the husband over them. 🙂
Your recipe looks very good and I like how you turned them into footballs – bacon makes everything better.
Bacon? BBQ? Say no more. 🙂 These look wonderful — thanks.
Wow, these deviled eggs must have a ton of flavor and they are super cute! Great recipe!
Love deviled eggs and these are probably the most creative and delicious looking ones I’ve ever seen. Making these for our next football party.