Smoked Shotgun Shells

Smoked shotgun shells — manicotti stuffed with sausage and cheese, wrapped in bacon, and smoked until the bacon crisps — are the most-requested appetizer to come out of pellet grill culture in years. They look like a novelty and eat like a proper meal.

They are also easy to get wrong in exactly one way. The pasta goes on the grill uncooked, and if you assemble them and smoke them the same hour, you get hard, chalky pasta at both ends. The fix is a 4-hour minimum refrigerator rest that lets the dry shells pull moisture out of the filling. Plan for it and the rest of the recipe is nearly foolproof.

The Filling

Keep it simple. The sausage brings the seasoning.

• 1 lb ground Italian sausage or bratwurst, casings removed — raw, not browned. Raw sausage releases moisture into the pasta as it cooks, which is the entire hydration mechanism.
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened — the binder, and the reason the filling stays creamy rather than crumbly.
• 1 cup shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack
• 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp black pepper

Mix with your hands until evenly blended. The texture you want is soft enough to pipe, stiff enough to hold a shape.

Variations that work: chopped jalapeño (the jalapeño popper crossover), pepper jack instead of cheddar, a spoonful of leftover smoked queso, or ground beef with taco seasoning.

Stuffing Without Breaking Shells

Manicotti tubes are brittle, and this is the fiddly part. Two things make it quick:

1. Fill from both ends. Pack half from one end, flip, pack the other. Meeting in the middle is far easier than pushing filling the full length of the tube.
2. Use a piping bag — or a zip-top bag with a corner cut off. It cuts the time roughly in half compared to a spoon.

Pack them solid. Air pockets collapse during the cook and leave shells that look half empty. Expect to break one or two shells; buy an extra box.

Wrapping in Bacon

Use thin-cut bacon. This is not a preference — thick-cut bacon simply will not render in the two hours the filling needs, and you end up with chewy fat wrapped around a good shell.

Wrap two slices per shell, spiraling with a slight overlap so the entire tube is covered and both ends are sealed. Sealed ends keep the filling from pushing out as it heats.

Then dust the wrapped shells all over with BBQ rub. Bacon is already salty, so use something balanced rather than salt-forward — Killer Hogs The BBQ Rub is a good default here, sweet and paprika-forward enough to caramelize on the bacon without pushing the whole thing over the salt line.

The Rest (Do Not Skip This)

Lay the wrapped shells on a rack over a sheet pan, cover loosely, and refrigerate:

• 4 hours — minimum
• Overnight — ideal
• Up to 24 hours — no downside

The dry pasta acts like a sponge, pulling water from the cream cheese and sausage and softening from the inside out. This is the difference between shells that eat like a stuffed pasta dish and shells that eat like a bacon-wrapped breadstick.

You can also freeze wrapped, unsmoked shells for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator — which conveniently is the rest.

Smoking Them

1. Fill the hopper. Bacon and sausage stand up to real smoke, so a competition blend of maple, hickory, and cherry hits the sweet spot. Straight hickory works too. See the wood pellet flavor guide for alternatives.
2. Set the grill to 250°F and preheat with the lid closed.
3. Place the shells directly on the grates or on a wire rack, leaving space between them so the bacon renders on all sides.
4. Smoke 90 minutes, until the bacon has rendered and turned golden but is not yet crisp.

Twelve bacon-wrapped shells drip a serious amount of fat over 90 minutes. A drip tray liner is the difference between lifting out a sheet of foil afterward and scraping a pan, and it also cuts the risk of a grease flare-up when you raise the temperature at the end.

Sauce, Crisp, and the Temperature Check

Brush the shells with BBQ sauce and raise the grill to 300°F for a final 20 to 30 minutes. The bacon crisps and the sauce tightens into a glaze.

Then confirm the one number that matters: the filling contains raw ground pork and must reach 165°F. Check the center of the thickest shell with an instant-read like the ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE, entering through the end of the tube toward the middle. Crisp bacon on the outside tells you nothing about the sausage in the middle — this is exactly the cook where a fast, accurate reading through a dozen shells beats guessing by color.

Rest 5 to 10 minutes. The filling comes off the grill hot enough to genuinely burn someone.

Gear for This Recipe

What this cook actually leans on:

Troubleshooting

Pasta is hard at the ends. The rest was too short, or the shells were not packed tightly enough for the filling to reach the ends. Go overnight next time and pack them solid.

Bacon never crisped. Thick-cut bacon, or the final stage ran too cool. Finish at 300 to 325°F and give it the full 30 minutes.

Filling leaked out. Ends were not sealed by the bacon wrap, or the shells were overfilled past the rim.

Bacon crisp but filling undercooked. Grill ran too hot for too short a time. These need the full 90 minutes at 250°F before the hot finish — and always confirm 165°F in the center.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do you have to refrigerate shotgun shells before smoking?

Because the pasta is uncooked. During the rest, the dry manicotti draws moisture from the filling and softens. Four hours minimum, overnight is better. Skipping it is the number one cause of chalky shells.

Do you cook the manicotti shells first?

No. Uncooked shells hold their shape while stuffing and hydrate from the filling. Boiled shells tear when packed and turn mushy on the grill.

What internal temperature do shotgun shells need to reach?

165°F at the center of the filling — it contains raw ground pork. Judge by the thermometer, not the bacon color.

What kind of bacon works best for shotgun shells?

Thin-cut, standard bacon. Thick-cut will not fully render in the time the filling needs.

Can you make shotgun shells ahead of time?

Yes — assemble up to 24 hours ahead (that is the required rest anyway), or freeze wrapped and unsmoked for up to 2 months.

What to Cook Next

• Traeger® Jalapeño Poppers — the other bacon-wrapped, cream-cheese-stuffed pellet grill classic.
• Traeger® Smoked Queso — smoke it on the same grate and use a spoonful in the filling.
• Smoked Brats and Sausage on a Pellet Grill — same package of bratwurst, cooked in its casing.
• Traeger® Smoked Mac and Cheese — the other smoked pasta dish worth the grate space.

Explore more: Traeger® Recipe Collection | Wood Pellet Flavor Guide | All Recipes