Backyard Barbecue Menu Ideas
Avocado & Bacon Bites

When my mate Iain last had a backyard barbecue, menu ideas were a little thin on the ground so I took a look around the pile of food that we had to cook and put this avocado and bacon combination together.. and it really works a treat.

To me barbecue is all about fingers and this simple appetizer epitomizes what barbecue is all about. To be fair it is a bit fiddly to prepare but it's worth it.

You will however need a barbecue basket. I've tried using skewers but the avocado softens when it cooked and it falls off the skewer really easily. Using a BBQ basket is the better solution and I find these long thin ones work well for this dish.

Grilling Avocado and bacon parcels in a basket

Serves:- 4 people

Preparation Time:- 20 minutes
Cooking Time:- 20 minutes

Total Time:- 40 minutes

Ingredients:-

225g / ½ lb streaky bacon (air dried)
2 large avocado pears
Lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper

Method:-

Cut the avocados in half lengthways around the stone and “twist”, this should release the stone. Peel the skin off each half and chop it up into 1cm / ½ inch cubes. Sprinkle them with little lemon juice to stop the avocado going brown and grind on the black pepper.

Now take the streaky bacon and wrap it around the avocado cube until you have a little overlap. (You don’t want to wrap the bacon around too much otherwise they’ll take too long to cook through.)

Once wrapped, place them on the barbecue basket and put them to one side until the grill’s ready. If they’re “lemon juiced” then they’ll be OK in the refrigerator for a couple of hours while you get on with other things.

When the coals are hot (but settled) place the rack on the bbq grill. Remember that the streaky bacon has quite a lot of fat in it so stay close by in case you get a flare up. Give them 5-10 mins on each side until the bacon is crispy then just throw them on a plate in the middle of the table.

So are you ready to taste one of the greatest backyard barbecue menu ideas? DO NOT put anything else on the barbecue just yet because if you do, I guarantee that when you turn round to have one of these avocado and bacon bites they’ll be gone!