Maple Bacon Stuffed Acorn Squash
Delicious maple and bacon stuffed acorn squash!
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 4 acorn squash - peeled squash remove seeds and and stems and cut off the bottom tip so the squash will sit upright without rolling over. Removed the top 1/4 of the squash off and diced it up for the filling.
- 8 slices bacon - for wrapping around the squash
- 5 slices bacon - chopped and cooked
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/3 cup pecans - chopped optional
- 1/3 cup dried apricots - diced - optional
- 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds - no shells optional
- 1 teaspoon salt - plus more for seasoning the squash
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper - plus more for seasoning the squash
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon - if you like cinnamon increase to 1/4 teaspoon
- pinch of cayenne pepper
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup - preferably natural maple syrup - plus more for the drizzle on top after cooking
- 2 tablespoons salted butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat smoker, pellet grill, grill or oven to 400 F..
- Peel the acorn squash and then cut off about the top 1/4 of the squash or until you reach the center opening of the squash. Save the tops of the squash because that will make the majority of our filling.
- Scoop out the seeds and cut off the bottom tip of the squash so it can sit up without falling over.
- Season the squash with salt and pepper, inside and outside.
- Take the bacon pieces and wrap under the squash so it forms a cross across the bottom and them bring it around so the bacon rests on the inside of the squash.
- Cook the remaining bacon pieces and dice it up into pieces - set aside but leave the grease in the pan.
- Dice the squash tops into small chunks and add to the bacon greased pan.
- Add butter and olive oil, pecans, apricots, pumpkin seeds, salt, pepper, ground cinnamon and cayenne pepper.
- Sauté until squash starts to soften.
- Add in the maple syrup and bacon and stir together until the maple syrup starts to caramelize the squash a little bit.
- Remove pan from heat and fill the squash with the filling mixture.
- Bake for 1 hour, cover the tops with aluminum foil half way through to avoid burning on the tops.
- When you remove from the smoker, pellet grill, grill or oven, drizzle tops with maple syrup, melted butter and a pinch of salt.