I wish I could remember exactly where I came across this idea for pepper jack cheese-stuffed smoked bologna. I’m pretty sure it came from Smokin’ with Myron Mixon: Backyard ‘Cue Made Simple from the Winningest Man in Barbecue. But, I could be wrong. Regardless, I love smoked bologna, but this approach takes the idea to a new level. The addition of cheese inside the bologna chub adds a nice flavor and well, it looks cool. I then rubbed the chub with yellow mustard and then sprinkled it with our favorite spicy rub and smoked it for 3 1/2 hours on my Weber 721001 Smokey Mountain Cooker 18-1/2-Inch Charcoal Smoker. I then brushed it with my favorite store-bought BBQ sauce.
I sliced the bologna pretty thick and had it on sandwiches. Nothing fancy, just good.
To get the cheese into the chub, I used a piece of clean PVC pipe. I used about a 1 1/2″ round pipe, but I’ll probably go with a large one next time, maybe 2″ or 2 1/2″. I felt like a little more cheese would’ve been a good thing. You just carefully shove the pipe down through the center of the chub while it is standing on end. Then you cut off about 2″ from each end of the piece of bologna that is in the pipe and use one piece to plug one end of the hole. Fill the hole with cheese and then plug the remaining end. You’re ready to roll!
Also try my not-so-plain plain-ole smoked bologna.
Pepper Jack Cheese-Stuffed Smoked Bologna
Ingredients
For the smoked bologna
- 1 4-5 pound chub bologna
- 1 pound pepper jack cheese cubed
- prepared yellow mustard
- Your favorite BBQ seasoning
- your favorite BBQ sauce
For the sandwiches
- 24 slices Sourdough bread
- prepared yellow mustard
- 12 slices smoked bologna
- 1 large sweet onion sliced thin
- ½ head Lettuce shredded
- hot sauce
Instructions
For the smoked bologna
- Fire up your smoker for 250 F cooking. Add your desired cooking wood, but use only a little and don’t use anything overpowering.
- Clean a section of PVC pipe (1 1/2″ – 2 1/2″ in diameter, at least a foot long). Stand the bologna chub on end and gently push the pipe down through the center of the chub. Pull out the pipe and remove the core of meat that gets inside of it.
- Cut 2″ off each end of the core piece. Take one piece and plug the bottom of the hole.
- Add as much cheese as you can fit and plug the remaining end with the other piece of the core.
- Rub outside of chub with mustard and then sprinkle with a rub.
- Put on smoker in an aluminum pan and smoke for 3 1/2 hours, rotating once after 1 hour.
- Brush all sides of the bologna with the BBQ sauce and smoke another 30 minutes.
- Remove chub from the smoker and let set at least 30 minutes. Don’t rush or the cheese will run out when you slice it.
- Slice as desired.
For the sandwiches
- Slather the bread slices with mustard, Top with bologna, onion, and lettuce.
- Shake a few drops of hot sauce on top and serve.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are approximate.