Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts with Awesome Sauce

Instead of going out this past year on New Year’s Eve, my husband and I stayed home and made our favorite appetizers! We love these bacon wrapped bites of goodness, and they would be perfect to celebrate your normal, everyday Champagne Thursday. Even though the holidays are over, we’ve got to keep up with the celebrations…(but these may interfere with new year’s resolutions that involve eating healthy).

Ingredients:
• Thick-Sliced Bacon (The better your bacon is, the better these turn out. We love to use the black pepper bacon for an extra kick, and I usually buy the 24 oz. package)
• 8 oz. cans of Water Chestnuts (I have a hard time finding these whole, so I usually make the sliced water chestnuts work. Three cans should work for 24 ounces of bacon.)
• Toothpicks!

For the Sauce:
• 3/4 cup Packed Brown Sugar
• 3/4 cup Ketchup (Heinz!)
• 1 tablespoon Miracle Whip (or mayo – i can imagine some fancy mayo making this sauce even better)
• 3 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
• 5 teaspoons Sriracha (you can always start smaller if heat isn’t your thing)

Directions:
1. Drop a handful of toothpicks in a dish of water and preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Unwrap bacon on cutting board and cut the entire package into thirds (of equal length).
3. Open and drain water chestnuts. If you’re using whole water chestnuts, cut them in half.
4. Wrap one-third slice of bacon around a water chestnut half or stack of two slices. Secure the little bundle with a toothpick through the middle.
5. Arrange the wrapped water chestnuts on a broiling pan (that pan that comes with the oven) or on a wire grill that fits on baking pan, but keeps the food off the surface of the pan. The key here is that these delicious bacon wrapped delights will shed a lot of bacon fat as they bake; it’s nicer to keep them out of the pool of fat that will be sitting in your pan.
6. Bake wrapped water chestnuts 40 minutes, and while the water chestnuts are baking, mix up your sauce ingredients in a small bowl with a fork.
7. When the wrapped water chestnuts have baked for 40 minutes, pull them out (leave your oven on). Spoon/pour the sauce onto the tops of the wrapped water chestnuts.
8. Put the wrapped water chestnuts back in the oven for about 20 minutes; bake until the bacon is crispy.
9. Use tongs to move the appetizers to a serving plate; leave the toothpicks in the wraps, so people can easily grab them.
10. Make sure you get some when you put these appetizers out, because they disappear fast!