The Easy Slow Cooker Appetizer To Win Your Super Bowl Party

Sustaining a lively Super Bowl party doesn't have to entail gourmet cooking — messy food with character hits the spot. So while football and fun Super Bowl food commercials captivate on the TV, consider slow-cooking little smokies for a crowd. All you'll need is a couple packages of miniature hot dogs — also called cocktail franks or cocktail weiners – and a simple scratch-made sauce, yielding tender sausage bites bursting with flavor.

The dish opens to a wide variety of interpretations, letting you merge sweet, spicy, and smoky ingredients in the slow-cooker. For instance, start with a base using one of the best-ranked bottled barbecue sauces, laying down a sweet-smoky canvas. Toss in brown sugar or jam for added caramelization, then round out with Worcestershire sauce and ketchup for umami. Looking for a hit of spice? Mix in flavor-packed canned chipotles in adobo sauce, a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce, or simply a dash of cayenne pepper. Then, simply simmer until the sausages warm and the flavors meld.

The dish offers lots of convenience for game day. You can prep the sauce a day or two ahead, easing the Super Bowl party setup. The meat already comes fully-cooked, meaning no stress checking for internal doneness. Plus, you can simmer the cased sausages for anywhere from mere minutes to hours, and they'll taste good, making the dish available all night long.

Keep the preparation classic, and a slow-cooker full of little smokies will certainly empty out over the course of the party. Yet this is the Super Bowl after all, so some added customization won't go unnoticed. You could craft a three-ingredient barbecue sauce fully from scratch, adding in spices of your choosing into the mix — mustard and garlic add pizzazz while paprika brings earthy warmth and smokiness. Turn heads by introducing boozy heat via whiskey, perfect for a party atmosphere. Alternatively, experiment with unique sweet notes via different fruit juices and jellies. Apple and white grape lend subtle sweetness, but concord has a punch of flavor. 

Furthermore, little smokies can also sop up a completely different flavor palate than smoky-sweet. Season with a combo of ranch dressing seasoning, beef broth, and pepperoncini peppers to yield a Mississippi-style rendition. Consider invoking Asian culinary flavors like Sriracha, lime, soy sauce, and ginger for a street food version. And you can also go with trusty crowd-pleasing flavors like honey mustard, spicy buffalo, or maple-bourbon. A batch of little smokies is ready for whatever you throw at them, making them a perfect Super Bowl addition.