My friend, Jent, has these tangy smoked sausages that are super addicting. It is meat-eater crack. As I was craving them, I decided some bourbon added to the recipe would make a crock pot apple bourbon lil smokies recipe a near-perfect recipe. After all, can you ever have too many Hillshire farm lil smokies recipes?

What to Use to Make Lil Smokies in the Crock Pot

This simple recipe for crock pot apple bourbon smokies has a whopping total of four ingredients.

Cocktail sausages - Hillshire Farms calls them Lil' Smokies, but you can also find other brands and names of these delightful little smoked sausages.
Bourbon - Apple whiskey or just regular bourbon will work in this recipe.
Apple Jelly - Not to be confused with apple butter. Apple jelly is a fantastic delicacy that pairs well with anything pork or smokey or both.
Spicy Brown Mustard - I love the spice with the sweetness of the apple jelly. You can also just use normal yellow mustard.

How to Make Crock Pot Apple Bourbon Lil Smokies Recipe

The directions are just as simple.

Cut open the cocktail sausages.
Dump into 3-quart crock pot.
Add 12-ounce jar of apple jelly - Not apple butter, it isn't the same.
Add ¼ cup of spicy brown mustard
Pour ¼ cup of Jim Beam Apple Bourbon (or regular Jim Beam) over top.
Stir to combine.
Cook on high for 2 hours.

It does not take Lil' Smokies to cook in the slow cooker. You just have to get them hot. Keep them on warm and enjoy them throughout your whole family get-together or holiday party. If you are lucky, you can just keep sucking down the bourbon if it is a family gathering. If you are making these for a tailgate, you might as well take the open bottle of bourbon along as well.

Now you can be fancy and have little cocktail toothpicks. To be frank, I can't ever get the little weenies captured by a toothpick. So, I just dig into the cocktail sausages with a fork. My life is easier this way.

Go ahead and put the little smokies and some bourbon on your grocery list. My Kroger has been running low on apple jelly this time of year, so go ahead and snag several jars of it when you find it.