Crockpot BBQ Beer Little Smokies — The BBQ Spirit That Started It All

Thanksgiving approaches and for the first time, I am contributing more than cornbread. Mama called to discuss the menu (the immutable menu, the constitutional menu) and I said, "Let me bring the ribs." Silence. A silence so profound it had weather. Then: "Ribs are not Thanksgiving food." I said, "They could be." More silence. Then: "Bring the ribs. But they are a side dish. They are not replacing anything." I agreed. The ribs will sit alongside the turkey and the dressing and the mac and cheese as an addition, not a substitution. You do not replace Mama's food. You add to it. The distinction is critical and possibly the most important thing I have learned about cooking: respect the tradition. Build alongside it. Never over it. Darius is thriving as a new father. DJ is one month old and Darius has already developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who has not slept in four weeks. He calls me less with questions and more with declarations: "I understand now." "You tried to tell me." "How did you do this twice?" I tell him the same thing every time: you just keep going. You wake up and you feed the baby and you change the baby and you love the baby and you go to work and you come home and you do it again. There is no trick. There is no hack. There is just the doing, day after day, until the days become months and the months become years and you look up and your baby is walking and talking and reading above grade level and you think: I did this. We did this. Zaria is fourteen months and running. Not walking-fast — running. She runs with the same intensity she brings to everything: full speed, no caution, complete commitment to forward motion. She ran into the television stand on Monday and got a bruise on her forehead that made Brianna panic and Zaria angry (at the television stand, not at the running). She is Cheryl Carter's granddaughter. She does not slow down. I made pulled pork for dinner. The overnight version, in the oven, eight hours at 250. The pork shoulder emerged from the foil like a revelation — dark-barked, fall-apart tender, the fat rendered to silk. I shredded it with two forks and served it on buns with my coleslaw and pickles. Brianna ate two sandwiches. Aiden ate one. Zaria ate shredded pork with her fingers and got sauce in her hair. The Carter family dinner table, fall 2018: messy, loud, delicious.

That pulled pork dinner — Zaria with sauce in her hair, Brianna reaching for a second sandwich — was one of those nights that reminded me why I cook. Not every weeknight has eight hours to spare, though, and the spirit of that meal lives just as well in a crockpot with a cold beer poured in and a good BBQ sauce doing the heavy lifting. These Crockpot BBQ Beer Little Smokies are what I make when I want that same smoky, crowd-feeding energy without the overnight commitment — the kind of thing I could set up while Zaria runs laps around the living room and still have something worth gathering around by dinnertime.

Crockpot BBQ Beer Little Smokies

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 3 hours | Total Time: 3 hours 5 minutes | Servings: 10

Ingredients

• 2 lbs little smokies (cocktail sausages)
• 1 bottle (12 oz) lager or amber ale beer
• 1 1/2 cups BBQ sauce (your favorite brand or homemade)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

1. Combine the sauce. In the insert of a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, whisk together the beer, BBQ sauce, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper until fully combined.
2. Add the smokies. Pour the little smokies into the sauce and stir to coat evenly. The sausages should be mostly submerged.
3. Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 3 to 4 hours, or on HIGH for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring once halfway through. The sauce will thicken and cling to the smokies as it cooks.
4. Taste and adjust. Before serving, taste the sauce. Add a pinch more brown sugar for sweetness or a splash more Worcestershire for depth if needed.
5. Serve. Serve directly from the crockpot on the WARM setting with toothpicks for appetizers, or pile them onto slider buns with extra BBQ sauce for a meal. They are excellent either way.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 285 | Protein: 10g | Fat: 17g | Carbs: 21g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 830mg