Chicken Bacon Ranch Snack Sticks

Making delicious chicken snack sticks requires attention to detail and an understanding of the importance of fat content and flavor. Using chicken instead of beef or pork for snack sticks offers a leaner alternative without sacrificing flavor, making it a healthier choice that appeals to a wider audience. In this guide on how to make chicken snack sticks, we will walk you through the easy snack stick recipe featuring our Chicken Bacon Ranch Snack Stick recipe! Using our No. 296 Bacon Ranch Bratwurst Seasoning, thick-cut bacon, and high-temp cheddar cheese, we’ll guide you through every step, including the preparation of the meat block, the grinding and mixing process, the seasoning and curing, and the smoking steps that lead to the final product. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro, this approach ensures you achieve a flavorful and satisfying snack stick!

Tools of The Trade:

• Meat grinder with 3/16” or 4.5mm plates
• Meat Mixer or Your Hands
• Meat Lug or Large Food-Safe Container
• Stuffer
• Smokehouse

Preparing Meat Block for Snack Sticks:

The foundation of any great snack stick is in meat preparation. For these chicken snack sticks, chicken thighs are the ideal choice due to their fat content, which keeps the final product moist and flavorful. We recommend getting skin-on, bone-in thighs since that is the most cost-effective option! You will have to remove the bones by cutting along either side and underneath the bone, while leaving the skin intact— the skin is essential for sausage-making as it contributes to the juicy snack sticks, we love. Feel free to trim off any discolorations and cut the chicken into your grinder-sized pieces. We typically cut ours into 3-inch cubes and place them in the freezer to chill. Chilling the meat and the grinder’s parts ensures a smooth grinding process and prevents smearing.

While your chicken is chilling, you can prepare some thick-cut bacon to be used as an inclusion for these Chicken Bacon Ranch snack sticks. These bacon pieces will add an additional smoky flavor and texture to the final snack stick. Roughly chop thick-cut bacon and render it down. Once cooked, cool it in the freezer as well.

Pro tip: Chilling the meat and the grinder’s parts ensures a smooth grinding process and prevents smearing.

Grinding and Mixing for Snack Sticks:

Once the grinder components are well-chilled, you’re ready to begin the grinding process. For chicken snack sticks, a single pass through the grinder is sufficient. Use a 3/16-inch or a 4.5mm plate, depending on your grinder’s set up to achieve the right texture.

After the chicken is ground, you’re ready to mix in your seasonings. For this recipe, we used our No. 296 Bacon Ranch Bratwurst seasoning, though it is a good base, it was designed for fresh brats. Since these snack sticks will be smoked, you’ll need to add a pink curing salt. We recommend dissolving the pink cure in distilled water before adding it to the meat to ensure an even distribution. View the full recipe below for cure and water ratio. You can also add in your snack stick inclusions as well. We used about 10% of the meat weight of high-temp cheddar cheese, and then 4% of bacon rendered. Mix thoroughly until the meat becomes tacky, signaling that the proteins have properly extracted and bound together, which is essential for a firm, cohesive final product.

Pro tip: Mix by hand for batches less than 25lbs as you don’t want to break any high-temp cheese you’re adding into the snack sticks.

Stuffing and Curing Process for Chicken Snack Sticks

One you have achieved your protein extraction, it’s time to begin stuffing the casings. We use 21 mm mahogany casings for our snack stick recipes. To load the meat into the stuffer, press the meat towards the edges of the hopper to eliminate as much air as possible. Once the stuffer is loaded, carefully stuff the casings, maintaining a consistent pressure to ensure an even fill.

After stuffing, lay the snack sticks out on a tray and refrigerate them overnight to cure. This curing period allows the pink cure to work its magic. Unlike other seasonings designed specifically for snack sticks, this recipe uses a bratwurst seasoning, so the curing process takes a little longer without the presence of cure accelerators like sodium erythorbate.

Smoking Process

Once the snack sticks have cured overnight, they’re ready for the smoker. Using the Pro Classic smoker, start by hanging the snack sticks inside and initiating a drying cycle. This is done at 100F for about an hour with the dampers open.  This drying stage removes excess surface moisture from the casings, which is crucial for helping the smoke properly adhere and penetrate during the next stages.

After the drying cycle, begin gradually increasing the smoker temperature. It is important ramp up the heat slowly to prevent shocking the meat. If the temperature rises too quickly, the fat can melt and separate from the protein leading to crumbly meat sticks. Follow the full recipe for our smoke cycle.

Once the snacks sticks have reached the internal temperature of 160 degrees, take them out of the Pro Classic smoker and immediately submerge them in an ice bath. This stops the cooking process and locks in the moisture and texture. Let them rest in the ice bath for 30 minutes, then pat dry and store in the refrigerator overnight to chill completely. Then on the next day, you’re ready to enjoy your Chicken Bacon Ranch Snack Sticks!