Smoked Sausage Stuffed Artichokes, a recipe with an elegant spin on a classic combination of delectable Italian flavors for a perfect seasonal appetize.
When you think of an appetizer, your mind probably thinks of a Bloody Mary shrimp cocktail or bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers. However, these smoked artichokes are here to show you that vegetables can make great appetizers, too, especially when loaded with clarified butter, goat cheese, and a rich dipping sauce (but it still counts as healthy, right)?
These smoked artichokes are stuffed and smoked to perfection, making them a far cry from plain old boiled artichokes.These bad boys will make you rethink that whole vegetable boycott you’ve been viciously maintaining.
Smoked Artichoke Recipe Ingredients
- Artichokes: Artichokes are a unique vegetable with a heart that becomes tender and delicious when cooked. Smoking adds a deep, smoky flavor that complements the artichoke’s natural taste.
- Fresh Lemon Juice: A squeeze of lemon juice adds a touch of acidity that brightens the flavor profile and helps balance the richness of the other ingredients, especially the creamy dipping sauce.
- Fresh Sausage (Casings Removed): The sausage adds a savory element to the artichoke stuffing. Sausage typically contains fennel or other herbs and spices, which infuse the artichoke with additional flavor. Removing the casings allows the sausage meat to be easily mixed with the breadcrumbs.
- Breadcrumbs: Breadcrumbs help bind the sausage mixture together, creating a stuffing that stays put within the artichoke hearts.
- Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- Clarified Butter: Regular butter contains water, which can cause splattering and burning when used at high temperatures. Clarified butter, with the water removed, has a higher smoke point and is ideal for smoking.
- Goat Cheese: This creamy cheese adds a tangy counterpoint to the smoky artichokes and savory sausage. Its richness complements the other ingredients without overpowering them.
Aioli Dipping Sauce Ingredients:
- Mayonnaise and Sour Cream: The base of the dipping sauce. You could also use cream cheese if you like.
- Roasted Garlic Cloves: Garlic adds a savory depth of flavor. Roasting mellows the harshness of raw garlic, creating a sweeter and more complex taste.
- Lemon: A bit of lemon juice in the sauce adds a refreshing brightness and cuts through the richness.
- Salt and Pepper
- Paprika: A sprinkle of paprika adds a touch of smokiness and a hint of sweetness to the sauce, complementing the smokiness of the artichokes.
How to Make Smoked Artichokes
- First, prep the artichokes: cut the top, trim the leaves and stem, remove the fuzzy choke with a spoon or knife, rinse, and lemon juice the exposed areas.
- Brown the sausage in a skillet, crumbling it, then set aside. Preheat your smoker or grill to meduim-high heat (375°F). Mix the cooked sausage and breadcrumbs, seasoning with salt and pepper.
- Push open the outer leaves of the artichoke and stuff them with the sausage mixture. Then, place them in the smoker and spoon a tablespoon of butter on each. Smoke for an hour, spooning more butter every 20 minutes until the bottoms are fork-tender.
- Remove the artichokes, spoon remaining butter over them, and sprinkle with goat cheese crumbles to melt. Whisk mayo,sour cream, lemon juice, and zest in a bowl, season with salt, pepper, and paprika.
- Serve artichokes with parsley garnish and the creamy dipping sauce. Enjoy!
Girl Carnivore Expert tips for Smoked Artichokes
- Artichokes dry up quickly. They don’t store easily either. Best to use as quickly as possible.
- Use dry wood chips when smoking to avoid excess steam.
What to Serve With Smoked Artichokes
Although you could eat these as an appetizer, you could also make them a side for several dishes! Some of our favorites to serve with these delicious artichokes are pan-seared chicken thighs, baked lamb meatballs, or grilled salmon.
Leftovers & Reheating
- Store leftover artichokes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- To reheat, wrap them loosely in foil and heat at 350°F for 15-20 minutes or until warmed through.
What Are Smoked Artichokes?
For this smoked sausage stuffed artichoke recipe, we decided to stuff the artichoke with an amazing garlic sausage and add smoke to infuse serious flavor. We used our Traeger Grill with hickory chips to send a subtle smoke flavor through. The artichoke softened during the cook time to fork tender. Basting the artichoke with clarified butter helped to keep it moist.
Finally, top with fresh goat cheese immediately after pulling it from the grill, and put the finish on it.
Overall, it was one of our favorite ‘grilled’ artichokes, but it certainly was more work than our standard go-to grilled artichoke.
The smoky aroma, tender artichoke hearts, and creamy goat cheese and sausage stuffing create a taste sensation that’s sure to become a new favorite.
More Appetizer Recipes
Chicken
Sriracha Honey Sticky Wings
Chicken
Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings
Ground Beef
French Onion Meatballs
Dinner Recipes
Grilled Scallops with Parmesan and Lemon
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Smoked Sausage Stuffed Artichoke
Recommended Equipment
- smoker grill
Ingredients
- 2 whole artichokes
- fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 lbs fresh sausage casings removed
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 8 oz clarified butter
- 2 oz goat cheese
For the dipping sauce
- 2 tbsp mayo
- 2 tbsp sour cream
- 2 cloves garlic minced and roasted
- 1 lemon
- salt and pepper
- 1/4 tsp paprika
Instructions
- Starting with the artichokes, remove the top with a sharp knife. Trim the pointed ends of each leaf with a pair of kitchen shears. Trim the stem and using a peeler, remove the tough outer skin from the stem.
- With your hands, work the artichoke leaves away from the center, exposing the inner tight leaves. Using a pointed spoon, or carefully with a sharp paring knife, remove the inner choke.
- Rinse the artichoke with cold water and immediately rub lemon juice over the freshly cut exposed areas.
- Meanwhile, brown the sausage in a skillet, crumbling as needed, until cooked through. Set aside to cool.
- Preheat your smoker or grill for 375 degrees. Clean the grate and allow the smoker to come to temp.
- Combine the cooked sausage and breadcrumbs in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
- Working carefully, but with force, push open the leaves and stuff the artichoke, working from the center out.
- Place the artichokes in the smoker and spoon a tablespoon of butter over each.
- Cover and cook for about an hour, until the bottoms are fork tender, spooning more butter over the artichokes every 20 minutes.
- Remove and spoon remaining clarified butter over top and sprinkle immediately with the goat cheese crumbles to melt.
- Whisk the mayo, sour cream, and juice from 1 lemon into a small bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of zest to the mix and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle paprika on top.
- When ready to serve, garnish with freshly minced parsley and serve with the whisked mayo mix.
Notes
Nutrition
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Recipe FAQs
It depends. Use whatever you have handy, but just make sure to remove the casings. Otherwise, if you are going to shop for some, we recommend something with a bit of heat, a lot of savory, and a touch of sweetness. A spicy andouille would work, for example.
Sausage comes in so many styles it might be hard to choose. If you don’t want to deal with removing the casings, then just use a pre-seasoned ground sausage meat, chorizo or Italian sausage could work, and go from there.
To pick a good artichoke, feel the weight. You are looking for the heavier ones. They should have tightly bound leaves that are enclosed in themselves. Artichokes travel well and can last a week or two stored. The leaves will lose their color as they dry out over time.
Once chosen, use a sharp knife to chop the top of the artichoke off, trim the stem, and use kitchen shears to trim the pointed tips off all the remaining outer leaves.
At this point, we use our hands to open the artichoke. Spread the leaves apart and rinse quickly with cold water. Shake out any excess and immediately rub fresh lemon juice over any recently trimmed areas to prevent browning.
From there, you will prep your artichoke as required for your recipe.
We used a pellet grill for this recipe, but you can use any type of smoker.
Spectacular!!! It was definitely quite a bit of work but totally worth it. The dipping sauce was out of this world. We went with Hungarian hot paprika which gave it a nice kick. We used a Dutch oven instead of the smoker. Would definitely recommend if you have the time.?