If you have the smoker going anyway, you might as well make a little snack, right? This Spicy Smoked Almonds Recipe is a real treat. Best of all it only takes about an hour on the smoker. This recipe makes a great tailgate appetizer or general BBQ party snack. The night before you soak the almonds in an easy salt water brine. The next morning you coat the nuts in oil and any BBQ dry rub you like and smoke them for about an hour until they roast. Easy!
I picked up a small package of raw almonds. These come unroasted and unsalted.
The brine is simple: 2 cups of water plus 1/4 cup of salt. Add the nuts to the container and let them sit covered overnight.
The next morning drain the brine from the almonds. You can pour it off or use a strainer. Set up your smoker for a higher heat smoke, about 275-300.
When the smoker is ready coat the almonds in olive oil and give them a good toss.
Add about 1-2 tablespoons of your favorite dry rub to the nuts and again toss to coat. If you have a mild rub, add a bit more of it. If you have a really strong spicy rub you might want to go easy here. It's all preference. Just make sure that each almond gets some of the dry rub.
Lay a piece of aluminum foil down and form an edge so the almonds won't roll off. Smoke until they are nicely roasted, about 45 min to 1 hour. I smoked these over direct heat on my Ugly Drum Smoker (UDS) with apple wood chunks. The temperature was about 290 degrees F the whole time. I kept all air intake valves wide open during the smoke.
These are real tasty! Warm off the smoker these can't be beat!
Let me know what you think of this Spicy Smoked Almonds Recipe.
Wonderful!! Thank you
I’ve tried this recipe twice both times and love the flavor it gives the nuts, but each time the nuts were soggy or mushy. The first time I left nuts on the smoker much longer checking them every 30-45 minutes and they never “hardened” and I pulled them once some started to burn. The second time I left them on for 2 hours longer and they were still mushy.