How Long to Cook Snack Sticks in the Oven (Solved!)
Have you been exploring recipes online and decided to go for homemade snack sticks? If so, you could not have made a better choice.
But what happens if you don’t have a smoker or a grill at your disposal? Fortunately, you can cook your delicious snack sticks in the oven.
In this article, I’ll cover everything there is to know about how long to cook snack sticks in the oven. Just for a quick answer to the question of the day, with the oven at 200° Fahrenheit, average size snack sticks will take about 75 minutes per side or about 2.5 hours in total. Read on to learn more.
Can You Make Snack Sticks in the Oven?
Snack sticks are perfect snacks to serve at a family gathering or a delicious Saturday night dinner. Good news for all meat enthusiasts without a proper smoker or those short on time – you can make snack sticks in the oven.
The whole process is much quicker than your average smoker preparation, and with just the right tips and tricks, you can make the meat just as delicious.
Let’s dig deeper into instructions on how to cook snack sticks in the oven.
How to Cook Snack Sticks in the Oven
The process for making beef or venison snack sticks is quite similar to that of sausage making. You want to ground the meat with at least 20% fat content and mix it with seasoning, and cure. The main difference, however, is the lack of smoke. Luckily, there’s a way around that as well.
If you’re up for smokey snack sticks, mix half of a teaspoon of liquid smoke in with the venison (or whatever meat you plan on making the sticks from.)
Place the sticks on a cookie sheet and cook them in the oven at 200° F for 1.5 hours on each side. The internal temperature of your snack sticks should reach 165° F before they’re done.
Give them a nice cold dunk in a bath to stop the cooking process, just like cooking sausages in a smoker. After cooking the snack sticks, you can either serve them right away or refrigerate or freeze them. If you don’t add preservatives or cure, they won’t last long at room temperature.
How Long Should You Cook Snack Sticks in the Oven?
How long you’ll cook the snack sticks in the oven comes down to the type of meat you’re preparing, the thickness, casings, or the fat content.
If you’re making venison snack sticks and are short on time, you want to preheat the oven to 200° F and cook the sticks for 75 minutes on each side. Note that the internal temperature should reach 165° F.
Alternatively, you can start low, just like with the smoker, and cook the sticks at 150° F for an hour. Then, increase the temperature to 170° and wait for the snacks to heat up until their internal temperature reaches 160° s.
In Summary
As you can see, cooking snack sticks in the oven isn’t rocket science. The preparation process is pretty much the same as regular sausages, and all it takes is three hours of cooking followed by a cold bath.
If you’re too busy to keep an eye on your smoker the whole day, oven snack sticks are more than a decent replacement. Plus, the kids are bound to enjoy them just as much as adults.
