Crispy bacon wrapped succulent Polish sausage drizzled in hot honey; if this dish doesn’t convince you to cook kielbasa in air fryers, nothing will! It takes longer to prepare the irresistible two-bite pieces than the 10 minutes it takes to cook them.
You can, of course, substitute regular honey for the hot honey if you want or need to. But do please drizzle them generously with honey. It takes something that is merely good and makes it so good your eyes will roll back into your head.
Kielbasa in Air Fryer
I am a huge fan of cooking in air fryers. Shocker, right? Air Fryer Whole Chicken, Air Fryer Roasted Garlic, Best Way to Cook Salmon – Air Fryer Salmon, are just a few examples of my air fryer obsession.
Lest you think I’m just a gadget junkie, please believe me when I tell you I was an air fryer hold out for a very long time, until a friend swore by them for sweet potato fries. As someone who has put in a lot of time developing the ultimate crispy baked sweet potato fries recipe, I didn’t think anything could yield crispier fries.
I also thought that having an appliance that couldn’t do anything but make reasonably decent fries was a waste of space. I bought one anyway because I figured I ought to experiment with it and thought I could give it away if it ended up being a large paperweight.
It turned out that -yes- it did indeed make stellar fries, but that was just the beginning. It made some of the best salmon I’d ever cooked in my kitchen. I was able to make pork chops in it, then, as the chops rested- I could whip up a side dish of blistered shishito peppers in it in under ten minutes. I could roast garlic in it, make fried green tomatoes. Heck, I even made tofu in it!
Kielbasa Air Fryer
But folks, theis air fryer kielbasa is among the best things I’ve made in it. Oh sure, it’s a cinch that these will disappear at light speed while tailgating, but they’ll also be the star of the show at festive buffets, during cozy movie nights, and any time you need something supremely savoury and tantalizingly tasty.
It couldn’t be simpler! You cut your kielbasa down into pieces that are about as long as a slice of bacon is wide, wrap, secure, and dust with your favourite bbq dry rub. My preference is for Salt Lick BBQ’s Garlic Dry Rub, but you can use whatever you love!
No air fryer? You can still make these and they’ll be delightful, but they’ll definitely take longer! You’ll simply preheat your oven or grill to 250ºF and slide the rack and pan you seasoned them on into the grill or oven for 30 minutes before turning the heat up to 400ºF and letting them crisp up for another 30 minutes.
Bacon and Sausage
The key to these little nuggets of temptation is the bacon wrapper. You don’t want to get super thick bacon for this job but neither do you want the transparently thin slices. Standard, good old, garden variety bacon to the rescue!
You’ll be cutting the slices in half to create two shorter slices. The goal is to wrap it around the sausage just once, with a very small overlap of a half an inch or so. This will allow you to secure the bacon by jabbing one toothpick through the overlapped ends into the sausage.
These air fryer kielbasa niblets are great to make ahead of time, too. Leftovers should be stored tightly wrapped in the refrigerator or freezer. Instructions for reheating are included in the printable recipe card.
Are you a big fan of kielbasa? Try our fast and satisfying Kielbasa and Pierogie Sheet Pan Meal. It’s a complete and hearty dinner that only leaves one pan to clean!
Or give this soul-soothing, budget-friendly kielbasa bean soup a whirl. It warms you up from the inside out and tastes like a soup that’s simmered for hours even though it’s done in about 30 minutes!
Kielbasa in Air Fryer
Rate RecipeEquipment
- 1 air fryer
- 1 cooling rack
- 1 half sheet pan
Ingredients
- 1 pound kielbasa (You can use a 14 ounce package if that's all that is available.)
- 6 strips bacon cut in half to create 12 shorter strips of bacon
- 1 tablespoon bbq rub see notes
- 1 tablespoon hot honey or more, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the air fryer to 400ºF. Place a cooling rack on a half sheet pan and set it aside.
- Cut the kielbasa down into pieces that are about as long as a strip of bacon is wide, about 2 to 3-inches approximately. You should have between 10 and 12 pieces of kielbasa.
- Wrap one half strip of bacon around the outside of each piece of kielbasa. Jab a toothpick through the overlapped section of bacon well into the kielbasa to secure the bacon. Place each bundle on the cooling rack lined sheet pan.
- Sprinkle the bacon on each sausage piece with about 1/4 teaspoon of bbq rub.
- Position the sausage and bacon pieces in the preheated air fryer, leaving ample room around each piece for air to circulate. Air fry at 400ºF for 10-12 minutes or until your bacon reaches your desired crispiness. 10 minutes should yield a chewier bacon, while 12 will be much crispier. You may need to do more than one batch to avoid overcrowding.
- Remove the sausage from the air fryer basket. Transfer the pieces to a serving plate and drizzle generously with hot honey.
To Reheat
- Place bites in a heat-proof dish and warm in a preheated 350ºF oven, covered with foil, for about 10 minutes, or until hot through.Alternately, you can reheat these wrapped in the air fryer at 350ºF for 5-8 minutes or in a microwave safe dish covered with a paper towel for 3 minutes. The air fryer and oven will give the best results, keeping the bacon crisp and sausage juicy.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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