Make Barbecue Bologna Sandwiches With This Grilling Technique

As far as meat-between-two-pieces-of-bread goes, a bologna sandwich is hardly ground-breaking. That is, until you break out the smoker and give a chub of bologna the ol' BBQ treatment. This major flavor glow-up was featured in a TikTok video shared by Traeger, in which a bologna gets upgraded with a sweet and salty glaze and generously smoked until the result is far greater than the sum of its parts. 

The glaze itself is made from a combination of classic South Carolina-esque barbecue sauce flavors, including mustard, brown sugar, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. While the immediate upgrade to the bologna's flavor profile is obvious with these extra ingredients, the real improvement comes when you pop the log onto the grill to smoke, turning a boring chub of reconstituted meat into something worthy of serving at a cookout. After a few hours of smoking, the glazed meat also forms a flavor-boosted crust, improving the texture of what's already there. Grab a bun and throw in a handful of coleslaw, caramelized onions, Manchego cheese, or even dip into some fancy whole-grain mustard to further take your bologna sandwich game to the next level.

The process of making barbecued bologna starts by scoring a 1-pound log with horizontal and vertical cuts, about ¼-inch deep and roughly 1-inch apart. This is going to give the meat a series of nooks and crannies for the glaze to seep into for extra surface area to flavor. Traeger recommends placing the glazed bologna on a baking dish over the grill grates to smoke for three to four hours at 225 degrees Fahrenheit, regularly basting with the glaze to enrich and thicken it. Cut into thin slices after cooking, the bologna is now mouth-wateringly smoky, sweet, and salty with a mustardy bite. If that isn't an upgrade to a bologna sandwich, then no such thing exists.

This is a relatively quick and convenient way to smoke a bologna, but there are ways to push the method even further, drawing on Southern tradition. Bologna-smoking expert and owner of Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint and Hugh-Baby's, Pat Martin told Tasting Table about his BBQ bologna sandwiches, which he proudly smokes for around eight hours. Martin has what could be considered a purist's approach, however, and doesn't use any additional seasonings on his bologna before it goes in the smoker. You may want to consider working with simple Texas-style seasonings of kosher salt and pepper, or even get creative with gochujang for a Korean-inspired glaze.