Bacon and Chives Cheese Balls Recipe – Easy, cheesy and bacony bite-size appetizer ideal for your Holiday parties or even game days!
Hey ya! Guess what?! Holidays appetizer season has begun, and I am so super excited about it! I quadruple LOVE appetizers. LOVE! A big bowl of food ain’t my thing, but bring on some bite-sized stuff, and I’m all over it. It’s the perfect proportion of darn good food, it’s delicious, and you won’t overdo it. Well… you COULD, but appetizers were meant for sharing, so just stick to that.
Can you think of anything better than cheese, bacon, and chives involved in a happy marriage? All rolled up into a bite-sized ball sitting on a pretzel stick?! Srsly, look at how cute they are!
This is my love language. Everything good and cheesy and smooth. Like this sweet White Chocolate Cheeseball… oh.my.yum.
I don’t often make cheese balls, but I’ve had it on my (mental) food idea board for a long time now and one of the advantages of listing your recipe ideas?! You get tired of thinking about all the things you haven’t done yet which forces you to follow through.
Of course, when you sit around on an idea, and finally make it (I made these back in May while working on my Holiday blog-recipes) someone will beat you to posting your recipe because you just HAD TO SHARE your cheese balls in an Instagram story back then (I’m looking at you DELISH – I won’t link to them) and you look like the fool that copied them. But, nope. I came up with these first.
Now I feel like a third grader crying about the girl in my class that copied my outfit! waaaah!
Okay, I’m over it now. I just had to tell you about it, to get it off my chest.
Here’s the deal on this Cheese Balls Recipe:
We’re going to combine light cream cheese with a shredded mexican cheese blend, some chili powder, and chives. You will put this mixture in the fridge to chill for a bit so it’s easier to mold it into little balls.
To make the cheese balls, I advise you to LIGHTLY spray your hands with cooking spray and get to work. It’s SO much easier to roll anything between greasy hands. Fo’ real.
Next thing left to do is pop that pretzel stick on top and roll the balls around in a mixture of bacon and chives. Pop them in the fridge and take them out about 20ish minutes before serving.
That’s all friends! ENJOY!
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TOOLS AND INGREDIENTS USED IN THIS RECIPE
Bacon and Chives Cheese Balls Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese
- 1 cup Shredded Four Cheese Mexican Blend
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon chili powder (if you don't like spicy, use sweet red paprika)
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
- 6 slices bacon, cooked to a crisp and finely chopped (I used turkey bacon. If you prefer, you can also use bacon bits, instead)
- 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh chives
- 18 pretzel sticks
Instructions
- Mix together cream cheese, four cheese, chives, garlic, chili powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper; mix until well blended and smooth. Form into 18 small balls and refrigerate until firm, 1 hour.
- Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Remove from fridge; lightly grease hands with cooking spray and form 18 small cheese balls.
- Pop back into the fridge for about 1 hour.
- In a shallow dish, combine chopped bacon and chopped chives.
- Insert a pretzel stick on each cheese ball and roll balls in the bacon and chives mixture.
- If not serving right away, please keep in the fridge.
- Take the cheese balls out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you are ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
