Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers

Grilled Jalapeño Poppers
My sister-in-law Lindsey, or SILLi as I like to call her, made some fabulous jalapeño poppers last week. Her dad, Dave Baggs, came up with the idea of stuffing cream cheese into jalapeños, wrapping them with bacon, then grilling them. Now, anyone that comes up with recipes where bacon is a key ingredient is my personal hero. So, I copied the Baggs recipe, although I did embellish it a little with shredded cheese and cilantro. But you can leave that out and just use cream cheese. Either way you do it, these poppers will blow you head away...or just make you hot for a little while.

INGREDIENTS

  • 12 jalapeño peppers
  • 1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 tsp. fresh cilantro, minced
  • Pinch Salt and pepper
  • 1 lb. sliced bacon
  • 24 toothpicks
DIRECTIONS

Soak toothpicks in cold water. The longer the better but at least 1 hour.

Cut a slice lengthwise in the jalapeño to make enough space to remove seeds. Make sure not to split the pepper all the way through when you do this. Remove seeds and ribs and wash jalapeño with cold water. It's a good idea to wear gloves during this step, especially if you have sensitive skin.

Mix cream cheese, shredded cheddar, cilantro and salt and pepper in a separate bowl. Put cream cheese mixture inside a plastic baggie and cut a small slit on one corner of baggie (you're making a MacGyvered pastry bag). Squeeze mixture from baggie into jalapenos.

Wrap bacon in a spiral fashion around stuffed pepper and secure with a couple of toothpicks. Grill the popper until the bacon is cooked, about 20 to 30 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes before serving. I'm pretty sure MacGyver would love these!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Holy crap those look amazing!

Unknown said...

I make these all the time! Try adding some shrimp to some and some cream cheese to others OR BOTH!! It makes it soooo good!

Anonymous said...

I like it, your recipe variation is a bit like mine!

http://www.choosy-beggars.com/index.php/2008/08/08/bacon-wrapped-jalapeno-poppers/

I also LOVE LOVE LOVE that paella post. Your food looks so flavourful I can practically taste it through my monitor!

Unknown said...

The best way to enjoy these are to leave the seeds in the pepper. You don't have to leave ALL of them but at least some. Removing them weakens the heat factor and overall taste. By the way, in South Texas, we refer to these delicious appetizers as "ratones" or mice in English.

Unknown said...

How do you grill these for 20-30 minutes without the cream cheese melting and pouring out? These are wrapped in Bacon... not welded closed.