Today was my niece’s birthday, and she requested that I make these, so I thought I’d share the recipe (since my other niece requested that I tell her how to make them).
WARNING: These little suckers are delicious and addictive. I take no responsibility for any resulting cravings or compulsions. Hey, you’re reading this blog and I talk about food – if you get hungry and make this stuff and then form an expensive cooking habit, don’t blame me.
Grilled Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers
12 average-sized jalapeño peppers
2 cups of shredded cheese
12 strips of bacon
A few notes on ingredients before we move on to the method.
Peppers
First, look for peppers that are of a size that can be consumed in 1-2 bites, you don’t want anything too big.
Cheese
Choose a good quality cheese. I use Monterrey Jack, but a nice sharp cheddar would be nice, and I know some people dig on cream cheese, too. In fact, I’ve even seen recipes where people season and spice the cheese before stuffing it in the poppers by adding cilantro, salt, pepper, garlic, etc. Have a little fun here, you really can’t screw these up.
Bacon
Again, quality of ingredients is key here. I prefer a nice thick-cut apple wood smoked or even peppered bacon. If you get cheap bacon that’s thinly sliced, your bacon will burn before the peppers are cooked and the cheese is melted. Check with the deli in your supermarket, they’ll usually have some pretty decent offerings.
Turn your grill on to it’s highest setting and get it rip-snorting hot. Depending on your grill, I’d give it at least 15-20 minutes.
Make a slice along one side of each of the peppers. All you want is a slit from stem to end that you can gently pry open and stuff the cheese into, but before you get all excited and start jamming cheese into the pepper, you may want to get a small spoon or melon baller and scrape out the seeds and especially the ribs – this is where the heat is. Now, if you dig on spicy food, make your choice accordingly. You can leave all the seeds and ribs, just the ribs, or whatever. It’s up to you, and how much heat you like.
Once you’ve got the peppers prepared according to your own taste, stuff whatever shredded cheese you’re using into the slit carefully, so as not to split the pepper all the way open. If you do, you’ll lose all the yummy cheesiness to the fiery depths of your grill as it melts and drips away into oblivion.
Now that all the peppers are stuffed, wrap each pepper in a strip of bacon and secure it with a toothpick. If you wanna, you can soak the toothpicks in water for an hour or so beforehand to keep them from burning up. Me? I don’t care if they burn up so I don’t bother with this step. I know there’s a toothpick in each one, even if I can’t see it, so I’m on the look out as I’m eating it. Never had a problem yet.
Now, throw them on to your grill slit-side down and turn the temp to medium low. I know, it seems counter-intuitive to grill them with the slit facing down, but you gotta sear that side of the bacon first. You’ll probably want to keep the lid on your grill closed to retain as much heat as possible, but don’t leave them there for any longer than about 3-4 minutes or you’ll start losing the precious cheesy center as it begins to liquefy. When the bacon has been seared on the slit side, flip ‘em over and give them another 8-10 minutes. Your grill will have cooled significantly by this point, and should get the bacon good and crispy without losing too much of the cheese, although a few drips are normal.
The other thing I should caution you about is flare-ups. You’re cooking bacon on an open flame, and that can get tricky. If you’ve got a large enough grill, try using a two-zone “indirect heat” setup (which is what I usually do). I’ve got three burners on my grill, so I usually pre-heat using all three, and then turn the center burner off and place the poppers there. That way, they get heat from two sides and as long as I keep the lid closed I maintain a pretty respectable 475-500 under the hood. If you don’t have a large enough grill, lay a baking sheet or some aluminum foil right on the grill to catch all the flammable drippings, but keep a VERY close eye on it, as you’re basically collecting all the flammable stuff into one concentrated spot and it can burst into flames more easily than you may expect.
Let them sit for a few minutes once you take them off, then serve will still good and hot and gooey in the middle. Ta-da.
