These are not your normal jalapeno poppers, they are a step above a popper like you will find in most restaurants. Spicy, sweet, salty, smokey, and creamy they hit all of the taste buds. They are stuffed with a cream cheese mixture with sharp cheddar and BBQ rub, topped with a Hillshire Farms Lil’ Smokie sausage, wrapped in bacon, coated in more rub and then smoked.
These make for a great party appetizer, we love to make them for cookouts at our house and they are great for sporting events.
Atomic Buffalo Turds – ABTs – Jalapeno Poppers
With a little prep which can be done a day ahead of time, these jalapeno poppers make a great party appetizer.
Ingredients
- 16 Jalapeno Peppers
- ½ cup BBQ Rub
- 1 lb Thin Sliced Bacon
- 1 pkg Wooden Toothpicks
- 1 pkg Hillshire Farms Lil' Smokies Sausages
Filling Mixture
- 8 oz Cream Cheese
- 4 oz Sharp Cheddar or Pepper Jack
- 3 tbsp BBQ Rub
Instructions
Filling Mixture
- Soften cream cheese by leaving it at room temp for 30 minutes.
- Grate the cheddar or pepper jack cheese with the fine side of the box grater,
- Mix the grated cheese, the cream cheese and the 3 tbsp of BBQ rub together.
Putting the poppers together
- Prep the jalapenos by slicing the stems off and then slicing them lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds and ribs with a spoon.
- Fill the jalapenos even with the sides with the filling mixture using a spoon.
- Top the filled jalapenos with a Lil' Smokie sausage, if the jalapenos are small you can use half of a sausage by slicing the sausage lengthwise.
- Wrap the filled jalapenos with a slice of bacon. Stick a toothpick through the bacon and into the sausage and pepper to keep the bacon from falling off. If the jalapenos are small the bacon slices can be cut in half.
- Coat all sides of the wrapped poppers with more BBQ rub.
- Get smoker to 250°-300° and add poppers.
- Smoke for 1½-2 hours until the bacon is cooked.
Video
Notes
Depending on your guest’s preferences, these can be made more or less spicy by altering the filling and the cheeses that are used. For a totally spice free version, you could use the mini sweet peppers that are about the same size and shape as jalapenos that come in bags at most supermarkets. You could also use sticks of a single cheese like mozzerella rather than the cheese mixture as the filling.
