New in the Kitchen

Relaxing and cooking - my favorite!

Oh how I love Saturdays!! We woke up this morning knowing we wanted to use Brady’s smoker bbq.  Usually that means that we pick some sort of meat to cook…which we did (we currently have a rack of baby back ribs smoking away).  I wanted to try something new in addition to the meat.  Brady mentioned that he had heard that when you smoke jalapeno peppers that they get sweeter.  We decided to do some experimenting and came up with this recipe which we are calling Smokin’ Jalapeno Bombs – basically a stuffed jalapeno pepper that is then wrapped in bacon. Yum!

Note: Although we used our smoker you could always slow-roast these appetizers in your oven at 300ºF – 350ºF for 1-2 hours, or until the bacon is cooked and crisp.

Ingredients:
3 shallots, chopped
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 cloves garlic
½ cup beer (your choice, we used a pale ale)
6 ounces soy chorizo (we used “Soyrizo”)
¼ cup cream cheese
1 ½ cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
12 jalapenos
12 slices bacon
Olive oil

Directions:

1. Saute shallots in olive oil with chili powder, paprika and black pepper over medium heat for about ten minutes.

Just getting started with the shallots!!

2.  Pour in beer and stir, then add garlic.  Allow beer to reduce for 1-2 minutes, then add soy chorizo and continue cooking for 5-7 minutes.

3.  Remove from heat and pour soy chorizo mixture into a bowl.  Add sour cream and cheese and stir to combine.

4. Slice a small sliver of jalapeno off of one side to allow you to cut the seeds and membrane out (these are what make the jalapeno really spicy).  You will have little jalapeno boats.

5. Stuff the jalapenos with soy chorizo mixture.

6. Wrap each with a slice of bacon.  Cover and chill for 20-30 minutes to let everything settle.

7. At this point either smoke or bake the jalapenos.  We smoked them at 300ºF for two hours.  I think we probably could have let them go a little longer to brown the bacon more, but they were definitely tasty.

Serve garnished with green onions and with sour cream for dipping.

Warning: While the seeds and membrane has been removed from the jalapeno these are still spicy little treats.  If you would prefer to use a more mild pepper check out the Poblano.  Although the Poblano is a larger pepper (not really appetizer size) it would still work well for this recipe.  Want more info on peppers?