We don't consider ourselves to be super rough-and-tumble, but we do like spicy food. The final product turned out to be just right. The process, however, brought about tears, horrid coughing fits and much laughter. And did we mention coughing fits? We decided to make P-Dub's BBQ Jalapeno Poppers (p. 14).
We began with fresh jalapenos. These were sliced in half.
Next we removed the white membranes and seeds from the jalapenos. This is where the heat resides. Ree recommends using gloves. We didn't have any gloves, so we were tough broads and dove in bare-handed. Actually, we were very careful to not touch other body parts or kitchen surfaces while dismembering the jalapenos. We were sure to wash our hands well.
This, however, did not keep Lou from squirting jalapeno juice up her nose. Whoops. A decidedly unpleasant experience. Her nose became quite red. Yep. Rudolph she was.
Pepper fumes engulfed the kitchen, and soon both Jo and Lou couldn't breathe. We had to open the window, which wasn't enough. We had to stick our faces up to the screen and breathe deeply. We aren't even kidding. Here's the proof.
Next, we made the filling. Together in a bowl we put cream cheese, chopped green onion and cheddar cheese.
We used a hand mixer to blend these well.
Then we filled the jalapeno halves with the cream cheese filling.
Next we swaddled the jalapenos with bacon. Yassir. We decided to use turkey bacon because it is 63% less greasy than pork bacon - according to the package. Those are official stats, folks. The bacon was held in place by a toothpick.
These were placed on a tin-foil-lined baking sheet.
Next we basted them with barbecue sauce...well, after they'd been in the oven a bit we basted them with barbecue sauce. The jalapeno fumes had gone to our brains. The barbecue sauce is supposed to be added before placing the poppers into the oven. These were baked in the oven at 275 degrees for approximately one hour.
The baking takes the primary bite out of the jalapeno, creates a touch of crispiness to the bacon and tenderly melts the cream cheese filling. Gorgeous gooey-ness.
These little tykes were worth the respiratory distress. Happy Mother's Day to us.
Happily full,
You girls are so fun!!! I excitedly opened this post late last night and giggled envisioning you in the kitchen making this! Too fun!! All I can say is, do you know what you are going to do when your year is up?? Whatever it is, I wanna follow!! Hugs!
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