Need a little spice in your life? Stuffed Jalapenos are the way to go! I have a little different take on a classic appetizer but nonetheless just as delicious.
Ingredients: Fresh jalapenos, thick cut bacon, garlic salt, onion salt, cream cheese, blue cheese.
Cooking Surface: Grill or fire, aluminum foil.
What to eat with it?: Can't go wrong with steak (especially bacon wrapped).
Cooking Tunes: Tyler Childers
Beer: Parkway Brewing Company Get Bent Mountain IPA
So how do you make these bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos?
First, you need jalapenos. Luckily for me I grow my own, so not to hard to get a few. You need to wash the jalapenos, then cut the off the tops just below the stem.
Next, take out all of the seeds (unless you're more brave than me). A trick I learned to taking out the seeds is to use a fork or spoon but instead of using the actual utensil end, flip it around and use the handle to scrap out the seeds. This works great, especially if the utensil you use is rounded off at the end of the handle. Once you've gotten all the seeds out (or think you have) again rinse them and clean out the inside to get rid of any straggling seeds. Also, Ehow has a good method as well on Youtube. Once they're all good and clean it's time to start stuffing.
Take your cream cheese and put it in a bowl. Mix in however much blue cheese you like ( I like a lot in mine) then a teaspoon of both onion and garlic salt and finally mix it all together. Time to start stuffing. There's no real easy way to do this, the best I've found is to take a pinch of your mix and push it in to the jalapeno and repeat the process until its popping out from the top. It's not very clean, but if you're not getting dirty you're not cooking.
Now, it's time to wrap. I used maple bacon to give them a little sweet and spicy flavor. Wrapping isnt too hard, just cut the strips of bacon in half, lay one strip on the board, set a jalapeno at the end of the strip and roll it all up. If you are a tight roller then kudos to you but i used toothpicks to hold the bacon tight to the jalapenos.
Once they're all wrapped it's time to start cooking. Feel free to add any seasoning to the bacon, I hit it with a little cinnamon and paprika, again keeping the sweet and spicy.
With these, you don't need too much heat to cook, mainly you're trying to cook the bacon so I had 3 out of the four burners on the grill turned to low. It's important to put aluminum foil down or have a catch pan for the grease because if not, your jalapenos may be extra "fiery" from a grease fire. Space them out evenly on your cooking surface and roll or flip them every three to for minutes until the bacon is browned all around. Again, if you have tight wrapping skills it comes in handy, but if you're like me some of the cheese will pop out of the bacon, doesn't look pretty but still tastes great.
Once they're all browned it's time to pull them off, total grill time should be around 9-12 minutes depending on what thickness your bacon is. I would not recommend a taste test right off of the grill, unless you like burning your mouth. The bacon grease is hot and the cheese is like lava inside of the jalapenos, so let them set for a few minutes until eating. I used my waiting time to cook my bacon wrapped steaks with chili lime seasoning (sweet and spice is always nice). Once it's all done, it's time to make your plate and open a cold one. For this meal I went with a Parkway Brewing Company IPA.
Also, a little trick if you don't have a bottle opener with you is to open your car door and use the latch on the door frame to open your beer (but don't drink and drive).
So, enjoy your meal, enjoy your beer and as always enjoy your time outside, even if your in the backyard the wilderness is calling.
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