ABTs - How I make them

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pacanis

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Atomic Buffalo Turds-ABTs


This is how I make mine.

Ingredients

Plump, not too long jalapeno peppers
1 cheddar filled Hillshire Farms Lil Smokie for each pepper
1 slice of bacon for each pepper
Cream cheese

An hour or so before building the peppers, take out the bacon and the cream cheese and let it warm up some. It will allow the cheese to spread more easily and the bacon to stretch and wrap more easily, sticking to itself so you won't need toothpicks.

Put on some latex gloves.

Cut the tops off the peppers, cut a slit in one side and clean out with a spoon. Removing the seeds and the veins will remove much of the heat.

Take the back of the spoon you used to clean the peppers with and spread some cream cheese in the pepper, using your thumb to hold the pepper open.
ABT1.jpg

Place a Lil Smokie in the pepper.
ABT2.jpg

Add more cream cheese with the back of the spoon, squeezing the pepper closed while doing so. Fill the slit and the end, working the back of the spoon like a putty knife. Do this to all the peppers you are making.
ABT3.jpg

Now, time to handle the bacon. Things will get a little slippery here, but you'll get the hang of where best to grip the pepper. Lay the bacon over the cut end, capping it off in effect. Then I switch hands and use my right hand to grip the pepper and bacon flap and the left to handle wrapping the bacon. Stretch the bacon towards the other end of the pepper, catching the other end and wrapping the bacon back towards the cut end in a spiral motion. You will be wrapping the bacon over the flap of bacon you used to cap the open end, holding it in place. In order for you to have enough bacon to do this, you must stretch the bacon as you go. This will also allow the bacon to stick to itself, so you can leave the toothpicks in the cupboard. As you near the end of the pepper that was open, you will need to switch hands again.
ABT4.jpg

And they should look like this.
ABT5.jpg

Cook until done and the bacon gets a little crispy. If you are grilling, cook indirect, but smoking these produces the best ABT (IMO). I have smoked these anywhere from 2-1/2 hours to 4 and they have come out just fine. The ABTs are in front. Those are stuffed jalapeno mushrooms in the back, but that’s another post.
ABT6.jpg
 
I started reading this post thinking that was an interesting name for a jalapeno popper... than I read on. I have never heard of these before but I am dumbfounded as to why I'm not making them as we speak. Nice job, sir!
 
Wow. Great detailed pics and recipe with a very unique name! Will have to give them a try! Thanks, Pac!
 
Excellent tutorial, Fred.

If you have an addictive personality, you may want to arrange for an intervention and support team before you make these. Once eaten, addicted forever!
 
Excellent tutorial, Fred.

If you have an addictive personality, you may want to arrange for an intervention and support team before you make these. Once eaten, addicted forever!
I have never actually eaten one yet, and I am already addicted. I have grilled them au natural , but never given them deluxe treatment like that. It's tomorrow I worry about.:LOL:
 
Thanks folks.
And Andy is right. They are very addictive. The next morning seems to be no problem at all either, but I clean my peppers really well.
 
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nice thread, pac. good pics and info.

i tried making abt's without the lil smokies inside, and they were just missing something ( a little smoked sausage, duh).

i'm gonna try again soon the correct way, using your instructions since the pastrami worked out so well. thanks, man.
 
Well, the name made me LOL, but this is going on the list!! LOVE IT!

I use to do something similar, but sans smokie. Add Lump Crab and roast corn.
 
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nice thread, pac. good pics and info.

i tried making abt's without the lil smokies inside, and they were just missing something ( a little smoked sausage, duh).

i'm gonna try again soon the correct way, using your instructions since the pastrami worked out so well. thanks, man.

Cool. Thanks.
 
A timely thread--I just picked a bucketful of Mucho Nacho jalapenos last night. (I knew better than planting 6 plants--but I had a bad case of garden fever back in May, that affected my judgement.)
 
Here is my first attempt. I loved them, by the way. Will deffinitely do them again. I didn't have any little smokies, I don't even know if they are available around here. I used a bit of green onion, paprika and chopped Calabrese sausage in the cheese filling. I cooked them on the bbq in a tin foil plate. They turned out good, but the peppers were a bit big and the bacon really shrunk back. I was afraid of burning, so I played around with them a bit much, so a couple of them started to fall apart. Tasted the same though. Good stuff. Thumbs up!
 

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If I run into big Jalapeños I cut more of the cap off and use it for something else.

Good first attempt. Why did you use a pan though?
 
If I run into big Jalapeños I cut more of the cap off and use it for something else.

Good first attempt. Why did you use a pan though?
I was afraid of flare ups. Or having them stick to the grates and pull apart when I went to turn them. Plus, I have a small grill surface on my little barrel smoker/bbq and you can't adjust the height so the pan is a good way to move stuff around quickly and in an organized manner. I don't normally use pans, but this time was just to be able to control things a bit better.
 
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