Greg Who Cooks
Executive Chef
I first became acquainted with this recipe when I heard of Pioneer Woman's Blog and decided to check out her cookbook... literally, at the library: Pioneer Woman Cooks: recipes form an accidental country girl by Rhee Drummond. This recipe from her cookbook piqued my interest so I promptly typed it into my cooking notes, and then forgot about it for several months...
Today I was at the market when I noticed these huge jalapeno peppers, the biggest I've ever seen. (Actually I had to pick out the smaller ones because the big ones were almost 4 inches long!) And I thought of Pioneer Woman and her jalapeno poppers recipe, so I decided to make them. But I forgot the recipe details. So WTH I just bought what I remembered and I decided to fake it.
As it turns out, the recipe I cooked is the exact recipe she posted on her blog: Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies. Or maybe she has two recipes, one for thingies and another for poppers, and almost the same recipe... If you're into existentialism you can ponder this...
In any case I'll tell you (1) how I cooked this tonight (what turned out to be the recipe she posted), and (2) I'll tell you how to improve it by using the recipe from her cookbook (which I'll tell-all, but in my own words). In any case they were delicious!!!
Ingredients:
bacon
cream cheese
jalapeno peppers
And don't forget the latex gloves to protect your hands from the caustic juices in the jalapenos!
Method:
Cut the jalapeno peppers in half, then scoop out the insides. If you want hotter appetizers then leave a bit of the insides in, otherwise scoop the seeds and membranes all out. Fill the shells with cream cheese then wrap them with bacon (bacon!!!) and if necessary use a toothpick to hold them together.
As it turned out my large peppers were just the right size for the center cut bacon I bought. When I was done stuffing them they looked like this:
Next, put them on an aluminum foil lined pan (for easy clean up). Bake them about 20-25 minutes in 400-450 F oven (mine reaches only about 350 but it did well enough and I wasn't paying much attention to the time anyway...) Just bake them till they're done, and if you want you can broil them a few minutes to crisp the bacon. As it turned out I didn't need that.
And they came out like this! Mmmmmmm!!! I didn't know these were so tasty! And so easy to make!!!
So here's the rest of the recipe, from the book, the good recipe. This is in my own words so we won't have to worry about violating Rhee... er... I mean violating her copyright. (She's kind of cute!!!)
18 fresh jalapenos
one 8 oz package cream cheese
1/2 C. grated cheddar cheese
1 green onion, sliced
18 slices thin bacon, cut into halves
bottled barbecue sauce
toothpicks
You can pretty much figure it out from her ingredient list. For the stuffing you mix 1:2 cheddar cheese to cream cheese, and add in chopped green onions.
I remember when I read this recipe I thought the idea of using barbecue sauce just knocked me dead!!! I can't believe I forgot that but tonight when I was cooking I was hell bent on cooking and I didn't have any time to look at my notes from her book.
They were delicious anyway! I'm sure the barbecue sauce would be better--I can imagine the taste as I type this--maybe not so sure about the cheddar cheese (I'm not a big cheddar head although I'm a huge cheese lover, I usually eat cheese with both breakfast and with/before dinner). Toothpicks??? I think you can take 'em or leave 'em. Maybe you need 'em for small jalapenos.
So anyway I bought 4 peppers today and used only 2 of them tonight, so I'm guessing I'll have this again tomorrow night but with the barbecue sauce, and I've got green onions too, might as well try adding them also.
This recipe is so easy and so good!!!
Today I was at the market when I noticed these huge jalapeno peppers, the biggest I've ever seen. (Actually I had to pick out the smaller ones because the big ones were almost 4 inches long!) And I thought of Pioneer Woman and her jalapeno poppers recipe, so I decided to make them. But I forgot the recipe details. So WTH I just bought what I remembered and I decided to fake it.
As it turns out, the recipe I cooked is the exact recipe she posted on her blog: Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies. Or maybe she has two recipes, one for thingies and another for poppers, and almost the same recipe... If you're into existentialism you can ponder this...
In any case I'll tell you (1) how I cooked this tonight (what turned out to be the recipe she posted), and (2) I'll tell you how to improve it by using the recipe from her cookbook (which I'll tell-all, but in my own words). In any case they were delicious!!!
Ingredients:
bacon
cream cheese
jalapeno peppers
And don't forget the latex gloves to protect your hands from the caustic juices in the jalapenos!
Method:
Cut the jalapeno peppers in half, then scoop out the insides. If you want hotter appetizers then leave a bit of the insides in, otherwise scoop the seeds and membranes all out. Fill the shells with cream cheese then wrap them with bacon (bacon!!!) and if necessary use a toothpick to hold them together.
As it turned out my large peppers were just the right size for the center cut bacon I bought. When I was done stuffing them they looked like this:
Next, put them on an aluminum foil lined pan (for easy clean up). Bake them about 20-25 minutes in 400-450 F oven (mine reaches only about 350 but it did well enough and I wasn't paying much attention to the time anyway...) Just bake them till they're done, and if you want you can broil them a few minutes to crisp the bacon. As it turned out I didn't need that.
And they came out like this! Mmmmmmm!!! I didn't know these were so tasty! And so easy to make!!!
So here's the rest of the recipe, from the book, the good recipe. This is in my own words so we won't have to worry about violating Rhee... er... I mean violating her copyright. (She's kind of cute!!!)
18 fresh jalapenos
one 8 oz package cream cheese
1/2 C. grated cheddar cheese
1 green onion, sliced
18 slices thin bacon, cut into halves
bottled barbecue sauce
toothpicks
You can pretty much figure it out from her ingredient list. For the stuffing you mix 1:2 cheddar cheese to cream cheese, and add in chopped green onions.
I remember when I read this recipe I thought the idea of using barbecue sauce just knocked me dead!!! I can't believe I forgot that but tonight when I was cooking I was hell bent on cooking and I didn't have any time to look at my notes from her book.
They were delicious anyway! I'm sure the barbecue sauce would be better--I can imagine the taste as I type this--maybe not so sure about the cheddar cheese (I'm not a big cheddar head although I'm a huge cheese lover, I usually eat cheese with both breakfast and with/before dinner). Toothpicks??? I think you can take 'em or leave 'em. Maybe you need 'em for small jalapenos.
So anyway I bought 4 peppers today and used only 2 of them tonight, so I'm guessing I'll have this again tomorrow night but with the barbecue sauce, and I've got green onions too, might as well try adding them also.
This recipe is so easy and so good!!!