Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapeños

I recently went camping with my Kayak fishing group and decided I wanted to try something different. I am a fan of grilled tuna stuffed Jalapenos but was not in the mood for the tuna. I thought I would give these a try …

Ingredients: (Approximate)
I box of plain cream cheese
12 medium fresh Jalapenos
2 tablespoons finely chopped oil packed sun dried tomatoes
Tablespoon of roasted garlic - I used Chef Cuisine pre-chopped ½ teaspoon is equivalent to one clove of garlic if you prefer fresh
1/8 cup fresh chopped basil
Dash of salt
12 strips of thin sliced bacon. I like apple wood cured or smoked

This is pretty simple to do and you can vary the quantities to taste. The amount of peppers needed to use all of the mixture will vary depending on size. You can probably easily do 24 with the one box of cream cheese! You will get a feel for it after a batch or two. Just use the remainder for a dip!

I mix all ingredients, minus the peppers, in a bowl.

    I then wash the peppers. If you decide to try these, I suggest using kitchen gloves or at the least keep your hands off of your skin,eyes etc, as well as off of family members until you have thoroughly washed your hands after handling the peppers!

    I cut the sides off of the peppers to make a sort of bowl and lay the extra piece (lid) aside. I try to keep the lids with their original pepper for a nice fit when assembling.

    I use a small spoon to scoop and scrape out the seeds. If you like it fiery hot leave some in! I don’t!

    Once the seeds are out, I pack each one with the cream cheese mixture. I am careful not to over fill. I use the spoon to pack it in to take up all space then scape the top to bring it level with the top of the pepper opening. Then I replace the lid (piece you sliced off).

    Once I have them all back together with mixture inside, I wrap each one with a slice of bacon. When I start my wrap I hold one end tight to the pepper, then start wrapping, pulling the bacon tight as I go. Loose bacon will just fall off when you grill. For an added measure I also used toothpicks to “tack” the bacon in place. On some larger peppers I actually added a second strip of bacon. You can never have too much bacon right!

    On my trial run of these I used water soaked bamboo skewers. I found that they were really not needed. If you ran some through the sides rather than lengthwise, like i did in the picture below, it may help keep the bacon on.

    The way I did it (trial run, see picture) did not help with the bacon and they would spin while turning. I found that just the toothpicks worked fine. I soaked those in water as well to keep them from burning up on the grill. If you serve these to guests, be sure and warn them of the toothpicks! You would not want perfectly good food devouring to turn to a trip to the emergency room or worse!!

    I grilled them on the Weber Q1200, on a med to med high heat, until the bacon was done, turning often to prevent the peppers from scorching.

    Between the bacon grease and the melted cream cheese falling out of the peppers, they will make quite the mess! I like direct heat with no barrier so I just dealt with it and cleaned up after. If you try these you may opt for some foil.

Serve as an appetizer. Awesome camp or tailgate food. Have plenty of napkins on hand.

Beer, margaritas and water or tea may compliment this yummy treat.