Here is a record of my first attempt at smoked pepper poppers this weekend. I prepped by reading other recipes on this forum.
Here are the ingredients I used: Cheap thin bacon, 1 lb chorizo, 8 ox cream cheese, 4 oz, cheddar, tine bell peppers, jalapenos, banana peppers, onion. And I had FURY on DVD while we waited.
I fried and drained the Chorizo with some diced onions. I first tried to fill the peppers with chorizo and then top with the blended cheeses. it did not work so well, so I then mixed the cheeses with the chorizo and then filled, much easier.
Started by wrapping with bacon, then as I ran out of bacon I cut the bacon in half and only covered the cheese/chorizo mix. Next time I will will cut the bacon in 1" squares and lay a few on each popper. this will make eating much easier as it was hard to chew bacon through. Or, I will will precook the bacon a bit so that they get very crispy and easier to bite.
after 1 45 minutes at 210F. (though I suspect it was really closer to 190F I will know better when the Maverick arrives) I smoked with barely a 1/2 handful of apple in the Mes 40 smaller hopper.
Finally cooked for nearly 2 h 45 mins. I raised the temp to 240 F for the last 40 minutes to get a crisper bacon.
Result - fantastic, almost sinful flavor. a bit difficult to bite through the bacon, not hardness, more stringiness. just the right amount of smokiness (my wife has been complaining that I am overdoing the smoke - newbie enthusiasm I Guess).
There is a bit of a grease problem. It seems the boat nature of the peppers collects the bacon grease. Mind you, I loved them, but some health sensitive types or people who like unspotted shirts might find the dripping crease a bit of a problem. Two things I might try nest time, pre cooking bacon a bit to lower fat and maybe poking a couple holes in the peppers to drain excess grease (better dirty smoker than dirty shirts).
Finally we really enjoyed FURY , one of the better war movies. Check it out.
Here are the ingredients I used: Cheap thin bacon, 1 lb chorizo, 8 ox cream cheese, 4 oz, cheddar, tine bell peppers, jalapenos, banana peppers, onion. And I had FURY on DVD while we waited.
I fried and drained the Chorizo with some diced onions. I first tried to fill the peppers with chorizo and then top with the blended cheeses. it did not work so well, so I then mixed the cheeses with the chorizo and then filled, much easier.
Started by wrapping with bacon, then as I ran out of bacon I cut the bacon in half and only covered the cheese/chorizo mix. Next time I will will cut the bacon in 1" squares and lay a few on each popper. this will make eating much easier as it was hard to chew bacon through. Or, I will will precook the bacon a bit so that they get very crispy and easier to bite.
after 1 45 minutes at 210F. (though I suspect it was really closer to 190F I will know better when the Maverick arrives) I smoked with barely a 1/2 handful of apple in the Mes 40 smaller hopper.
Finally cooked for nearly 2 h 45 mins. I raised the temp to 240 F for the last 40 minutes to get a crisper bacon.
Result - fantastic, almost sinful flavor. a bit difficult to bite through the bacon, not hardness, more stringiness. just the right amount of smokiness (my wife has been complaining that I am overdoing the smoke - newbie enthusiasm I Guess).
There is a bit of a grease problem. It seems the boat nature of the peppers collects the bacon grease. Mind you, I loved them, but some health sensitive types or people who like unspotted shirts might find the dripping crease a bit of a problem. Two things I might try nest time, pre cooking bacon a bit to lower fat and maybe poking a couple holes in the peppers to drain excess grease (better dirty smoker than dirty shirts).
Finally we really enjoyed FURY , one of the better war movies. Check it out.