Whee! My first ABT's!

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thebarbequeen

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Aug 22, 2010
877
12
Renton, WA
Late notice party invite=excuse to try my first abt's!  The teenage son had just finished all the milk, so I tried soaking them in a big bowl of cold water with a few tablespoons of sugar dissolved in it, just going out on a limb, since sugar is the other "antidote" when you eat a hot one.  Didn't get any complaints about too much heat, so it either helped some or at least didn't hurt any. I had about 16-18 peppers, halved them right down the stem. The small end of my melon baller worked perfectly at getting out the seed and veins. They soaked a couple hours, and I changed the water once. 

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The filling:  8 oz. cream cheese, 2-3 pressed garlic cloves, 4 minced green onions, 1/2 tsp Old Bay (I use that stuff in practically everything!), generous 1/2 tsp each ground cumin and paprika, dash of Adobo lemon pepper, about 1/4 tsp. worchestershire - mixed that up, then added about 6 oz grated cheddar.

The cumin and paprika gave it just a bit of Mexican flavor, without being obviously taco-like. They also gave it a really nice color. I let it rest to develop flavor, 1-2 hours.  After stuffing, each got a sliver of really good andouille from my butcher shop.  I didn't pipe the stuffing in, just pressed it in with my little offset spatula.  It's one of my very favorite tools.

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did a 1/2 slice bacon wrap.  most of them held ok.

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After I got them all wrapped, I used a small sieve and sprinkled just a dusting of brown sugar over the tops.

Put them in the CSE, set to 250, not preheated. About 1-1/2 oz. chips apple? alder? my bad-forgot to note.

They were done in about one hour and ten minutes.

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They were a success, of course!  People loved the layers of flavor that the spice mixture brought in.  They had to be transported, so they went into a foil pan and got reheated in the oven at the party. No texture issues on the bacon.

can't wait for my next exuse to make some!   thanks for looking!
 
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Those look mighty tasty. Congrats on your first ones.
 
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Now you have done a fantastic job on your first try at the Abt's they look wonderful.
 
Awesome.

Did you actually split the stems as well?

Well done.


 yep, right down the middle.  I wanted to leave the halves as intact as I could, so the cheese wouldn't be tempted to sneak out the end, and to provide people with a way to pick them up. 
 
Great job and the split stems is the perfect touch
 
Congrats on what will be a common practice in your home.ABT's are always a welcome treat. It's all good my friend.
 
 yep, right down the middle.  I wanted to leave the halves as intact as I could, so the cheese wouldn't be tempted to sneak out the end, and to provide people with a way to pick them up. 


That is awesome, I try to leave them stems but you need really fresh peps for that.

They must have been pretty fresh, I bought a bunch this weekend and the stems were starting to dry out.
 
I stopped at a market called Vallarta yesterday looking for some pork bellies (they were out) and they had japs on sale 2# for $1 so I grabbed me a bag and hope to do some ABT's this week
 
I stopped at a market called Vallarta yesterday looking for some pork bellies (they were out) and they had japs on sale 2# for $1 so I grabbed me a bag and hope to do some ABT's this week
mmmmmmmm. pork bellies...another item on my to do soon list 
 
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