Good morning people!
Glad to be back with another “hopefully” interesting cook for you. We have football season upon us and what better munchies than Hickory Smoked Stuffed Peppers! The peppers straight from our garden, and they bring some amazing taste for you. I grew these peppers with the plan to be cooking them at this time of year. My father in-law, Tom, is a master at growing peppers (tomatoes and other things as well), and I have been working on catching up. LOL. I am growing Jumbo Jalapenos the ones that grow over 5 inches long, Red Hot Chile peppers (not the rock group just the peppers, this is my first time trying these), medium Poblanos, Sweet Bananas, and Habaneros (these I cherry wood smoked on the smoker tried to taste them and drank milk for 2 days trying to get the fire out of my mouth, just going to make pepper sauce from these). I am also growing some Ghost Chillies just to see if they will produce.
I have “stuffed” the jalapenos, poblanos and the red hot chilli peppers for this cook. They were on the smoker in Hickory smoke for about 2.5 hours at 240°. This is a slow smoke for sure. If I were doing this for a gathering I would most probably put these on at the beginning of cooking something else, and then take them off to share with my guests while the meat continued to cook. You can also cook these in the oven at 425 for about 20 minutes if you are in a hurry.
You will need about 12 5-inch jalapeno peppers. These peppers need to be large enough to hold about 1 Tbsp. of the cheese stuffing if you go with smaller peppers get 18 and put less in the peppers.
Now what in the world did I put together for this stuffing?
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3cup -/+ blue cheese crumbles
1 8 oz package of cream cheese
½ tube HOT ground sausage
6 strips bacon
1 tsp Garlic Powder or 2 fresh garlic cloves
1 tsp Lime juice
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper to taste.
** here’s a note for you, if you want to omit the meat portion of this delightful dish please do, I have a vegetarian in the family, so I made a batch for him wit out the meat.
Brown the bacon till crispy and drain. Brown the sausage and drain set aside. Using a hand or stand mixer add the cheeses, garlic and mix on low speed when blended well add the lime juice. Crumble the bacon in to small chunks and add to cheese. Add the Sausage and mix well. Set aside. Go ahead and get the peppers ready to stuff. Wear gloves to do this so you will not burn your fingers. You will need to slice one side of the pepper top to bottom from just below the cap to the end then clean out the seeds.
I usually make a T cut below the cap so it remains in place. Then use the knife to cut the seeds out and leave the pepper intact.
If you want you can slice the pepper in half long ways and fill each half.
Go start the charcoal in the smoker. While the smoker is getting started you will need to stuff the peppers and get ready for the grill. Once the coals are gray you will add your wood and then place the peppers on the top most rack. Watch your temp and check about 70 minutes into the cook. Add charcoal and wood if necessary to keep the temp right. They should be ready at around 90 minutes.
After that you’ll need to guard the pepper add make sure you get a few before they vanish!
Give these a try. They got high marks from my stepson who loves all things pepper….
Till next time, take care,
Steve
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