These “Texas twinkies” were named and made famous by Hutchins BBQ in McKinney, TX. Many of us have been stuffing peppers with cheese and meat and wrapping them in bacon for as long as we can remember but this version uses whole extra large peppers stuffed full with delicious smoked brisket, wrapped with a thick slice of bacon and smoked until perfect.
As usual, I've put my own spin on these but I will go over the exact way that they make them in McKinney, TX so you can duplicate that at your house if you're so inclined.
Remember that Wooster brisket I cooked a while back (hopefully you've had a chance to try it too)? I had a couple of pounds of bits and pieces from the fatty point of that smoked brisket and that's what I used for this recipe.
Let's get to stuffin' and wrappin'!
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Smoker Temp: 225°F (107°C)
- Meat Finish Temp: n/a
- Recommended Wood: Pecan
- 12-14 jalapenos, extra large
- 16 ounces cream cheese
- 1 lb smoked brisket
- 1 lb chorizo, precooked (optional)
- 2 cups smoked gouda, shredded
- Jeff's original rub (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled rub)
- 12-14 slices bacon, thick sliced
- Jeff's original sauce (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled sauce)
When acquiring the peppers, it's important that you hunt around and find the largest jalapenos you can find. I happen to know that my local grocery store always has large ones so that's where I went and I was not disappointed. These peppers where super-sized!
Caution: If you are not accustomed to handling raw peppers, it is advisable to wear gloves for this exercise. If you choose to not wear gloves, don't touch your eyes, nose or any sensitive part of your body until you have washed your hands several times and you are sure that the oils have been removed.
To prepare the peppers, I cut a “T” in them to give me ample access while reducing the ability for them to leak cheese during the cooking process. The pictures will explain what I mean:
Cut halfway through right below the stem.
Then cut a slit from the top of the “T” to the point or bottom of the pepper.
Use a thin, sharp knife to get in there and remove the seeds and veins while carefully prying the pepper open with your fingers. This is harder than it looks at first but once you've done a couple you'll get into a rhythm and it's not as painstaking as you might assume.
Remove as much as you can and then just simply give them a rinse under cold water to get rid of the remaining seeds.
Take a little nibble on a couple of the pepper edges to see what the heat level is. If they are hotter than what you like, simply soak them in sprite or 7-up or a generic version of these for several hours to remove some of the capsaicin. About 2 hours is usually sufficient.
This also makes them more child friendly.
Grate about 2 cups of the smoked gouda
Heat up the meat in a skillet.
Place 8 ounces of the softened cream cheese along with 1 cup of the grated cheese, 1 cup of meat and ¼ cup of Jeff's original rub (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled rub) into a bowl and mix together.
I made a batch of smoked brisket mixture along with a batch of chorizo mixture.
FYI: I placed the chorizo in an iron skillet and cooked it until brown before using it.
After a good mixing..
If you choose to do only a brisket mixture, then you'll need to mix 16 ounces of cream cheese, 2 cups of grated cheese, 2 cups of meat and ½ cup of Jeff's original rub (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled rub) into a large mixing bowl.
How much of this mixture you'll need depends entirely on the size of the peppers you find.
Fill the peppers as full as possible with the meat/cream cheese mixture.
See that pepper in the front that does not have a stem end? I accidentally snapped it off and will need to wrap it differently to make sure I don't lose any of the cheese.
You'll need a thick slice of bacon for every pepper that you have stuffed.
Stretch the bacon to extend it and make sure it is long enough to wrap the pepper as much as possible
Wrap the bacon around the pepper beginning at one end and working your way to the other. It is important that you cover the cut areas on the pepper as much as possible to reduce the possibility of the cream cheese mixture escaping during the cooking process.
Use a toothpick to secure the bacon.
All done and ready for the smoker!
I placed these on a Bradley rack to make it easy to transport these around. You can also use a Weber grill pan (which I absolutely love) or a pan with a rack like this one.
These are so easy to cook and you can use ANY smoker for these. You can also use the grill or even the indoor oven if you haven't purchased a smoker yet.
Preheat your smoker to 225°F (107°C) using indirect heat and if your smoker uses a water pan, fill it up.
I used pecan wood for these as it gives off a really delicious smoke but you can use whatever smoking wood you have available.
Once the smoker was heated and ready to go, I placed the bacon wrapped peppers directly on the smoker grate. I could also have left them on the rack and they would have done just fine.
Let the smoke flow for the entire time and when the bacon has a good bite-thru and the peppers are soft to your liking, they are done. Mine took about 3 hours at 225°F (107°C).
You can also brush them with a little barbecue sauce if you like. I thinned some of my barbecue sauce (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled sauce) down with a little of the sprite that I got from the soaked peppers and gave my peppers a good glazing with the heat cranked up to 350°F (177°C) for about 15 minutes.
Just as soon as they are done, hide a few and then watch them disappear. If this don't bring smiles to the faces of those you cook for, then nothing else will!
This version of stuffed peppers is labor intensive but they are well worth it in the end. As always, the pepper with the cream cheese and the bacon along with the delicious smoked brisket added in just melted in my mouth and I could have eaten the whole batch by myself!
Make plenty!
- For what it's worth, Hutchins BBQ does not mix the brisket and the cream cheese but rather places a bead of cream cheese on the bottom of the pepper then stuffs smoked brisket into the rest of the pepper. I felt that using the cream cheese as a binder would be a great solution but if you want to follow the authentic Hutchins method, go for it.
- I guess you're wondering which version I liked best, the smoked brisket or the chorizo. Both were really good but the smoked brisket really took it up a notch in my opinion. I think you could also use sliced tri-tip, pieces of smoked ribeye, etc. to mix it up even further.
- If you have a different way of making or preparing these, feel free to share ;-)
You can also order the formulas for my rubs and sauce and make these yourself at home. Grab those HERE and download immediately.
Smoking Meat: The Essential Guide to Real Barbecue – The book is full of recipes and contains tons of helpful information as well. Some have even said that “no smoker should be without this book”!
With more than 1000 reviews on Amazon.com and a rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars, it comes highly recommended and is a Bestseller in Barbecuing & Grilling books on Amazon.
Smoke, Wood, Fire: The Advanced Guide to Smoking Meat – Unlike the first book, this book does not focus on recipes but rather uses every square inch of every page teaching you how to smoke meat. What my first book touched on, this second book takes it into much greater detail with lots of pictures.
It also includes a complete, step-by-step tutorial for making your own smoked “streaky” bacon using a 100 year old brine recipe.
If you enjoy the newsletter and would like to do something helpful, then..
The next time you decide to order something at Amazon.com, use THIS LINK to get there and we’ll get a small commission off of what you purchase.
Thank you in advance for using our special link: https://www.smoking-meat.com/amazon
Printable Recipe
Texas Twinkies -Jalapeños Stuffed with Smoked Brisket
Ingredients
- 12-16 jalapenos ((extra large))
- 16 ounces cream cheese
- 1 lb smoked brisket
- 1 lb chorizo (((optional)))
- 2 cups smoked gouda ((shredded))
- 1/2 cup Jeff's original rub
- 12-14 slices bacon ((thick sliced))
- Jeff's original sauce
Instructions
- Cut a "T" into each jalapeno pepper by cutting halfway through the pepper just below the stem then cutting a slit from the top of the "T" to the tip of the pepper.
- Carefully pry open the pepper and deseed and devein the peppers with a thin, sharp knife then give them a good rinse under cold water to remove any remaining seeds.
- Make the stuffing mixture using 2 cups of pulled brisket, 16 ounces of softened cream cheese, 2 cups of shredded smoked gouda, and 1/2 cup of Jeff's original rub. Mix well.
- Stuff the peppers with the stuffing mixture.
- Stretch thick slices of bacon then wrap a single piece around each pepper. Secure with a toothpick.
- Setup smoker for cooking at 225 degrees with indirect heat. Use pecan wood for smoke and if your smoker uses a water pan, fill it up.
- Cook peppers directly on the grate for about 3 hours or until the bacon has a good bite-through and the peppers are soft to your liking.
- When the peppers are ready to eat, give them a good glazing with thinned barbecue sauce and crank up the heat to 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
With the large peppers I use a cheese slicer to slice the cheese and then a knife too cut slices into 1/4”x1/4” PCs and just drop them in. Same with the chorizo. Then wrap. Have never used chorizo, I skin brats or other types of sausage and scrape it down the slot till full. I also add one other secret ingredient that will win any or all popper cook offs.? If interested PM me on FB.
What's the secret ingredient?
This recipe is great, my wife and kids don't do spicy and they loved it. I am a big smoker, follow a lot of your recipes. didn't have any Brisket, so used smoked butt. Was just as good, It's the smoke that makes everything so good. Thank you
I used left over pulled pork versus the brisket and they came out marvelous.
Hi Jeff 5 Stars! :-)
1st time poster, long time newsletter reader :-)
We made them tonight, but they were scarfed up before anyone could take a picture of them for ya, but they looked a lot like yours did… Thank you – I needed a fun recipe to enjoy after a another day of stressful work.
Oh, as for the brisket part I didnt have any laying around or have the time to make it so we ran down to a neighborhood BBQ joint – they were happy to see us :-) we “accidentally” bought too much… like that's even possible???
Cheers n happy holiday weekend! :-)
If I am cooking these in the oven at what temperature and for how long should I cook them?
I haven't done these in the oven but I figure you could get by with cooking them in the oven at about 300°F for maybe 1 to 1.5 hours or until the bacon gets done and to the right texture.
Can these be cooked in the oven?
Yes.. no problem.
Jeff, do you think these would freeze well?
I haven't tried it but I figure they would freeze just fine.
I made these New Years eve with some St Louis ribs. Both the ribs and these gems came out fantastic! One twist, I did not have any brisket, but I did have leftover prime rib from Christmas and I stripped the rib meat off the bone. When I tasted it, the meat didn't have a ton of flavor, but once cooked and mixed with the filling, it was perfect. Even the wife thought it was the best app she's ever had! I can only imagine if I had the brisket! Guess what I'm saying, you can stuff ANY meat, whatever you have leftover or even breakfast sausage, italian sausage, round beef, even chicken or turkey and it will come out great! Bet leftover turkey drums would be really good too! Great recipe, very easy if you are already smoking something.