Stuffed Jalapeno Pepper Poppers are great hors d’oeuvres.  These meet all the qualifications of a great hors d’oeuvre, starter, or appetizer.  They can be eaten with your hands in one or two small bites, they aren’t too messy and they are very good.  In fact, the spiciness stimulates the appetite.  Don’t worry too much about the heat of the pepper.  Capsaicin, the active chemical that causes the the “fire”, is reduced when cooked.

You’ve heard me talk about all the good food we eat when we visit our Alabama relatives.  Well, that inspired me to ask Brent if I could release his stuffed jalapeno pepper recipe to the world and he graciously said yes.

I’m going to have a separate post for Brent’s recipe, but in this blog I’m going to talk about the different variations and components you can use to create great poppers.

Methods

The Cut-

the peppers can be cut in a variety of ways.  I’m going to post some pictures below to show some of those great ideas from top cut, half cut, lengthwise cut, cut and capped, end cut to side sliced.

As you can see, there are also many ways to cook them and many things to stuff them with

Ways to cook –

After market devices like the holders shown in the pictures above allow the peppers to be grilled, baked and broiled.  You can also deep fry the little buggers, breaded or not. If your stuffing is just cheese all you have to do is cook the peppers until the cheese melts or gets crusty.  If you use meat, you should either partially precook the meat or cook the peppers until the meat is done.

Ways to stuff them-

Peppers can be stuffed with hard cheese, soft cheese, rice, sausage, quinoa or a mixture of any of those.  I sometimes cut cheddar cheese into long square pieces just large enough to push up into the bottom of a pepper when the end is cut off.  Brent cuts his peppers in half lengthwise then stuffs each half with a cream cheese mixture and finishes by wrapping them in bacon.

To wrap or not to wrap –

Many people like to add flavor and texture to the peppers by either coating them or wrapping them.  The most popular wrap is with bacon.  The coatings could be egg wash then dredged in  flour and bread crumbs or other things like grated hard cheese and cornmeal.

Precautions

When you are cleaning the peppers, ALWAYS, DID YOU READ THAT, ALWAYS, WEAR GLOVES.  You may not write to thank me if you follow my caution, but you will most definitely think of me if you don’t and then either rub your eyes or use the bathroom.  Don’t laugh, it is hard to explain that your “junk” is on fire and you need help putting it out because when you touch it with your pepper hands, it just gets worse.

Look for the recipes I’ll be posting in the near future, or better yet, please send me some of your own.  Thanks again to Brent for his inspiration and great recipe variation – Jughandle