WATERSHED POPPERS

Calling all fans of grilled stuffed jalapeños! We created these tasty and spicy little munchies one day in our test kitchen when we discovered that we had some shrimp leftover from a recipe we’d worked on, lots of nice, fresh jalapeños left from some hot sauce prototypes we’d been playing with, along with some cilantro. We always have plenty of our tasty Raspberry Peach Chipotle Glaze, so we secured some nice applewood smoked bacon on a trip into town and went to work creating what turned out to be a staff favorite. Try them out and we think you’ll agree. You’ll need one of those nifty little stainless steel chile grillers to make these.

Ingredients

20 medium-sized fresh jalapeño chiles
12 ounces softened cream cheese
½ cup Fredericksburg Farms Raspberry Peach Chipotle Glaze
1 pound peeled and deveined cooked shrimp
½ cup cilantro leaves and tender tops stems
½ of a small red onion, roughly chopped
Salt to taste
5 applewood smoked bacon slices
Additional Fredericksburg Farms Raspberry Peach Chipotle Glaze
Toothpicks

Instructions

Cut the tops off of the chiles and discard. Using a small-bladed, sharp paring knife, ream out the seeds and white veins from the chile, taking care not to puncture the outside skin. The chiles should be completely hollow; set aside.

Combine all remaining ingredients except salt, bacon, and additional Raspberry Peach Chipotle Glaze in work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade and process until smooth. Add salt to taste and blend.  Pack the mixture into a squeeze bottle with a large top opening (or slice the opening off to make it bigger) and fill each jalapeño. As you fill the chiles, arrange them in the chile griller. 

Cut each bacon slice into four pieces. Pour ½ cup of the additional Raspberry Peach Chipotle Glaze into a small bowl and dip each piece of the bacon in the sauce. Lay a piece of bacon over the top of each filled chile and run a toothpick completely through the bacon and chile to secure the bacon and keep the chile from falling through the grill as it shrinks during cooking.

Build a hardwood charcoal fire in half of the barbecue pit, or light the gas grill burners on one side. When coals have burned down to the point where they are glowing red, covered by a layer of white ash, place the chile grill on the opposite end of the pit or grill. Lower the cover and grill for about an hour to an hour and a half, or until bacon is crisp and chiles are very soft. Serve them hot right in the griller and enjoy!