Any Guy's Food Blog

I was thinking that jalapeño poppers were a must for this challenge. If you want to have a BBQ with appetizers or get invited to a BBQ and want to bring a treat, jalapeño poppers just seem too obvious. I wanted to give a twist to this dish that isn't what most people would necessarily expect.

Ingredients:

1 bulb garlic
6-8 strips bacon
8 large jalapeños (fat and straight)
1/2 cup cotija cheese (grated)
salt
olive oil

Directions:

Roasting the garlic: Cut the top off of the bulb. You'll need to cut it almost half way down to expose all of the cloves. Put the bulb on a sheet of aluminum foil. I will usually add the tops of the cloves that I just cut off as well. Drizzle some olive oil on top and sprinkle lightly with salt. Wrap the garlic completely in the foil. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and roast for 20 - 30 minutes. Check to make sure that the garlic has turned golden brown and soft. If has not finished roasting, you may need to roast it for up to 15 minutes more. Note that the tops may over cook. If this happens, I save them as garlic chips for other recipes.

Fry the bacon in a small pan. I like to fry until it is nice and crispy, but this makes it tougher to stuff the jalapeños later. You may want to cook them a little softer if you're ok with that. Drain fat and move to a plate covered with a paper towel. I suggest saving the bacon fat for other recipes (later this month we will use bacon fat).

Remove the roasted garlic cloves from the bulb and add to a bowl. In the same bowl, add the bacon and grated cotija. Mix thoroughly by hand.

Cut the tops off of each jalapeño. When choosing jalapeños, take care to pick the fattest and straightest as this will make the rest of the process easier. Carefully cut out the seed pod and veins. If you leave the veins in, you can still stuff the peppers, but they will be substantially more spicy. So if you want more bite, leave some of the veins in. After hollowing out the peppers, pack tightly with the bacon-garlic-cheese mixture. I suggest putting in a little cheese first, packing with all of the contents, then finishing with some cheese again. This will make sure that the bottom is completely full and that the top doesn't fall out as easily when cooking.

To cook, throw on a grill and rotate until the pepper is roasted all the way around.

Serve!

Notes:

I am not a jalapeño fan, but like my jalapeño recipe from last month, this one kills. The cotija and bacon is absolutely perfect. In fact, I like that cotija so much that you could substitute with other cheeses, but I may just take offense to that. The roasted garlic is a nice way to round out the rest of the flavor. I had two poppers for my sample. One was thoroughly hollowed out and perfect. I missed some of the veins in the second one. It had a lot more bite. If you're into the bite, this won't disappoint. It's a crisp spicy flavor and mingles beautifully with the cheese and garlic.

I will rate the ease of recipe as moderate simply because the hollowing of the peppers and the roasting of the garlic are a little involved. It's just a little bit more work than the easy recipes from this month.