Deliciousness. Wrapped in Bacon.

We had a cookout to go to a couple of Sundays ago, so we decided to try a new appetizer to bring. We decided to make BBQ Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos. Now I'm sure someone else has made these before but I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with the idea, especially considering I don't like jalapenos! (1 exception - - Charlie Penner's Jalapenos. But then again I eat anything that Charlie makes.. including Bacon Icecream). So we gathered up our ingredients and got to workin! First step is to find some stud who will cut and de-seed the jalapenos that you got. Check.

Please excuse the mess. The condo is a work in progress and there's 2 boys that live there who leave each other weird notes in even weirder places. There's really nothing I can do but sigh...

Next step, while the stud is cutting and de-seeding jalapenos, mix up 1 package of cream cheese with a couple handfuls of shredded cheese. We used a combination of shredded habanero cheese and cheddar cheese. Oh, and I added some chipotle seasoning too because I don't eat these things so I really wasn't taking into consideration the "hottness" factor.

After putting all of this deliciousness in a bowl, take a moment and thank Pampered Chef for making such great cooking utensils and bowls, and then have said stud come over and mix this up because you're silly and forgot to let the cream cheese come to room temperature. And stud has much larger muscles than you do so this is a much easier task for him. Or.... you could let the cream cheese come to room temperature. But really when there's a cookout calling your name, who has time for that?

Next thing to do is to stuff those babies with the cream cheese mixture. Some of it may or may not have wound up in my mouth.. I'll never tell. We then cut our bacon strips in half (we got the thick cut slices from our butcher because really, why would you want to skimp on bacon?), and wrapped a half slice around each jalapeno. As if that isn't good enough, we then went ahead brushed each bacon slice with BBQ Sauce. Any BBQ Sauce will suffice. we used a couple different ones; a hickory smoked one, an original, and a hot and spicy one. After you brush the BBQ sauce on, pop them in the oven at 375* for about 25-30 minutes.

This is how they looked before they went into the oven. The ones in the back look a little different because Sean wrapped those with a whole slice of bacon. And I have zero pictures of how they looked after they were cooked because by the time they came out of the oven and I ran to get my camera, Sean and his squad had devoured more than half of them. Not even kidding. But they loved them. Sean said they were one of his favorite things that we have ever made. The BBQ sauce caramelized while they baked and they just looked delicious. Not overwhelmingly spicy but with a good kick. Deliciousness. Wrapped in bacon.