Jalapeños are such a staple in Texas that I’m always trying different recipes. So for this scrumptious recipe, I combined smoked pork butt and pimento cheese. Then stuff the pork and cheese mixture in a jalapeño, wrap it in bacon, and you have a stellar appetizer, Smoked Pork Poppers. Good pimento cheese is perfect for the filling, because it has mayonnaise. And the egg in mayonnaise will set when it cooks.
Smoked Pork Poppers
Ingredients
- Smoked pork (or brisket), diced
- Pimento cheese
- Jalapeños, sliced halfway through, seeded, and deveined*
- Bacon
Instructions
- Mix equal parts smoked pork and pimento cheese.
- I made the poppers with whole jalapeños, cut halfway through like a clam shell. Fill each one with pork and cheese mixture and close the jalapeño halves together.
- Wrap each popper with a strip of bacon.
- We like the finished popper to have nicely cooked bacon. So, sometimes I precook the bacon a little, but this time I fried the bacon wrapped poppers in a frying pan. Then I cooked them in the air fryer for 6-8 minutes, until bacon was browned.
- Serve with ranch dressing.
- *About the jalapeños - this time I blanched them whole in boiling water for 2 minutes. They were easier to seed and devein.