My first crack at ABTs

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manchester bob

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Dec 31, 2012
126
15
Manchester, Maryland.
Well, I promised my buddy in South Carolina that I was going to attempt to cook ABTs this weekend. Made a couple of mistakes already: one good, one bad.

The good mistake: My wife is the cream cheese eater in the house: every morning, with a bagel. I bought some for the ABTs, and when I got home, I noticed that the color of the container was different. Turned out that I had bought "whipped"cream cheese. Man, that stuff was easy to spread! I didn't even know that it existed.

The bad mistake: I found out that you don't want to use your thumbnail to scrape the ribs and seeds out from the Jalapenos. Yowza, that burns!
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On to the Q-view. Split the Jalapenos length-wise, added the cream cheese, and being from Maryland, I had to sprinkle a little Old Bay on 'em.


Then, added the weenies. These were hard to find for some reason, and the only ones I could find were all-beef.


Finally, wrapped in bacon and toothpicked.


They're sitting in the fridge for now. I'm going to smoke indirect on my Weber kettle and give the WSM a break. I'll be taking these to my neighbor's party. Thank goodness there's a pool: it's hot as heck here!

I'll post the final product later in the evening. Have a good Saturday, everyone!
 
Lookin good!  The first few times i made abt's i used lil smokies and now have decided i like them better without.  Have used old bay a few times also, old bay is good on just about anything!  Post some pics of the finished product!
 
Lookin good!  The first few times i made abt's i used lil smokies and now have decided i like them better without.
Thanks! I checked two local grocery stores and the Super Walmart for smokies. No one had any. I had to settle for BJ's, and of course, they sell these things in three-packs. I was tempted to do some without, but since I have so many of these.......
 
these things aught to be awesome... just a couple of suggestions if you were to make them again.... wear latex gloves when cleaning and assembly... I don't cut the tops off so when you slice them in half , try to slice the stem in half as well.. they act as a little handle... but also if you don't cut the tops off it makes like a little canoe after cleaning seeds and veins out.... it will help hold all the cheese in instead of the cheese running out from where you cut the top off and going all over your smoker.... when I wrap the bacon.. I cut the whole pack of bacon in half... use a half of slice and start it at one end and as you wrap work your way back to the other end.. pulling pretty tight as you go... this will create the spiral affect and cover the whole pepper....
 
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JckD: Thanks for the advice! They were a huge hit, and everyone's asking for the recipe. (Well, at least all of the people that will eat a Jalapeno. I didn't think that they were that hot, but they do catch up on you!)

I wish I had more fixings to do another batch. The party's still going on...just had to come home to haul the kids somewhere.

When I cut the tops, I cut them very close, and was careful to cut a crescent moon shape off the end. I really didn't lose that much cream cheese! It seemed like the hot fire early on created a crust on the outside of the cream cheese and held it together pretty well. I do like the idea of the stem as a handle.

I did cut the bacon in half. The Jalapeno's were bigger than they may appear, and I really had to stretch the bacon to literally make ends meet. I thought about the spiral, but the bacon wasn't long enough. Maybe next time I'll cut a third off, chop it and fry it, and add it to the cream cheese. Then, I'll have 2/3 of a slice for a spiral wrap.
 
This morning I harvested enough fresh jalapenos to fill a gallon size ziploc bag.
Thinking of using SPAM, cream cheese, and smoked white cheddar as a filler.
Gonna use the Weber gas grill for ~ 250 deg F heat and a hickory pellet filled AMNTS for smoke.
Can't wait!


FOR ME..... 200`-225` works better.. the reason being.... when you cook ABT's at a hotter temp (250` for example).. sure, the bacon cooks quicker but there lies the problem... the pepper itself didn't get time to cook... at lower temps the pepper cooks to a softer texture (unless you like the crunch of a raw pepper) without the bacon being overcooked....
 
FOR ME..... 200`-225` works better.. the reason being.... when you cook ABT's at a hotter temp (250` for example).. sure, the bacon cooks quicker but there lies the problem... the pepper itself didn't get time to cook... at lower temps the pepper cooks to a softer texture (unless you like the crunch of a raw pepper) without the bacon being overcooked....

Thanks, I'll shoot for 225!
 
Suie: Thanks! Actually, my neighbor (the husband) can't eat spicy foods, but his wife loved them. They were wondering if there was an alternative...I didn't think about baby bells. I'll have to tell them!
 
but if you clean all the seeds and veins out there is no spice left.... it's the seeds and veins that the heat comes from... just make sure you scrape out anything that's white
 
but if you clean all the seeds and veins out there is no spice left.... it's the seeds and veins that the heat comes from... just make sure you scrape out anything that's white
JckD: Thanks...I might not have gotten every slice of vein out, but I did get all of the seeds out. I didn't think they were that spicy, but they did catch up on you after eating a few. There are some folks that cringe when they hear the word "Jalapeno", regardless of how mild you try to prepare them.

Personally, I wouldn't want to take the "A" out of "ABT" anyway, but my neighbor might.
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