Questions about poppers

[antrocks22]

So we are having a fantasy football draft/ summer slam party on Sunday night. Smoking a brisket in the early morning till afternoon, while that is resting I was planning on smoking some cream cheese bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers. My question is about the poppers, I have been doing research here on SMF but the smoking temps and cook times vary big time from user to user, what do you guys recommend. I will be using a Weber kettle. I have never smoked poppers before. Also what would the ideal wood be for them? Thanks in advance.

 

[mdboatbum]

The reason there are so many opinions on how to do them is that they really don't care what temperature they're cooked. All you need to do is get the bacon crisp. Poppers (ABT's) are generally used as filler items around here. We toss 'em on wherever there is extra space in the smoker. I usually have my pit running around 300°, so they usually take around an hour, hour and a half. Wood doesn't really matter. They have a pretty robust mix of flavors on their own, so they'll stand up to stronger woods like hickory. On the other hand, milder woods like apple will give just a hint of smoke that works well with them too.
Long story short, just make up a bunch and smoke them until the bacon gets crispy. They'll be good no matter what.

 

[antrocks22]

Perfect, that is kind of what I figured. An I was planning on using Apple and Hickory so that makes it even better.

 

[rabbithutch]

I've never timed mine. I usually put them on early enough that we can munch a few while doing the main smoking or grilling.

The first few times I did them on my Weber kettle I found that the bacon didn't cook evenly if I just laid them on the grill; so I bought a popper cooker which is a piece of metal with inch or so holes drilled in it to accommodate as many as possible. I actually tried several el cheapos but finally bought a good one. The cheapos had folding legs and were a real PITA. The one I like holds about 18 stuffed and wrapped poppers.

This one looks like it will hold more and comes with the coring tool. That little thing makes getting the ribs out so much easier than anything else I ever tried.

poppers.jpg

• rabbithutch
• Aug 20, 2015

HTH - not shilling for amazon or anyone else

 

[driedstick]

The reason there are so many opinions on how to do them is that they really don't care what temperature they're cooked. All you need to do is get the bacon crisp. Poppers (ABT's) are generally used as filler items around here. We toss 'em on wherever there is extra space in the smoker. I usually have my pit running around 300°, so they usually take around an hour, hour and a half. Wood doesn't really matter. They have a pretty robust mix of flavors on their own, so they'll stand up to stronger woods like hickory. On the other hand, milder woods like apple will give just a hint of smoke that works well with them too.
Long story short, just make up a bunch and smoke them until the bacon gets crispy. They'll be good no matter what.

 

[JckDanls 07]

FOR ME ... I like smoking at 225` ... I also do them "ABT" style instead of popper style ... at 225 they take 2 -2.5 hrs.. this way the pepper gets cooked through instead of still being hard and crunchy as is what happens when cooked fast ... I also find it is easier to handle them after cooked if I just remove the whole rack full from the smoker and let them sit for awhile to firm up a little bit before stacking in my pan ...

 

[worktogthr]

I do poppers and and bacon wrapped meatballs on the kettle all the time. I usually use my charcoal holders and put them right in the middle of the kettle with about 3/4 of a chimney of kbb which gives me a temp of about 350. Throw a piece of smoking wood on the coals and place the poppers around the outside. Just leave em till the bacon gets crispy! You'll love them!

 

[antrocks22]

Thanks for all the excellent advice. Just made this at work this morning out of aluminum (we didn't have any stainless). Holes are 1"D. I might make another with 1.25" holes for the really big Jalapenos. But I want to see how this works. The Al is .2" thick, kinda beefy for poppers. I am interested to see how it will conduct heat.

20150821_085346.jpg

• antrocks22
• Aug 21, 2015