Atomic Buffalo Turds (ABTs)

I made Atomic Buffalo Turds [ABTs] for the first time today. Nope, I didn’t name ‘em, but I did refine ‘em a bit over the typical recipe found around the net.

Delicious. Each one is a half of a jalapeno stuffed with something meaty, something cheesy, wrapped in bacon and smoked for 45 minutes on the Big Green Egg.

They were only mildly hot as I thoroughly de-veined them. Normally, I wouldn’t do that, but there were a number of people at the gathering who don’t do hot (and I was feeling nice today).

Details on the click through…

Start with a big pile of fat jalapeno peppers. Wash and cut the stem off (but not the end).

Add a bit of cheese to each. I randomized a bit; adding one of cheddar, swiss, or herbed goat cheese to each.

Add some kind of meat. I two types; boston butt from a cook earlier in the week and Dungeness crab that I had in the freezer.

It actually worked better to put the meat in first, and then the cheese on top. The cheese will melt down through the meat.

Wrap each stuffed pepper with bacon. I used about a strip per pepper half, wrapping it around a couple of times.

No need for toothpicks to hold it together. The bacon kind of sticks to itself.

Stack the ABTs on a cookie screen or fish grid or something. Makes ‘em easier to remove once done.

Preheat your BBQ — preferably a smoker or Big Green Egg — to 300 or 325 degrees.

Put the racked and stacked ABTs in the BBQ for about 30 to 45 minutes. You will want to check them at the 25 minute mark to make sure that there isn’t a hot spot causing problems and to check the relative doneness.

Unless you have a well sealed smoking or grilling device, you will want to put some kind of drip pan under the ABTs. The bacon will drop grease all over the coals and flares up are a very real risk. Trust me — I have seen a Weber with an uncontrolled bacon fire. Not a pretty site.

Take the ABTs off the BBQ and let them sit for a few minutes. The bacon will crispy up a little bit and this will also avoid nuclear hot cheese burns.

I would suggest serving them in something wide / large. Not only does this prevent stacking and sticking, but it’ll prevent a lot of fighting over the ABTs as there will be several people reaching for them at the same time!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 12:19 am and is filed under Big Green Egg, Entertainment, Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.