There is no secret that I am a big fan of smoked meat. And spicy food. And bacon. And a whole lot of other stuff that either may or may not be good for me. But one of my favorite ways of bringing a whole lot of my favorite food together into one beautiful bite is through what us Texans call “Texas Twinkies”. They are very similar to what the world at-large knows as jalapeño poppers. But Texas twinkies are definitely kicked up a notch or two or three from your run-of-the-mill jalapeño popper.

One of the great things about Texas Twinkies is that they are a great way to use leftover smoked meats. I had smoked some spareribs (that post is coming soon) and had quite a bit of the delicious meat left over. I had also bought a whole mess of jalapeños to make salsa and some cowboy candy (that went horribly wrong – another story as well to tell soon). So I figured why not make some Texas twinkies using some of my leftover rib meat. Here’s what I did:

• I cut the top off of a handful of jalapeño peppers and hollowed the veins and most of the seeds.
• One long slice was made down from the top to the bottom to allow me to get as much stuffing into them as possible.
• I made a mixture of cream cheese, smoked cheddar cheese and chopped up pork rib meat, and added in some of my rib rub as well.
• This mixture got stuffed into each of those hollowed-out peppers
• I used two stips of nitrite-free bacon to wrap each twinkie up tight, using a toothpick to make sure they stayed good and wrapped tightly.
• I considered sprinkling them all with just a dusting of my rib rub, but ultimately decided against it. I know that many people will add a dry rub before they go on the smoker.
• My Traeger Texas Elite 34 was set to 225°F using oak pellets from B&B. The twinkies went on for about 45 minutes to get a good smoke bath.
• I then turned the temperature up to 425°F to crisp up the bacon. I let the twinkies keep going for another 15-20 minutes or so.
• About 10 minutes before I pulled them off, I covered half of the twinkies with a barbecue sauce & Crystal Hot Sauce mixture to give them a nice sweet and spicy extra pop.

Man were these things delicious!!