In our quest to try every fatty combination on the planet, we recently came up with another winner. The Jalapeno Popper Bacon Cheeseburger Fatty!
This idea was actually suggested by a friend through one of those mesmerizing food videos that flood social media. A lot of our cooks come that way, through videos that look challenging or fun to try.
One of our favorite snacks has become smoked jalapeno poppers. I've been making a batch almost every weekend for months it seems! This fatty idea takes the popper to a whole new level.
We started out with a couple of finely diced jalapenos (seeds & veins removed) and a small onion also finely diced. We sauteed them until the onions were translucent and the peppers slightly tender. After a quick chill in the freezer we added the diced onions and peppers to the softened cream cheese and a big handful of shredded cheese (we used Jack cheese, but whatever you like is fine).
After a good mix of the veggies & cheeses we dumped it out on a piece of plastic wrap and formed it into a cheese log. We wrapped it up tight and tossed it in the freezer to firm up- about an hour.
Once the cheese log firmed up we rolled out a layer of hot italian sausage, about a ¼ inch thick and a rectangle maybe 4 inches by 8 inches - enough that we could completely wrap the cheese log. Be sure to pinch the seams together so there are no escape routes for the cheese to find when it melts -cheese blowouts are not pretty. Once the log was wrapped we tossed it back in the freezer to firm up again.
While the sausage/cheese log was chilling, we rolled out another sheet of hamburger. We left the burger plain, but you could certainly add your favorite seasonings if you want. The burger was rolled out to a aprox ½ inch thick rectangle about 5-6 inches by 9-10 inches- again, big enough to completely wrap the sausage/cheese log.
Once the burger was rolled out we added a layer of BBQ sauce followed by 9 slices of cheese (we used provalone. next time American). We then laid the sausage/cheese on the burger and wrapped it all up into a big log of love!
The final step, before smoking - the piece de resistance- is the bacon weave. It's like a snuggly bacon blanket that wraps the whole fatty up into a beautiful package. It took the wife a couple of practice runs, but she's become a bacon weave pro!
We fired up the UDS with some charcoal briquettes and hickory chunks. I smoked this fatty at about 230-250 F for about 3 hours, flipping it over about ½ way through. I would suggest a higher temp though. Next time we’ll run in the 275 -300F range. The meat cooks pretty quickly; it's the bacon that takes time to brown, but you need to cook it fairly slowly or it will burn and curl. higher and not so slow next time.
This fatty was pretty easy to make, although it did take some time preparing. Definitely one we`ll do again soon!
