Smoking a brisket as I did yesterday can have wonderful ripple effects and ancillary benefits. Brisket scrambled eggs and brisket jalapeño poppers are two of my favorite recipes to cook with leftover brisket. Tonight’s poppers were definitely the best I’ve ever cooked personally, so I wanted to be sure and document some of the details of the cook for my own future reference!

This afternoon I prepared my standard brisket jalapeño popper recipe with a few minor changes.

I chopped and sautéed an onion, which I added to the filling. I warmed up two blocks of cream cheese (generic WalMart brand) in our microwave at 50% power for 1.5 minutes, and then added the hot, sautéed onions. That helped soften the cheese further so it was ready for stuffing.

I took several pieces of brisket “point meat” and chopped them up, and then heated them in the microwave on high for a minute. I then added the meat to the filling. Popper filling doesn’t get any better than this!

I added about 3 tablespoons of minced garlic (the remaining amount in our jar) and also chopped up an entire bunch of fresh cilantro. (Oh so fragrant!) I didn’t measure the shredded sharp cheddar cheese I added, but it was probably about a cup and a half. I mixed everything up well in our large glass measuring cup with a plastic spachula, which is much better to use than a wire whisk.

Last of all, I seasoned the filling with a generous dose of Meat Church All Purpose Gospel BBQ rub. One of my jalapeño popper inspirations and influences was this Meat Church video, which I highly commend. In it, Matt uses the All Purpose Gospel BBQ rub as a seasoning as well. I need to find a new local source for this rub, because my “standard” (Norick’s True Value Hardware just up the street from our house) has not had any of this rub in stock for over a month. The last bottle I bought I picked up at a Buc-ees in Dallas!

I was careful today to purchase REGULAR and THIN bacon, not thick cut or hickory flavored. I’m perfecting my bacon wrapping technique now, where I’m able to cover up the open end of the jalapeño with bacon and then wrap the bacon over itself. This generally does a good job to seal the end.

Another thing I did differently today was actually wear a facemask when I was cutting up the jalapeños and hollowing them out. I need to add all my favorite BBQ equipment and gear to my food blog shopping page. I use a red handled jalapeño popper coring knife which works great, and I picked up at the main Hasty Bake BBQ store in Tulsa. I’ve noticed wearing a facemask allows me to cut the peppers and not be affected by the experience. This is something I don’t think I would have ever done before COVID, but now that wearing masks is “normal” this seems to be a natural thing to do.

Instead of cooking at my “normal” 350 degrees on the smoker, I somewhat accidentally cooked these today at 400 degrees. I checked them after 30 minutes, and decided to keep them on for 15 more, so the total cook time was 45 minutes at 400 degrees. This resulted in perfectly soft and delicious jalapeños, and crispy bacon.

Shelly (my wife) teases me sometimes when I say, “This is the best barbecue I’ve ever eaten!” But I’m never kidding about this! And I’m serious when I say these were the best jalapeño poppers I’ve ever cooked, and maybe the best I’ve ever eaten anywhere. WOW!

Such a great flavor combination.

Can’t wait to cook these again AND share them with others!