These are the best, but they are not easy to make. I recommend preparing them and smoking them the first day. Then finish them off the day these appetizers are to be served.
Ingredients:
- 16 Jalapeño
- 16 ounces peeled and deveined shrimp (31-40 count)
- 1 tablespoon Cajun Seasoning (Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning)
- 1 package Philadelphia Cream Cheese
- 1 teaspoon rosemary, finely chopped
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ small green pepper (2 tbsp) – minced
- ¼ small red pepper (2 tbsp) – minced
- ½ rib celery, minced
- 1 teaspoon black pepper, cracked
- 8 ounces Andouille Sausage, diced
- 2 lbs of thin cut bacon (16 slices per package)
- 2 tbsp rendered bacon fat or olive oil.
Preparation:
Begin by rinsing the shrimp and patting them dry. In a bowl, toss the shrimp with your favorite Cajun seasoning. Cover the shrimp and let the seasoning work into them, in the refrigerator.
Prepare your smoker and set to no more than 250° F. I used the Emeril Lagasse stove top smoker with apple wood smoke chips and adjusted the temperature with an infrared thermometer.
In the meantime, remove the cream cheese from the refrigerator and allow it to come-up to room temperature. While waiting for the cream cheese and the shrimp, mince all the vegetables except the jalapeño. Sweat the minced vegetables in a skillet with bacon fat or olive oil, until soft. Remove from pan and add to a mixing bowl to cool.
Wash and then split the jalapeño peppers in half. Scoop out the seeds and ribs with a spoon (try to keep the stem intact).
In the bowl with the softened vegetables, add and mix together with the diced Andouille sausage, rosemary, parsley, cream cheese and black pepper. Set aside to build the jalapeño poppers.
Stuff all the jalapeño pepper halves with the cream cheese mixture. Then come back around and place a shrimp over the top of the cream cheese and wrap them with a slice of bacon. Dust them with more Cajun seasoning.
Place them in the freezer for 30 minutes or the refrigerator overnight.
After they harden, move them to the smoker and smoke them for 2-2 ½ hours at 250° F, per batch.
Before you can serve them, the poppers will need to cool. Return them to the refrigerator or the freezer to harden again. Just before serving, turn on your oven’s broiler to a medium low, place the rack in the upper part (not the top). In a skillet, cook the bottoms of the jalapeño popper’s until they are crispy (approx 4 -5 minutes). Transfer the jalapeño poppers to a cooking tray and broil them for about 10 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool and crisp before serving.
Big Bobby's Stuff 