Not Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers with Quail or Dove Meat
We found this recipe in the MeatEater cookbook and added our own twist... Made for a great day of grillin' on a Fall day after a bird hunt in Columbus, TX.
Ingredients:
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 1 tbsp yellow mustard
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- 3 slices cooked bacon, chopped
- 2 scallions, chopped
- 12 jalapenos, stemmed, halved lengthwise, cored with seeds removed
- 12 dove breast fillets or 6 quail breast filets split in half lengthwise
- 1 Old Smokey Grill with the charcoal heated up to where you see the white ash on top. That means it's ready to go. Add some wood chips or better yet, and in our case, find some oak or pecan tree twigs, put them in the coals to add a nice smoke flavor.
Instructions:
Mix the cream cheese, mustard, garlic powder, cooked and chopped bacon and half of the scallions together in a bowl. Stuff the jalapenos evenly with the cream cheese mix. (Pro tip- you can make the cream cheese mixture, cover it and set it in the fridge the day before or the morning of)
Dove or quail- add a slice to the top of the cream cheese mix that is already stuffed in the half jalapeno. Now this next part requires some talent. The recipe said to just cook the poppers open faced on the grill. We still wanted some grill marks on the meat, so we started grilling the poppers meat side down for just a few minutes and then once the cheese started to melt we flipped them all back to open face on the grill for the jalapeno to cook. My buddy Nick Duhe came up with a little sweet baste mixture he had ready in a small cast iron basting pot on the grill. It could have been a mix of honey, butter and some seasonings.. Not 100% sure so let me get back to you on that one! Baste every so often to get some sweetness on the meat. Let these poppers get a little charred and the cheese get all melty (about 10 mins) and once they have cooled off from being off the grill, ENJOY.
Update- I got the baste recipe from Mr. Duhe. He found one of my mini cast iron pots in the kitchen with a basting brush and combined the basting ingredients. He melted them in the cast iron pot on top of the Old Smokey concurrently with grilling the poppers. Then he used the basting brush to brush down the meat every so often. It was a great addition!
Basting Ingredients:
- ½ cup Fig Preserves
- ½ cup Honey
- Teaspoon of Worcestershire
- 2 TBSP of olive oil
These poppers were so dang good! Grilled and served out in the countryside.