Just say the words, Jalapeño Popper and my mouth instantly starts watering, so when I spotted this idea, I thought it would work perfectly with our rubs and sauces. After all what could be better than a Jalapeño Popper stuffed inside a chicken breast, wrapped in bacon, dusted in rub and glazed with BBQ sauce! If that wasn’t enough, cooking it in the smoker just takes it to another level!

Ingredients

70g Cream Cheese

20g Grated Mild Cheddar

2 Tbsp Pitmaster BBQ Rub

2 Jalapeño Chillies

2 Large Chicken Breasts

8 Pieces Streaky Bacon

Carolina BBQ Sauce or Chipotle & Bourbon BBQ Sauce

Method

• In a bowl mix together the cream cheese, grated cheddar and 1 tablespoon of Pitmaster BBQ Rub (Save the rest for dusting over the top), until combined.
• Slice the jalapenos in half (length-ways) and de-seed. You can leave them whole and de-seed but cutting them in half allows plenty of room for extra cream cheese mixture.
• Fill each half of the Jalapeno chilli with the cream cheese filling (be generous), match back up to each other to make a fully stuffed pepper.
• Slice the chicken breast down the centre to make a large pocket to stuff the Jalapeno into.
• Take the streaky bacon and flatten out with the flat of the knife to make the bacon longer. Wrap the streaky bacon around the chicken. Depending on the size of the breast you will probably need around 4 pieces of bacon per breast.

• Dust the bacon wrapped chicken with the remaining Pitmaster BBQ Rub and place in the fridge until you are ready to cook
• Cook the chicken on a tray in the smoker until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit. This took around 75-90 minutes on ours.
• During the cooking process baste the chicken with the Carolina BBQ Sauce. We also used whiskey oak wood chips in the smoker which gave a great flavour.

Serve with sides of your choice and pour over some of those tasty pan juices. We served with a green salad and potato salad.