Treat the fathers in your life to some great grilled poppers.  These are a tasty way to say Happy Father’s Day!

Honestly, Mike was not happy with the last recipe for poppers that I posted. I used banana/sweet peppers in the photos, and he feels they do not make the best poppers.  Mike thinks that the only pepper that should be used is jalapeño, with all membranes and seeds removed. Yes, I have been known to use sweet peppers and they turn out fine.  However, I must admit that for this recipe, I do prefer jalapeños.

So, here goes Mike’s latest poppers with crab, jalapeño peppers, cream cheese and bacon.  Delicious!

You will need:

Medium jalapeño peppers (about 3 – 3 1/2 inches in length), with seeds and membranes remove. Plan for about 2 to 3 per person, unless you are really hungry.

Chive and onion cream cheese.  You will need about a tablespoon per popper.

Bacon (we used Wright’s Bourbon Flavor bacon).  Mike uses half a slice per popper.

Crab, preferably real, but chances are you will have a hard time finding it. If you want to make Mike’s Texas Poppers, use shrimp.

Toothpicks

Wash the peppers.  Slice the peppers in half lengthwise, from top to tip.  Remove all the white membranes and seeds. This is where the heat is, so be sure you get them all out.

Slice the bacon in half.

Put about a tablespoon of the cream cheese in one side of the pepper and the crab meat in the other side, whatever will fit.

Put the sides together. Take one-half slice of bacon and wrap around the pepper. Secure by putting a toothpick in the end of the bacon, through the pepper. There is your popper!

Continue filling all the peppers. On a gas grill heated to about 400 degrees (medium high), place the popper on the upper rack of the grill. If you do not have an upper rack, cook at about 300 degrees. You only need to cook the bacon.  So you are heating the pepper, crab and cheese. You will cook the poppers for about a half hour. You want to blacken them without burning them. They must be turned every five minutes, making sure all sides are on the heat at some point.

These poppers are great as an appetizer or as a side to a grilled meat.  I hope you enjoy!

Warning: When working with jalapeños, be careful about touching your eyes or face with your hands. These will burn the fire out of you, and it will not be pretty. So do all the seed and membrane removal at once and then scrub your hands down. Mike advises that you do not rinse the open pepper with hot water because you will get the heat of the pepper in the air. Yikes!