Barbecued Bacon Wrapped Hot Peppers

I present to you barbecued bacon wrapped hot peppers.

This photo of the giant pile of beautiful red hot peppers I harvested from my sister’s garden prompted a few suggestions for all the delicious things I could make with hot peppers. On the list was hot pepper jelly, pickled hot pepper rings, dried peppers, hot sauce (still searching for the perfect hot sauce I can can) and so on.

My friend Dennis suggested stuffing them with goat cheese, wrapping them in bacon and roasting on the BBQ. Having seen fellow Winnipeg foodie and blogger Jaime at Claudia’s Cookbook do something equally delicious with cream cheese, bacon and jalapenos in the oven, I knew I had to try it.

I like hot peppers, but I don’t like them so hot that I can’t eat them or taste anything else because my mouth is on fire. My sister wasn’t sure what type of hot peppers these were, so careful taste tests were in order. As I worked my way from the tip to the stem end, these peppers got hotter and hotter. About half way up, I started reaching for the milk. That was my cue to remove the inner membranes or ribs and seeds before stuffing these peppers.

For presentation, I wanted to keep the stem on the pepper and keep the pepper whole rather than cutting it in halves. I accomplished this by slicing lengthwise and then part way around the stem. Cutting out the ribs and removing the seeds was fairly easy after that.

I stirred up the chèvre or goat cheese to soften it a little and then spread it into the peppers. Because these were fairly large peppers, I didn’t fill the entire cavity with cheese, they were about half full I’d say.

I didn’t worry too much about being neat and tidy, after all I was still going to wrap them in bacon. See.

Using water soaked wooden skewers or metal skewers to hold the bacon in place would likely be a wise thing to do. But I couldn’t find any in my “everything” drawer and the BBQ was waiting, so I just wrapped the bacon around and plopped them on the barbecue as is.

It worked out just fine. Using tongs, I was able to rotate them and get the bacon to stay wrapped.

Bacon on a barbecue smells amazing! It does, however, require supervision, so don’t go far when roasting these beauties. Your peppers will be ready when the bacon is done. Expect the cheese to ooze a little and your peppers to char slightly if any one spot is exposed to direct heat too long. It took about 8-10 minutes.

When you’re plating them, tuck the bacon in and get ready to enjoy!

Here’s a close up. Unlike their smaller jalapeno cousins which you could eat in one bite, these required several bites so I recommend a plate, knife and fork. That barbecued bacon with the creamy cheese and the slightly spicy peppers – oh yeah, these were good!

Here’s a condensed version of the steps I just went through.

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Barbecued Bacon Wrapped Hot Peppers

Prep : 8 minutes mins

Cook : 10 minutes mins

Total Time: 18 minutes mins

Ingredients

• 8 hot peppers
• 8 slices of bacon
• 4 ounces goat cheese

Instructions

• Wash and dry hot peppers.
• Slice lengthwise through one side of the pepper to open it, do not cut in half. Cut part way around the stem to create an opening for you to remove the seeds and membranes, but not so much that the stem gets cut off. (see photo in main post)
• Remove seeds and membranes to take some of the heat out of the peppers - if you want them extra hot, keep them in!
• Soften goat cheese by stirring and working it in a small bowl.
• Spread about 1/2 ounce into each pepper. The pepper doesn't have to be stuffed full.
• Starting on one end, wrap a slice of bacon around each pepper.
• Place on a heated BBQ grill.
• Grill for 8 to 10 minutes, rotating as needed until bacon is cooked through.
• Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Too much flame? Set your peppers on aluminum foil on top of the grill.

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Do you like hot peppers? Would you try these?

Want to learn more? How about a seasonal food workshop with Getty? Call today as fall dates are booking quickly. Getty Stewart is an engaging speaker and writer providing tasty recipes, time-saving tips, and helpful kitchen ideas to make home cooking easy and enjoyable. She is a Professional Home Economist, author of Manitoba’s best-selling Prairie Fruit Cookbook, Founder of Fruit Share, mom and veggie gardener.