Pork shoulder is perfectly suited for making Jalapeño poppers due to its long, fibrous texture. This cut of meat allows you to break it apart into long pieces that conform easily to the pepper shape and still remain intact when stuffed into a Jalapeño. Also, the fat rendered from pork shoulder can be brushed on before roasting for added porky flavor.
If you don’t love spicy food and aren’t crazy about the idea of consuming such a hot pepper, no need to worry for a few of reasons. Reports show that Jalapeños are not as spicy as the used to be. Long story short … Jalapeños that come to us in mainstream United States grocery stores have been bred to become more tame over the years. We’re also removing the seeds and inner ribs, which is where much of the spiciness is contained. To balance out the spiciness of Jalapeño peppers, choose a sweet barbecue sauce to fill the pepper half-way before inserting the pork, so it oozes out while roasting.
Use an apple corer to remove the Jalapeño ribs and seeds.
Pork Shoulder-Stuffed Jalapeño Poppers
Ingredients
- Jalapeño peppers
- 1 recipe of Adobo Roasted Pork Shoulder
- sweet barbecue sauce
- olive oil
- kosher salt
- black pepper
Instructionsfor jalapeño poppers
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cut the tops off of the jalapeños and remove the inner ribs and seeds with an apple corer.
- Break apart pork shoulder into pieces suitable for each pepper’s shape, combining pieces if needed.
- Dip pork in barbecue sauce, then fill peppers.
- Line a baking sheet with foil and coat with olive oil. Place stuffed peppers in rows making sure they are not touching. They need a little space around them to roast effectively.
- Brush all sides peppers with olive oil or pork fat rendered from the shoulder. Sprinkle all sides of peppers with kosher salt and black pepper.
- Roast at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. If you prefer a more charred pepper, feel free to briefly put them under a broiler.
