A new barbecue needs to be put to work as soon as possible, that’s the rule. So when we had a new Weber kettle, we had a fun recipe to break it in.
The jalapeño popper is the perfect snack, and the jalapeño popper chicken breast is a chicken breast filled with cream cheese and jalapeño, wrapped in bacon. If that doesn’t sound delicious, we don’t know what does.
The trickiest part of this recipe is slicing the chicken breast. Lay it flat and make a horizontal cut into the meat. If you accidentally cut through the breast, don’t worry; the bacon will help hold it together.
Then, fill the chicken with a mixture of cream cheese, grated cheese, and jalapeño pepper. You can make the filling as spicy or cheesy as you like. Stuff in as much as possible while ensuring the cut remains sealed.
Wrap each chicken breast with three slices of bacon and sprinkle them with a layer of the dry rub. The bacon helps seal any gaps in the chicken breast, preventing the cheese from escaping as it melts. However, your barbecue will still get messy.
We created two zones by placing a starter full of briquettes on one side of the grill. We cook the chicken breast on the indirect side, and above the glowing coals, we grill a few corn cobs.
Having two zones gives you more flexibility to cook your dishes differently by simply moving them around. It also allows you to move the food to a cooler area if it’s cooking too quickly and risks burning.
The chicken breast is perfect with a core temperature of 70°C(158F). At this point, the chicken is fully cooked and at its juiciest. Using a core thermometer eliminates the need to guess or cut into the meat to check doneness.
As you can see, we didn’t entirely succeed in keeping the melting cream cheese inside the chicken breast. But that’s perfectly fine; it won’t affect the taste, and the grill was meant to get dirty. If you want to keep it clean, you could have placed a sheet of aluminium foil under the chicken.
This is our jalapeño popper chicken breast. Let us know if you decide to make them in the comments below. Even better, take a photo and post it on Instagram. Tag @bbqhelden so we can see what you’ve created.
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts
- 100 grams of cream cheese
- 50 grams of grated aged cheese
- 2 jalapeño peppers
- 6 slices of bacon
For the Dry Rub
- 2 tsp paprika powder
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp onion granules
- 2 tsp dried mustard
- 2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Slice the chicken breasts open to create a pocket for stuffing.
- Remove the seeds and membranes from the jalapeño peppers and chop them into small pieces.
- Mix the cream cheese, grated cheese, and jalapeño pieces. Fill both chicken breasts with this cheese mixture.
- Wrap each chicken breast with 3 slices of bacon.
- Combine the ingredients for the dry rub and sprinkle it over the stuffed chicken breasts.
- Preheat the barbecue for indirect cooking at around 200°C(392F).
- Place the chicken breasts on the indirect side and insert a thermometer into one of them.
- Cook the chicken until it reaches a core temperature of 70°C(158F), then let it rest for 5 minutes.
