Time for an egg recipe! However, this isn’t just any egg recipe. It’s a Smoked Chorizo Armadillo Eggs Recipe, and ironically it doesn’t contain any eggs. I teamed up with Cowboy Charcoal to cook this Texan inspired dish to perfection.
These “eggs” consist of a jalapeno with a cream cheese filling, encased in chorizo, wrapped in crispy bacon and covered in a spicy barbecue sauce! Sound like a mouthful? That’s because it is, but it sure makes for one delicious bite! Let’s talk more about it below.
Sponsored by Cowboy Charcoal
Why You’ll Love Smoked Armadillo Eggs
You might be wondering what armadillo eggs are and why this non-egg dish goes by that name. Well, let me explain. Armadillo eggs are a classic Texas BBQ staple that start with stuffed jalapeños filled with a cream cheese mixture.
The jalapeños are then encased in ground sausage and wrapped in bacon. It’s said that the bacon wrap around the jalapeño stuffed sausage looks like an armadillo shell, thus giving this great appetizer its unique name.
If you love jalapeño poppers, you’ll love these too. They have a longer cooking time, but it’s so worth it! The combination of the spicy crunch of the pepper, the savory meat, and the cheesy goodness inside is what dreams are made of.
Ingredients
For the Armadillo Eggs, you’ll need a block of cream cheese and shredded cheddar cheese for the filling, as well as some slices of bacon and pork chorizo sausage to wrap around the outside of the jalapeno peppers.We’ll coat them in a homemade spicy BBQ sauce made out of ketchup, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, chipotle puree, hot sauce, and agave nectar.
How to Make Smoked Armadillo Eggs With Chorizo
I start this recipe by cleaning and deseeding all six of my jalapeño peppers with a paring knife. Then, in a large bowl, I combine cream cheese and shredded cheese, just like if you were making jalapeño poppers. Cream cheese is a great option for a recipe like this because it’s soft and malleable. I added in the shredded cheese to bring sharpness and texture to the filling, but you could stick to just cream cheese if you like.
Next, stuff the spicy jalapeños with the mixture of cream cheese and cheddar cheese. Now, these armadillo eggs are ready to be covered in sausage.
Chorizo was my sausage of choice for this recipe because I love the savory spice it brings to the dish. One by one, I carefully wrapped and pressed the uncooked sausage around the cheese stuffed jalapeños, forming them into an egg shape. How much sausage meat to use is really up to you! If you want larger “eggs” then use more chorizo, or if you want to enjoy these as more of an appetizer then use less chorizo for smaller “eggs”.
For more with chorizo, check out my Chorizo Breakfast Burrito, Bacon Wrapped Chorizo Dogs and Smoked Chorizo Queso.
The last step for these Smoked Chorizo Armadillo Eggs is to wrap them in bacon. It’s basically a proven fact that anything wrapped in bacon is inherently better. These chorizo armadillo eggs are no different! I used two to three slices of bacon per armadillo egg and secured it with a toothpick.
How to Smoke Armadillo Eggs
Now that the unbaked armadillo eggs are complete, we will move to the smoker.
It’s so important to preheat the smoker before cooking on it. You wouldn’t try to cook anything in your oven without preheating it, so don’t try it with your smoker either! I filled my charcoal basket to the brim with Cowboy Charcoal and watched those orange embers bring this smoker to life. Wait until the smoker reaches 250 degrees Fahrenheit and then dump in the charcoal. You can also add in some woodchips for added smoke flavor. Then add the chorizo armadillo eggs onto the smoker.
While the chorizo armadillo eggs are smoking, let’s make the spicy barbecue sauce! All I did was toss all the barbecue ingredients into a cast iron sauce bowl and stirred them together. It’s best to do this early in the cooking process so that the sauce has time to simmer and combine.
The Final Touches
Cook the bacon-wrapped armadillo eggs until the internal temperature of the sausage reaches 165 degrees F. It took a little less than two hours for my eggs to reach that temperature. Before pulling them from the grill, use a basting brush to coat each egg in that spicy barbecue sauce.
For more bacon wrapped goodness, check out my Maple Bacon Bourbon Salmon Bites, Honey Bacon BBQ Chicken Lollipops and Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon with Garlic Shrimp.
Then, I actually removed them from the grill, pulled up the coal basket within the smoker and placed the eggs back on the grill for a final sear. This will help crisp up that bacon on the outside, and who doesn’t love some crisp to their bacon?!
After the final sear, I gave each egg one more coat of my favorite BBQ sauce and then pulled them from the grill. I served them each individually and loved slicing them right down the middle to reveal the cheesy jalapeño on the inside. You’ll be coming back for these delicious appetizers over and over again.
Cheers!
For more delicious, easy recipes, check out my second cookbook Flavor X Fire or my first cookbook Food X Fire!
Needing more spice in your life? My spice line can help with that. Check them out here.
Smoked Armadillo Eggs Recipe
Ingredients
Armadillo Egg:
- 1.5-2 lbs of Ground Pork Chorizo Sausage
- 15-20 Slices of Bacon
- 6-8 Jalapeños cored and seeded
- 1.5 cups of Cream Cheese
- 1 cup of Shredded Cheese
Spicy BBQ Sauce:
- ½ cup of Ketchup
- 2 tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1.5 tbsp of Soy Sauce
- 1 tbsp of Chipotle Puree
- 2 tsp of Hot Sauce
- 1.5 tsp of Agave Nectar
Instructions
- Begin by mixing together the cream cheese and the shredded cheese. Add that mix to the cored & seeded jalapenos. Stuff them completely full. Taking a large handful of chorizo, encase each jalapeno in ground chorizo until completely covered. Do not add too much as this will cause you to have to cook longer. Finally, wrap each Armadillo Egg in 2-3 slices of bacon making sure to secure them with toothpicks. Set everything to the side until ready to cook.
- Preheat a grill with Cowboy Charcoal for indirect cooking at 250F. Add some wood chips or chunks for added smoke flavor.
- Add your armadillo eggs to the smoker to cook for 2 hours or until they reach 165F internal on the ground meat. Try to prevent flare ups as the bacon will want to cause them. About 30 minutes before the eggs are done, add a basting skillet with all the ingredients for the Spicy BBQ Sauce to the smoker. Let that blend together until the eggs are done.
- When the eggs are done, glaze each one in BBQ sauce and pull off the smoker. Crank up the heat in the smoker to 400F. Sear off each Armadillo Egg for 30 seconds a side to crisp up the bacon. Pull off and rest for 2-3 minutes
- Finish by glazing all sides with more BBQ Sauce and enjoy!
