How to Make Texas Twinkies—Smoker Temps for The Perfect Bite
If you’ve ever had a Texas Twinkie, you know why we were excited to do this cook. Who wouldn’t be excited to make up a batch of these spicy/savory bites? In this post, we’ll talk about how to make the best Texas Twinkies, from method to smoker temps. This one will be delicious. Let’s get cooking.
Get the gear you need for this cook here:
What are Texas Twinkies?
Texas Twinkies the glorified, Don’t-Mess-With-Texas cousin of Jalapeño poppers. Rather than being stuffed with cream cheese, breaded, and fried, these are stuffed with smoked brisket and cream cheese, then wrapped in bacon and smoked. So, of course, they are delicious. There is practically no way in which they are not delicious.
What makes Texas Twinkies good?
The best Texas Twinkies will have good brisket, be soft enough to bite, and have bacon that is well enough rendered that it doesn’t feel raw or undercooked.
The first requirement, good brisket, is for the best Texas Twinkies. But if you’re just learning to smoke brisket and haven’t yet perfected it, this is a great place to hide some less-than-stellar meat. Of course, we hope you’ll follow our temperature guides for great brisket and end up with perfect meat, just with so much of it that you have leftovers. But if the pit does wrong by you, keep that meat, chop it up and use it here.
The second requirement, tender enough to bite easily, also leads us to a solution for the difficulty of stuffing the jalapeños. Matt Pittman of Meat Church BBQ recommends slitting the peppers open in a T-shape, then smoking them at 250°F (121°C) for 30 minutes before stuffing them. We recommend going one step further and turning the peppers halfway through cooking. This softens (and flavors) the peppers to make them easier to stuff without breaking them, and gives the final product a “cooked” texture and flavor, which is more luxurious than a raw-pepper crunch in this case.
The third requirement for properly rendered bacon has two solutions. First, use regular-cut bacon, not thick-cut bacon. Thick-cut is great for breakfast and even for sandwiches and burgers, but it’s not great for wrapping things. Second, cook it right!
Smoker temps for Texas Twinkies
To cook these treats right, you need to keep your smoker nice and low and let them go for longer than you’d expect. 250°F (121°C) is perfect, and it takes a good 90 minutes to get to where we’re going. Using your Smoke X2 and Billows BBQ Control Fan to maintain the temperature over the duration of the cook will allow you to go about your party-preparation business while these morsels slowly cook to perfection.
There isn’t a doneness temperature per se, but we’re looking for the bacon to be well rendered and the rub we apply to the outside (yes, after wrapping in bacon we apply BBQ rub!) to be set and barky.
Conclusion
These are mean tasty. If you have leftover brisket, this is a fantastic way to use it with minimal effort. Their only downside is that they take a while to cook. But with Billows and Smoke X on your side, that doesn’t even matter, because you don’t have to pay almost any attention to what’s happening. So go wild. Make a whole smoker of these treats this weekend and enjoy a different taste of Texas BBQ. Happy cooking!
Texas Twinkies Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 jalapeños
- 2 packs regular-cut bacon
- 1 block cream cheese
- 1 C chopped smoked brisket
- BBQ rub of your choice
- BBQ sauce of your choice optional
Instructions
- Use your Smoke X2 with its air probe and your Billows BBQ Control Fan to preheat your smoker to 250°F (121°C).
- Cut a T in each jalapeño and place them all on the smoker. Cook for 15 minutes, then flip them over and continue to cook for another 15 minutes.
- While the peppers smoke, mix the cream cheese and chopped brisket together in a bowl. Gloved hands work best.
- When the peppers have smoked, remove as much of the membrane and veins from inside each one as you like, knowing that the heat comes from those tissues.
- Stuff each pepper with as much filling as it can hold and still close up.
- Wrap each pepper in one or two strips of bacon so that it is well mummified.
- Season each piece on all sides with BBQ rub.
- Return the peppers to the smoker and continue to cook them at 250°F (121°C) for about 90 minutes, turning halfway through, until the bacon is well rendered and somewhat barky. Continue to monitor the temperature with your Smoke X and Billows!
- If using the BBQ sauce, now is the time to brush the bites with your favorite BBQ sauce (we like something vinegary for it) and allow them to cook another 10 minutes with the smoker lid closed to set the sauce.
- Remove the “Twinkies” from the smoker and serve to wild applause.
The. Best. Texas. Treat. Ever.
For those of us that do not have brisket available or a smoker. You can substitute pretty much any good cut of meat and cook in an air fryer. I’ve made these with mild Italian sausage or Regular sausage or ribeye! These are the first thing to go at any party / get together! Keep the air fryer temps about the same as you would a smoker.