Bacon Wrapped Armadillo Eggs
On January 03, 2023 (Updated October 24, 2023)
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These bacon wrapped armadillo eggs are a happy little jalapeno popper meatball mashup. They’re filling enough to be a main dish, but also portable enough to serve as appetizers, snacks, or tailgating munchies. If you have a BBQ need, these armadillo eggs are here to please!
What Are Armadillo Eggs?
Armadillo eggs are a Texas BBQ staple. Cream cheese-stuffed jalapenos are wrapped in pork sausage and smoked over oak wood. Each pitmaster has their own secrets to making the best armadillo eggs. Some fill them with a special blend of cheeses, some season their sausage with a secret blend of spices, and others brush theirs with BBQ sauce during the smoking process.
For this recipe, I used classic Hey Grill Hey ingredients and added a little more pork goodness to the armadillo eggs by making them bacon-wrapped armadillo eggs.
Ingredients for Armadillo Eggs
Now that you know the goodness that awaits you with this recipe, here’s what you’ll need to make them.
- 1 pound pork sausauge
- 12 slices bacon
- 6 jalapenos
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 4 ounces cheddar cheese
- 2 Tablespoons Hey Grill Hey Sweet Rub
- 1 cup Hey Grill Hey Everything BBQ Sauce
You can purchase both Sweet Rub and Everything BBQ Sauce from the Hey Grill Hey Store. If you don’t have any on hand when you go to make this recipe and you can’t wait for delivery, you can make both the rub and sauce from scratch using my recipes for Best Sweet Rub and Kansas City BBQ Sauce.
How to Make Armadillo Eggs
Alright folks, let’s get into making these tasty treats! Here’s how to make armadillo eggs.
- Preheat. Fire up your favorite smoker (offset, pellet, electric, whatever floats your boat), and preheat to 250 degrees F with your favorite hardwood like hickory, oak, or maple)..
- Stuff the jalapenos. Combine ingredients for the filling (cream cheese, in a small bowl and spoon equal amounts into the cored and seeded jalapenos.
- Wrap in sausage. Wrap the stuffed jalapenos with sausage, ensuring that each jalapeno is evenly covered. Roll back and forth to form them into an egg shape.
- Wrap in bacon. Next, wrap each sausage covered jalapeno with 1-2 pieces of bacon. Tuck the ends of the bacon to secure. You can also use a toothpick if needed, but remember to remove these beforing serving them to your guests.
- Smoke. Place the bacon wrapped armadillo eggs directly on the grill grates of the preheated smoker. Close the lid, and smoke until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F.
- Sauce. For soft bacon, remove the armadillo eggs from the smoker, brush with Everything BBQ Sauce, and serve immediately. For crispier bacon, brush on the BBQ sauce, increase the heat of the grill to 400 degrees F, and cook for 2-3 minutes to set the sauce and crisp the bacon.
- Enjoy. Rest for 5 minutes and serve warm. Dig in! These are SO GOOD!
How Long to Smoke Armadillo Eggs
It takes approximately 2 hours to smoke armadillo eggs with your smoker running steady at 250 degrees F.
This time may vary from person to person and smoke to smoke. If your sausage or bacon is thicker, plan on a bit more time to fully cook the meat. Rather than watching the clock while these are on the smoker, invest in a reliable meat thermometer and continue to smoke until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F.
Notes for Making Armadillo Eggs
- The jalapeno will retain a little crunch. Not like a raw jalapeno, but like an al dente noodle. Soft, with a little texture. If you want completely soft jalapenos, I recommend roasting them for 4-5 minutes at 450 degrees F before seeding, stuffing, and using in this recipe.
- The bacon will be soft-cooked bacon. Not soggy bacon, but not crispy either. The fat will be almost completely rendered because of the long cook time and you’ll just be able to bite right through the bacon. If you want crispy bacon, crank up the heat in your smoker to 400 degrees F for the last few minutes of cooking, or place them under the broiler in your oven for 2-3 minutes.
- If you don’t have a smoker, these can be done in the oven. Place the armadillo eggs on an elevated rack above a baking sheet (I use a flat cooling rack) and follow the same time and temperature guidelines written in the recipe.
Armadillo Eggs Recipe
Making good food should be easy, and Hey Grill Hey is here to help! Over at the Hey Grill Hey Store, we have sauces, rubs, and more to save you time and energy when you’re busy at the grill. Check it out today!
This post was originally published in October 2018. We recently updated it with more information and helpful tips. The recipe remains the same.
Bacon Wrapped Armadillo Eggs
Video
Ingredients
- 1 pound pork sausage
- 12 slices bacon
- 6 jalapenos stems, core, and seeds removed
- 1 cup Everything BBQ Sauce recipe link in notes
Armadillo Egg Filling
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 4 ounces cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 Tablespoon Hey Grill Hey Sweet Rub recipe link in notes
Instructions
- Preheat. Fire up the smoker and preheat to 250 degrees F. I used cherry wood for this recipe, but any other smoking hardwood would work (hickory, oak, maple, etc.)
- Make the filling. In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and 1 Tablespoon of Sweet Rub.
- Fill the jalapenos. Spoon some of the cream cheese filling into each of the cored and seeded jalapenos. Use the back of the spoon to press the filling all of the way into the jalapeno.
- Wrap in sausage. Wrap each jalapeno with 1/6 of the pork sausage. Use your hands to ensure the sausage is covering the entire jalapeno and roll back and forth into an egg shape.
- Wrap in bacon. Wrap each sausage covered jalapeno with bacon. It will likely take two pieces per armadillo egg. Secure with toothpicks, if needed.
- Smoke. Place the bacon wrapped armadillo eggs on the smoker over indirect heat and close the lid. Smoke until the internal temperature reads 165 degrees F. This usually takes around 2 hours, depending on the size of your armadillo eggs.
- Baste with BBQ sauce. If you want soft, bite through bacon, brush the armadillo eggs with Everything BBQ Sauce and serve immediately. If you want crispy bacon, brush the eggs with sauce and then increase the heat to 400 degrees F and cook for a few minutes. You can also transfer the eggs to a baking sheet and place them under your oven broiler for 1-2 minutes.
- Enjoy. Remove the armadillo eggs from the smoker a rest for 5 minutes before serving warm.
Notes
- Purchase it from the store HERE: Sweet Rub
- Make it from scratch using this RECIPE: Best Sweet Rub Recipe
- Purchase it from the store HERE: Everything BBQ Sauce
- Make it from scratch using this similar RECIPE: Kansas City BBQ Sauce
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
So my wife and I made these today. She is a baker. So I told her instead of using a spoon to push everything into the pepper what about a piping bag and pipe it in. Well guess what. It worked wonders. We were able to fill the peppers in maybe 2 seconds. Just an idea for everyone.
Ohhhh that is smart! I’ve made these so many times and stuffing the jalepenos is the most time consuming part.
Put the cream cheese in the freezer. Then you can mould it like play dough by rolling it in your hands like a torpedo and insert it into the pepper. Worked great. My Lady is a genius !!!
I discovered that cutting the other end off the pepper to relieve the pressure eases the stuffing process!
How would one reheat these if someone didn’t eat them all the 1st night? Asking for a friend.
I use the oven set on a low temperature.
I made these in the oven and even though I wrapped sausage all the way around them the cheese filling leaked out. Any suggestions? They still tasted great!
I’m going to be making these TODAY. i will tag you on Instagram when they are finished. I will be making a few minor changes.
Made a dozen for “dinner” tonight and they were a hit. A lot of labor to assemble but worth the effort, for certain. Had a hard time getting the jalapeno full of cream cheese and cheddar. I’ll have to use a different technique next time to get the air out of the bottom of the pepper. Can’t wait to try again!
pipe the mixture into the peppers.
Because we are just talking about sausage and bacon, couldn’t I just grill these hot and fast the whole way and decrease the cook time by about an hour? I am thinking of using a vortex on my Weber grill and placing these around the perimeter of the grate, kinda like the way folks do wings with the vortex…
Hey there! We made these for a birthday party and they were gone almost immediately. I have a question about the cheese filling. It was delicious, but didn’t have the consistency that I expected. Rather than gooey and melty, it was more solid and ‘separated,’ for lack of a better word. Did I do something wrong…maybe not mix the cheeses and rub well enough or maybe cooked them for too long? Or, is that the desired consistency? I was also thinking that the juice form the peppers as they cooked down a bit might affect the cheese. Again, the taste was great. I was just wondering if I goofed the chees somehow. Thanks for this recipe and for your fabulous site!
Jill
Jalapeno cheese on the inside and wrapped in heb hatch green chili bacon……
These are very very good I made them and my family loved them
Could you make these on a charcoal grill?
We don’t use the gas grills. And if so how long would you cook covered or uncovered?
If in the oven would you still do 2 hours?
Thank you
Yes. All the steps remain the same. You’ll need to use the air vents on your charcoal grill to help maintain the temperature of the grill. As long as you’re checking the internal temperature of the meat it’ll come out fine!
Thank you so much. I am trying to be a good Keto doobie but these look too good not to try!