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.
Stupid question, but how you serve and eat them? Slice first or whole
I serve them whole!
I stick about 5 to 6 toothpicks in them and slice them so they’re bite-sized appetizers
Whenever I’m looking for a “smoker” recipe I always end up on your site. I’ve made these multiple times and it is a huge hit every time. I’ve tried sweet peppers and jalapeños. Im making a batch now and sprinkled cinnamon on the bacon and added raspberry jam to the cream cheese!
I made these for the first time last night ever in my life. The decorating tool did not work for the cheddas cheese and cream cheese mixture. I wound up stuffing them by hand. The apple coreer didn’t work for the jalapenos. It was too big so I just used a small paring knife and did them by hand. I didn’t have the Kansas City barbecue sauce for the rub so I made my own for the recipe and it turned out excellent. I don’t have a smoker so I used a little smoke in the recipe. Little liquid smoke and then put them in the oven at 350° for an hour and 10 minutes. They turned out great. I was pleasantly surprised.
I guess the jalapeños we get in Canada are bigger, as I need two pounds of pork to cover them to the same thickness you’ve got going on in the pics. Regardless this is a must try (I use lean ground pork instead of sausage as I like to add my own spices.
Made these for super bowl party. They were a huge hit. Made 12 and people were looking for more. Thank you for making me look wonderful
I’ve been making these using sweet peppers instead of jalapeños. My wife doesn’t do spicy food. People that like spicy will eat things that aren’t,but people that don’t like spicy will not eat things that are. Most everyone that have tried these made with sweet peppers prefer them over the ones made with jalapeños.
This was perfect for CF{ championship night. I used pimento cheese (is a south GA thing) for the jalapeño pepper filling. I made a batch with hot sausage and one with mild. my wife has already asked for it during wild card weekend…
A friend of mine gave me a few of these he got from GoldBelly and i decided that this recipe was pretty darned good, but i was wrong. This recipe is AH-MAYZing! Set them up, put on my smoker for 2 hours and then offset grilled for 15 minutes and could not get over how good they were. Thanks for posting this
LOVE THIS SITE! Thank you for sharing all these great recipes! I don’t have an electric smoker, so I’ve been doing these in the oven. Made a batch with hatch peppers last week and they were a hit! In fact, I’ve brought these to two parties so far, and they are gone in minutes. I do have a question though. In the recipe it calls for two tablespoons of the rub, but then only calls for one in the cheese mix? When should I be using the other tablespoon?
Wow! Made these for a gathering this evening. They turned out wonderful; were my favorite thing on the plate. Will definitely make again.