Now this was a tasty assignment!
Soon, will be on the "Shots or Hots" show with
. Since I haven't drank alcohol in over nine years, there will be no coin flip to decide whether we are doing shots or eating spicy food. Therefore, we wanted to prepare something special. On the "hots" side of things,
has some very spicy hot sauces that would normally be applied to chicken wings or something, but we wanted to have something a little more "peppery..." Hence, my prototypes!
LET THE R&D BEGIN!
First I took some Jalapenos. We wanted to try a smaller, spicier version of some sort of Chile Relleno or stuffed pepper. By swapping the Poblano Pepper out for Jalapenos, I was able to increase the heat while reducing the side. Serrano Peppers would have been even spicier, but they are so slender they would have not had much room for stuffing, so I went with the Jalapeno. If it was later in the year, I'd have some other options growing, but at the moment I had to resort to the grocery store.
Step number one was halving them. I wanted to prepare twenty individual snack sized peppers for the show, plus a few extra to sample and make sure that they were worthy.
After halving the peppers I had to make room for the stuffing. Out came the insides of the peppers and the seeds. Now it was time to get deliciously creative.
I wanted a mixture of meat and cheese, so the first ingredient to add was some browned ground beef. This is so tasty anyway, I could just eat it plain.
To help keep the meat and cheese in the pepper, I also chose to add some turkey bacon to it. My goal was to wrap them in turkey bacon so that the inside ingredients would be locked in place.
A FEW TASTY PHOTOS
Here are a few photos of what they looked like before they went into the oven. Personally, I like looking at stuff like this!
TIME TO COOK!
The next step was to get these into the oven so we could cook them and then try them! I love a hot, hot treat, or should I say one that is spicy (hot) and heated (hot)?
Soon the cheese was melting and the turkey bacon was crisping. The smell was enticing! Here are a few photos of the final product.
THE TASTE TEST - MY FAVORITE PART OF THE RESEARCH
Yes, now was the moment that I had been waiting for! What would they taste like? Would they be delicious? Would they be spicy? Did I mess the whole thing up? Would I have to try again?
Thankfully, these were amazing! Not only will they work great for the show, but I'm definitely going to make them again. Not only did I like them, but did too.
In fact, we ate every last "extra" one! I can't wait to cover them in incredibly hot hot sauces and get interviewed by . If you haven't already seen any of the episodes of "Shots or Hots" head over to the
page right now and check a few out. Soon enough, you'll be able to see
on the show!
As always, I'm
and here's the proof:
proof-of-successful-prototypes