Smoked Turkey and Cranberry Stuffed ABT’s
Smoking-Meat.com is supported by its readers. We may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you if you buy through a link on this page.
Read this article without ads
You may know what ABT's are.. jalapeños stuffed with cream cheese, wrapped in bacon and smoked for about 3 hours. They are so amazingly delicious and one of my favorite appetizers.
Take this same concept and add some leftover smoked thanksgiving turkey and some cranberry relish and you have smoked turkey and cranberry stuffed ABT's. This is a great way to use up some of that leftover turkey from Thanksgiving dinner.
- Preparation time: 30 minutes
- Cook time: 3 hours
- Smoker temperature: 225-240°F (107-116℃)
- Meat finish temperature: N/A
- Recommended wood: Cherry
- 16-24 jalapeno peppers*
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1 cup leftover smoked turkey, pieces, chunks, etc.
- ½ cup cheddar cheese, shredded
- 2 TBS cranberry relish
- 1/3 cup Jeff's Original rub
- Bacon, cut in half or center cut
*(don't worry.. I'll also show you how to make these more mild if you don't like the hot flavor)
Wash the jalapeños..
Cut off the stem end
Use a thin blade knife or even an oyster shucker to scrape the inside of the peppers and remove the seeds and veins.
If you do not like any “hotness” in your jalapeños, consider soaking them in a citrus flavored soda for several hours to remove some of the capsaicin (the chemical in peppers that makes them taste hot)
After cleaning them, place them in a bowl and pour citrus soda over them to cover.
Soak them in this for 3-4 hours or even longer depending on how mild you want them to be.
I recommend tasting of a small bit of the stem end that you cut off to see how hot they are before deciding whether they need to be soaked or not. Some jalapeños are extremely mild while others can be a little less tame.
When the peppers are finished soaking, remove them from the soda. Save the soda if you wish to flavor brines, soups, whatever needs a little jalapeño flavor.
Hopefully you left the cream cheese on the countertop for an hour or so to soften. This will make it easier to work with.
Turkey Cranberry Cream Cheese Stuffing
- 8oz of cream cheese
- 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar
- 2 TBS cranberry relish
- ¼ cup of Jeff's original rub
- ¾ to 1 cup turkey pieces
Place all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and use a spoon to fold all of the ingredients together so that it is well combined.
Use a spoon or your fingers to press the stuffing into the open end of the jalapeño peppers making sure they are completely filled and running over the edge.
Lay a piece of bacon on the cutting board
Place one of the stuffed peppers onto one end of the bacon about 1 inch from the end.
Wrap the short end of the bacon over the top of the pepper.
Wrap the long end of the bacon over the top of the pepper and all the way around again to seal the pepper and to use up the piece of bacon.
Note: it is ok to cut the peppers in half so that you have boats. This makes it easier to stuff and wrap but allows the cheese to leak out a little more and gives you less jalapeño flavor.. your choice.
Once all of the peppers are stuffed and wrapped, place them on a pan with a rack for easy transport to and from the smoker.
Add a little more of my original rub to these just before placing them on the smoker.
Set up your smoker for cooking at about 225-240°F (107-116℃) for approximately 3 hours.
Use the water pan if you have one in your smoker and be sure to have enough dry wood chips, chunks for at least 1.5 to 2 hours. It is also ok to continue the smoke throughout the entire process.
I used cherry wood but almost any good smoking wood will work.
Place the pan of peppers in the smoker. You can also place the peppers directly on the grate making sure they are not able to fall through.
Cook smoke the peppers for about 3 hours or until the peppers are nice and soft and the bacon is done to your liking.
Serve the turkey and cranberry stuffed abt's right away while the cheese is still oozing and hot.
Smoked Turkey and Cranberry Stuffed ABT's
Ingredients
- 16-24 Jalapeno peppers
- 8 oz cream cheese
- Leftover smoked turkey (pieces, chunks, etc.)
- Cheddar cheese (shredded)
- Cranberry relish
- Jeff's Original rub
- Bacon (cut in half or center cut)
Instructions
Step 1: Clean and Deseed the Peppers
- Wash the jalapeños..
- Cut off the stem end
- Use a thin blade knife or even an oyster shucker to scrape the inside of the peppers and remove the seeds and veins.
Step 2: Soak the Peppers (optional)
- If you do not like any “hotness” in your jalapeños, consider soaking them in a citrus flavored soda for several hours to remove some of the capsaicin (the chemical in peppers that make them taste hot)
- After cleaning them, place them in a bowl and pour citrus soda over them to cover.
- Soak them in this for 3-4 hours or even longer depending on how mild you want them to be.
- I recommend tasting of a small bit of the stem end that you cut off to see how hot they are before deciding whether they need to be soaked or not. Some jalapeños are extremely mild while others can be a little less tame.
- When the peppers are finished soaking, remove them from the soda. Save the soda if you wish to flavor brines, soups, whatever needs a little jalapeño flavor.
Step 3: Make the Stuffing
- Hopefully you left the cream cheese on the countertop for an hour or so to soften. This will make it easier to work with.
- Turkey Cranberry Cream Cheese Stuffing: 8 oz of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar, 2TBS cranberry relish, ¼ cup of Jeff's original rub, ¾ to 1 cup turkey pieces.
- Place all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and use a spoon to fold all of the ingredients together so that it is well combined.
Step 4: Fill with Stuffing
- Use a spoon or your fingers to press the stuffing into the open end of the jalapeño peppers making sure they are completely filled and running over the edge.
Step 5: Wrap in Bacon
- Lay a piece of bacon on the cutting board
- Place one of the stuffed peppers onto one end of the pepper about 1 inch from the end.
- Wrap the short end of the bacon over the top of the pepper.
- Wrap the long end of the bacon over the top of the pepper and all the way around again to seal the pepper and to use up the piece of bacon.
- Note: it is ok to cut the peppers in half so that you have boats. This makes it easier to stuff and wrap but allows the cheese to leak out a little more and gives you less jalapeño flavor.. your choice.
Step 6: Smoke Until Done
- Once all of the peppers are stuffed and wrapped, place them on a Bradley rack or on a cookie sheet for easy transport out to the smoker.
- Set up your smoker for cooking at about 225-240 °F for approximately 3 hours.
- Use the water pan if you have one in your smoker and be sure to have enough dry wood chips, chunks or pellets for at least 1.5 to 2 hours. It is also ok to continue the smoke throughout the entire process.
- If you are not using a Bradley rack, place the peppers on the grate making sure they are not able to fall through.
- Cook smoke the peppers for about 3 hours or until they peppers are nice and soft and the bacon is done cooking.
Step 7: Serve Them
- Serve the turkey and cranberry stuffed abt's right away while the cheese is still oozing and hot.
For the cranberry relish, is that the uncooked product that is cranberry, orange and sugar?
Yes
Another alternative for those who don’t like spicy jalapenos is to use the mini sweet peppers. Many of them are big enough to stuff, and they still taste very good. Another benefit is you can do a mixture of jalapenos and sweet peppers at the same time, and guests can easily pick out the spicy ones vs the sweet ones. We’ve brought platters to parties with mixed families and kids, and it worked out great.
Can you leave out the cranberry relish?
Absolutely! We started making these to use up leftover turkey, cranberry relish, etc. and those seemed to be the items we always had.
The relish doesn’t make the dish, it’s just a great way to use it up, add a little color and sweetness and stay with the theme.
I have found that soaking the peppers in 7-Up (not diet) removes all the heat in about 45 min. I usually soak them for 20-25 min so some heat remains. (cleaned first) I will for sure try these little devils before the holidays and break them out for the crowd on Thanksgiving. Thanks so much for the recipe!
PS: don’t drink the 7-Up afterwards! haha
Tried this for Thanksgiving this year. Turned out delicious. I didn’t get them as crispy as I had liked, but will try them again. Certainly something I’ll be making more of.
Quick question. I have some family members who do not like bacon at all (don’t know where they came from!). Can you suggest a substitute for the bacon wrap?
Thank you!
Can you submit pork for the turkey?
Yes.. absolutely!
Can you put some of that Jeff’s dry rub on the bacon as well?
Jeff,
I had a dinner party of 8 last weekend – I smoked a pork crown roast per your recipe, blew them away. It was DELICIOUS, also did some mac/cheese w/bacon and asparagus.
Great meal, thanks for all your guidance.
What does ABT stand for??
Atomic Buffalo Turd ;-)
I have found that sprinkling a generous portion of your original rub on the bacon gives my ABT’s some extra WOW factor. The more rub, the better they are!