Jalapeño Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Thighs
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
In my humble opinion, the best part of the chicken is the thigh. There is plenty of fat to keep it moist and of course the fat is where the flavor is. Unfortunately it is not the healthiest part so this should be a treat, not an everyday staple;-) These smoked chicken thighs are seasoned front and back with my original rub then stuffed with strips of fresh jalapeño and a good sized dollop of cream cheese.
To hold everything together, we wrap a single slice of thin bacon around the chicken thigh and smoke them until done. If you like, they can be glazed with my thick, tasty barbecue sauce to take them to the next level of delicious.
I'm not even going to tell you how many of these I ate.. they were SO good!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Smoker Temp: 275°F
- Meat Finish Temp: 170-175°F
- Recommended Wood: Hickory or Pecan
- 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- Jeff's original rub
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 4 fresh jalapenos, cleaned, deseeded
- 8 slices of thin bacon
- ½ to ¾ stick of butter
- Muffin pan with at least 8 holes. Large rectangles are best.
- Jeff's original barbecue sauce
Clean and deseed the jalapeño peppers. Then cut them into strips that are about ¼ inch wide.
I got (6) strips out of each pepper.
Open the 8 ounce box of cream cheese and lay it on a cutting board. Use a knife to cut it in half, then cut the 2 pieces in half, then cut the 4 pieces in half. You'll end up with (8) pieces that are equal in size.
Set the peppers and cream cheese aside.
The thighs I purchased had a considerable amount of fat on them so I used some kitchen shears in tandem with a sharp knife to remove most of this.
Lay the thighs flat on a cutting board and season the inside liberally with Jeff's original rub .
With the seasoned thighs laying out flat, lay a piece of the cream cheese and 2-3 strips of the jalapeno pepper in the center.
Fold the thighs over the top of the “stuffing” and they are ready to wrap in bacon.
You will need a single slice of thin bacon for each chicken thigh. Stretch the bacon a little if you can to make it longer and this will give you more wrapping capability.
Hold the stuffed thigh in your hand and wrap a piece of stretched bacon around the thigh to hold it together.
As you finish wrapping the thighs with bacon, place each one in a hole in the muffin pan. This will help to hold it together and give it great shape.
If you do not have a muffin pan, carefully lay them on a Weber grill pan for easy transport to and from the smoker.
If you like, you can purchase this pan on Amazon.
Give them another good sprinkling of Jeff's original rub for great flavor.
Most who make these place a pat of butter on top of each one for flavor and moisture.. I rarely say no to butter ;-)
I just happened to have ¾ stick of butter in the fridge and I cut it into 8 equally sized pieces.
Setup your smoker for cooking at about 275°F with indirect heat. If your smoker uses a water pan, fill it up.
I recommend letting any smoker preheat for 30-60 minutes before using it as this allows all of the metal to heat up and that helps to maintain heat and to recover faster when you open the door or lid.
I used the Camp Chef Woodwind pellet grill for these chicken thighs but any smoker will work great as long as it can maintain the temperature adequately. You can definitely cook these at lower temperatures if you need to but it will take longer.
See my review on the new Camp Chef Woodwind WiFi
Once the smoker is preheated and ready to go, it's time to smoke!
The cooking instructions include (2) sub steps.. cooking them for about 40 minutes at 275°F then foiling them to tenderize and finish.
Place the muffin pan of wrapped chicken thighs on the smoker grate and leave them for about 40 minutes. This is to get them to about 145-150°F and to get some smoke on them.
After this, cover the muffin pan with a piece of foil to let the thighs tenderize and finish cooking. I recommend using a leave in thermometer such as the “Smoke” by Thermoworks to monitor them. This process will only take about 20-25 minutes tops for them to reach 170-175°F.
Once they finish, use a instant read thermometer such as the handy dandy Thermapen which reads in just 2-3 seconds to check each one and make sure they have reached at least 165°F with an optimum temperature of 170-175°F for tenderness.
Remove the chicken thighs from the muffin pan with a fork and lay them on a Weber grill pan, cooling rack or even a cookie sheet.
Coat each piece of chicken liberally with my original barbecue sauce (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled sauce) using a basting brush. You can also dip the thighs in the sauce if you like.
Place the thighs back in the smoker at 275°F for about 10-15 minutes to set the sauce.
Bring them in the house and serve them up immediately.
Jalapeño Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 8 boneless (skinless chicken thighs)
- Jeff's original rub
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 4 fresh jalapenos (cleaned, deseeded)
- 8 slices of thin bacon
- ½ to ¾ stick of butter
- Muffin pan with at least 8 holes. Large rectangles are best.
- Jeff's original barbecue sauce
Instructions
- Clean and deseed the jalapenos then cut them into ¼ inch strips. Cut the block of cream cheese into 8 equally sized pieces. Set aside.
- Clean the fat from the boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Lay them flat on the cutting board and season liberally on the inside with Jeff's original rub .
- Lay a piece of the cream cheese and 2-3 pieces of the jalapeno strips in the center of each thigh and fold over to close.
- Wrap a piece of stretched bacon around each chicken thigh to hold it closed. Place the stuffed and wrapped thighs into the holes of a muffin pan to help them hold their shape while they cook.
- Season the top of the thighs with Jeff's original rub and lay a small pat of butter on top of each.
- Preheat the smoker to 275°F using indirect heat and hickory or pecan for smoke.
- Once the smoker is ready, place the pan of chicken onto the grate of the smoker and let them cook for about 40 minutes.
- After 35-40 minutes, cover the pan with a piece of foil to tenderize the chicken and let them continue cooking for about 20-25 minutes or until they reach 170-175°F.
- When they are finished, remove from the pan and lay them on a cooling rack, cookie sheet or Weber grill pan. Coat with Jeff's barbecue sauce and continue cooking for about 10 minutes to let the sauce set.
- Remove from the smoker and serve immediately.
Jeff this is a great, the only thing i did differently was i pounded out the chicken a bit. You get a more uniformed thigh and with a little practice you can close up the ends so the cheese does not leak out. In a couple cases I just put smaller pieces of bacon on the ends then wrap another piece of bacon around the the thigh. Know leeks at all and they were GREAT. Thanks for your recipes keep them coming.
Are these your original recipe? I don’t remember using a pan in the past. I used to make the stuffed jalapeno popper thighs wrapped in bacon for the guys I worked with and I just cooked them on the smoker grate. That is how I cooked them tonight but also added a chunk of cheddar in with it!
Jeff,
These were great! I followed the recipe to the T. Only thing I had a question on was once I foil covered, it seemed that all the cream cheese just melted away. Did I foil for too long?
I will definitely add this to my regular rotation.
Awesome and easy… Made this for dinner yesterday/Sundays, family loved it. Easy fast taste Great.
The thigh is also my favorite piece and I will definitely try this recipe. If I use a fine grate or rack to smoke on, would I still need to wrap the chicken after attaining 150 degrees? I’ll be using my Masterbuilt electric smoker.
Wrapping in foil is optional and it will work just fine even if you choose not to cover it.
Made this last night, used maple wood best chicken I have ever had!
Great recipe and very easy to make. My guests were impressed
This looks great, I’m going to cook this for Memorial Day. One question, Do you not brine the chicken? Every time I’ve smoked chicken with one of your recipes it says to brine before smoking.
Allen,
You are correct and I generally do.. I chose to not do that in this recipe since chicken thighs have lots of fat in the meat and brining doesn’t benefit them as much as it does the leaner pieces. Having said that, as a general rule, it never hurts to brine chicken regardless of what cut it is.
If you choose to brine these beforehand, do so for about 3 hours in the fridge then rinse and season them up.
This is a great recipe. My wife doesn’t think she likes smoked meats, and has asked me to make these several times since I first made them for New Years Eve.
This recipe reminds me of a café in Waco Texas that has an almost identical item. Every time we are there we order some for an appetizer. They are great and I am looking forward to preparing your version.
I just made these last night (minus the bacon) and they were so awesome!!!
I used mesquite and pecan.
I used a disposable cup cake tin for easy cleanup.
I was skeptical about the BBQ sauce, but it added that bit of sweetness that complimented the rub.
It did take longer than 1 hour to get to temperature. Always use a thermometer to check meat temp.
BRAVO!!!! Great recipe.
Jeff I really want to try the Jalapeño Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Thighs. I would like to find some muffin tins like the ones pictured but cant seem to find any. Do you know where I can order some? Thanks.
Hey Paul. I found rectangle shaped muffin pans on Amazon.com. You may have as well since this is 2 months after your post … in any event, Amazon is where I first check for a lot of things I can’t find elsewhere. This recipe is simply outrageously good.