Recipe

Smoked Jalapeños Stuffed with Brisket and Cheese with Cuban Sofrito

Name: Smoked Jalapeños Stuffed with Brisket and Cheese with Cuban Sofrito
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 95 min
Total time: 135 min
Ingredients: 15 ml olive oil; 60 g very finely chopped onion; 50 g very finely chopped green bell pepper; 1 clove garlic, chopped (3 g); ¼ teaspoon cumin; ¼ teaspoon dried oregano; 10 ml sour orange juice; 12 large jalapeños, about 9-10 cm; 240 g smoked brisket, already cooked, cold, and very finely chopped; 160 g cream cheese; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; Salt, only if needed; 24 thin slices of bacon (about 360 g); ½ teaspoon sweet paprika; 90 g barbecue sauce; 20 ml sour orange juice

Cuban barbecue fusion: jalapeños stuffed with brisket, cream cheese, and sofrito, wrapped in bacon and glazed with barbecue sauce and sour orange.

CiberCubaNovember 6, 2026

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Preparation30 min
Cooking1 h 35 min
Total time2 h 15 min
Servings12 stuffed jalapeños (6 appetizer servings, 2 per person)
DifficultyMedium

In Texas, Texas Twinkies is the name given to a barbecue appetizer that has nothing sweet about it. They are whole jalapeños stuffed with brisket (smoked beef breast) and cheese, wrapped in bacon, and cooked slowly on the grill. The name is pure fun due to their elongated shape and creamy filling, but there is not a hint of dessert here.

This version is an adaptation with Cuban flavor, not a traditional recipe from the island. We add a well-reduced sofrito of onion, bell pepper, and garlic with cumin, oregano, and sour orange to the filling. The final glaze mixes barbecue sauce with sour orange to cut through the fat of the bacon and the richness of the cheese.

It is ideal for using up leftover brisket from a roast and for those backyard gatherings, birthdays, or ball games that are so common in Cuban homes in Florida, Texas, and the rest of the U.S. They are served as an appetizer, two per person.

Method

Sofrito

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Sauté the onion and green bell pepper, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and translucent.
Add the garlic, cumin, and oregano and stir for one minute. Incorporate the 10 ml of sour orange juice and let it reduce until the sofrito is thick and has no free liquid. In total, the sofrito takes about 15 minutes to cook.
Remove from heat and let the sofrito become lukewarm while you prepare the jalapeños.

Jalapeños and filling

Put on your gloves. On one side of each jalapeño, make a T-shaped cut: one short cut just below the stem and another along the length, without cutting it into two halves.
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With a small spoon, remove the seeds and white membranes through the opening. Keep the stem and base, as they are what hold the filling in place.
In a bowl, mix the brisket, cream cheese, warm sofrito, and pepper. Taste before adding salt, because the meat, cheese, and bacon already provide it.
Distribute the filling among the jalapeños, filling the cavity without forcing the opening. If your jalapeños are smaller, save any leftover filling in the refrigerator for another use instead of breaking them.
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Wrap each jalapeño with two thin slices of bacon, with little overlap between turns. If necessary, secure with a skewer. Sprinkle sweet paprika on top.
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Grill and glaze

Prepare the grill for indirect heat: place the lit charcoal on one side and leave the other zone without coals. Cover and stabilize the temperature at 165 °C (329 °F).
Place the jalapeños separated from each other in the zone without coals, cover, and cook for about 70-90 minutes. If you notice the heat is uneven, change their position on the grate halfway through cooking.
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Mix the barbecue sauce with the 20 ml of sour orange juice and brush the jalapeños during the last 10 minutes of cooking.
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Check the doneness: the jalapeño should be tender, the bacon golden, and the center of the filling at 74 °C (165 °F) on the thermometer. If you want more browning on the outside, finish for a few minutes at 190 °C (374 °F), always over indirect heat and watching that the glaze does not burn.
Remove the jalapeños and let them rest for 10 minutes. Remove all skewers before serving.

Tips and variations

Equipment needed: charcoal grill with lid, cooking grate, thermometer (instant-read is best), gloves for handling the peppers, and if necessary, 12 wooden skewers to hold the bacon in place.

Times: about 30 minutes of active work (chopping, cutting, stuffing, and wrapping), 95 minutes of cooking (15 for sofrito and about 80 on the grill, between 70 and 90 depending on your grill), and 10 minutes of resting. The prior smoking of the brisket is not included: here we use brisket that is already cooked.

If you don't have sour orange: mix two parts sweet orange juice with one part lime or lemon juice.

About the heat: removing seeds and membranes reduces it significantly, but does not always eliminate it. For a mild version, you can use mini sweet peppers with enough cavity; keep in mind that then the main ingredient changes and the dish is no longer the same.

If you don't have brisket: use a very tender roasted beef, well drained and finely chopped. This procedure always starts with meat that is already cooked. A raw brisket needs a much longer cooking time to become tender and does not serve as a direct substitute in this filling.

The bacon must be thin. If it is thick, it will not brown in time and will remain rubbery while the jalapeño overcooks.

Storage: if there are leftovers, store them in a covered container in the refrigerator. Reheat them in the oven or on the grill over indirect heat until the center of the filling reaches 74 °C (165 °F), so the bacon does not become soft. Any leftover filling can also be stored refrigerated for another use.