Texas Twinkies Recipe

I should have just named my blog, “Ways To Use Up Leftover Brisket”… cause let’s face it. I spend a lot of time creating tasty new recipes from my husband’s barbecue obsession.

Oh, you’re new here? Just check out any of these recipes for my favorite ways to use leftover brisket.

Texas Brisket Queso

Brisket Walking Tacos with Chipotle Bacon Crema

Brisket Deviled Eggs with Candied Jalapeno

Texas Brisket Chili

But today I was over the moon to have leftover brisket because I wanted to create my own version of a reasonably new offering popping up at Texas barbecue joints, The Texas Twinkie!

Yep, we played around with all of the ingredients to write you the ultimate guide on how to make these babies, including which bacon is best, how thick of bacon should you use, what style of barbecue sauce to use for Texas Twinkies, and where to find the jumbo jalapenos that are required.

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I’m thrilled to share the recipe because it wasn’t near as daunting as it originally looked. Let’s take a look at the ingredients we need. (OBVIOUSLY, BRISKET.)

This is chopped brisket from the point of the brisket. The point is the fatty part that is usually chopped and made into sandwiches (instead of the flat which we use to make sliced brisket). I chopped it up into tiny pieces.

To spice things up and make our recipe speeeeeecial, we’re adding in some freshly grated pepper jack cheese, cream cheese, hickory-smoked bacon, and jumbo jalapenos.

For the Texas Twinkies Recipe, you need extra large jalapenos which are abundant in July and August. They’re also available at mexican grocery stores like Azteca Meat Market. The jalapeno needs to be pretty big, hopefully, bigger than your palm. You can still make them with smallish jalapenos but you’ll have a lot more labor.

I will combine the chopped brisket, pepper jack cheese, and cream cheese in a food processor, and pulse until it all comes together. The cream cheese acts as a kind of binder and the pepper jack cheese provides some ooey gooey goodness.

For the jalapenos, I simply slice them down one side (NOT all the way through! See the picture below) with a sharp paring knife. One by one I pull out the seeds and ribs of the pepper. I used a small spoon to help me scrape them out and I washed my hands several times with soap and water before touching anything else.

You can also use gloves like these and not have to worry about touching anything afterward. My hubby loves the gloves because he hates it when he rubs his eyes after prepping these! I can’t say I blame him.

Then, I fill the inside with the brisket and cream cheese mixture. It’s very dense so you can just mash it in and it holds together really well.

Here is a close-up. You can see the slit from the top to bottom of the jalapeno, and the brisket mixture which becomes firm and holds together well.

Which Bacon is Best for Texas Twinkies?

Here is what I learned with trying several types of bacon… One piece of bacon is not enough. It’s a big ole jalapeno and it needs 1 1/2 to 2 pieces of bacon per pepper to cover it fully. So, keep your paring knife close and trim your bacon as needed. Don’t worry about 2 pieces of bacon not coming together properly, they will glue to each other as they roast.

Secondly, I assumed thin bacon would be better than the super thick bacon (Wright’s brand of bacon). Both work beautifully. We didn’t see a significant difference in the final product. The thick cut bacon will render down and become crispy, just as well as the standard bacon. Let’s look at how to wrap them.

Set up your workspace with your unwrapped bacon, paring knife, cutting board, jalapenos, and toothpicks within reaching distance. Lay a slice of bacon out and place a filled jalapeno pepper on top of it, always starting near the stem. Wrap the bacon tail up and over the pepper tightly.

Fasten with a toothpick whenever you need to to keep it reasonably tight and secure. And keep wrapping.

One piece of bacon is never enough! Just secure another piece of bacon on the toothpick and keep rolling.

You can trim the extra bacon off with your paring knife, and maybe use it for another pepper. Keep sticking in tooth picks. Repeat with the remaining Texas Twinkies.

These look great! I’ve turned my REC TEC smoker on to 375.

If you have grilling mats, I suggest using them.  It keeps everything above the grill grates and cleanup is much easier.

I would assume you could also roast these in an oven at the same temp, but they wouldn’t get the extra flavor from the smoke. Smoke them for 45 minutes.

SHOOOOOO! As my grandma would say. These look awesome! Now we will glaze them with barbecue sauce. We prefer a sweet barbecue sauce to balance out the spice from the jalapeno and the kick from the pepperjack cheese. Our favorite barbecue sauces are my Dr Pepper Barbecue Sauce or my Cherry Bourbon Barbecue Sauce. If you’re a Keto or Low Carb Dieter, these are totally in your diet you’ll just need to use this sweet but sugar-free barbecue sauce.

We used this mini basting brush to easily get the sauce on our twinkies.

Glaze em up! And throw them under the broiler just until the barbecue sauce caramelizes.

When you bite into your Texas Twinkie you get the snap from the juicy, crisp bacon, and a pop of sweet barbecue sauce that balances out the creeping heat of the jalapenos. The brisket is moist and succulent and holds well paired with the cream cheese. It’s a lot of flavor out of one perfect bite!

The Texas Twinkies can be served and eaten immediately, but they also hold up well if you’re taking them to a barbecue, pool party, or anywhere else you’re looking to have a great time!