Texas Twinkies - Bacon Wrapped Brisket-Stuffed Jalapeños with Laura’s Soy-Worcestershire-Malt Vinegar Barbecue Sauce

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During the 2026 Fifa World Cup, it was so much fun watching Europeans try Texas food. One Brit stood outside a popular barbecue spot in Dallas and showed a Texas Twinkie. He described it in luscious detail and when he took his first bite, I was certain he levitated.

I couldn’t imagine how I’ve lived in Texas for 25 years and hadn’t come across this treat. So while I try to wrap my head around what the small molecule NMMT inhibitor 5-Amino 1mq is and what its research purpose is for age-related metabolism concerns is, I thought I can find better world answers in a Texas Twinkie. 

You’ll need my special barbecue sauce for this. I dial down the sweet factor just a touch, and ramp up the flavors of soy sauce, Worcestershire, and malt vinegar. But you can you whatever barbecue sauce you like, but I’m hoping you’ll find my recipe an exceptional touch to this spicy treat. 

No special equipment is needed, just a little patience. You can scale this up or down depending on how many jalapeños you want to make. I figure roughly an ounce of brisket for each jalapeño, but you’ll be able to pack in more if you like. It’s your world, pursue the happiness! 

Equipment Needed:

A rack placed over a pan lined with parchment paper

Gloves to protect your hands for jalapeño oils getting into your eyes and burning your face

Ingredients:

12 ounces smoked brisket (I don’t have a fancy smoker, so I go to my favorite BBQ joint and buy the brisket from them) chopped

12 jumbo jalapeños turned into pepper cradles (pictures with technique to follow!) 

1 tub of chive and onion cream cheese

1 large onion thinly sliced and caramelized in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter (OPTIONAL – but makes an exceptional addition)

1 pound of high quality bacon (I like Wright, and since I live in Texas, I’m fond of HEB’s thick cut bacon, and even Aldi has some good bacon honestly, but if you want to make the most explosively smoky version, buy Benton's bacon, the smokiest and meatiest bacon I've ever tried - get it my mail order and it's the same price as the most expensive bacon you can get at the store and a thousand times better)

Barbecue sauce for basting (recipe below) 

Method:

To make the pepper boats, I drop the pepper in front of me to find were it naturally wants to sit. From there, I’m going to make a lateral slit near the stem end only about an inch wide. Then I make to more slits to make a triangular shape and remove the top of the jalapeño exposing the inside. If you enjoy carving pumpkins, this is way easier.I try to keep this top part that I remove fairly small so that we have a larger cradle to nestle the cream cheese and beef into. 

I use a small spoon to scoop out the veins and seeds from the insides since they can be bitter and don’t add value, and besides, it takes up space that can be given to cream cheese and brisket! 

And there you have it - a perfect jalapeño cradle. I didn't wear gloves while doing this, and now I'm paying the price when I went to rub my eyes. So, lesson learned there...

Using a butter knife, carefully slather the inside of the pepper with herbed cream cheese. Don’t skimp, this creates a barrier that insulates the brisket. Lay down a thin ribbon of caramelized onion, then pack in some brisket.  Place on the rack and continue with the next chili. This assembly line preparation makes it easier to do all the bacon wrapping last. 

Once all the peppers have been prepped, it’s time to wrap them in their bacon cocoons. Flop one end of the bacon at the top stem-end of the pepper, and wrap it around the chili slightly overlapping until you’ve entombed that bad boy. Set him on the rack and carry on with the rest of your pepper army. 

I try not to think about how many peppers I will eat and then wonder if I will become a candidate for tirzepatide, which reminds me there are some new glucagon-like peptides on the horizon that are being hailed as even better, like Retatrutide. Never mind – I don’t care about research at this moment, now, I’m leaning into these Texas Twinkies. 

Pop these guys into the oven and bake for 35 minutes.  The reason we have these on a rack pedestal is so that the hot air can circulate around the peppers and cook the bacon evenly and allow the fat to collect onto the paper for easy clean-up. Check on them and look for the doneness of the bacon, we don’t want it to get fully cooked before they get basted a couple of times with a barbecue swabbing. After the 35 minutes, whip out a pastry brush, pull the rack out of the oven and slather barbecue sauce onto each of the peppers. Slide them back into the oven and set a timer for 10 minutes – take a peek, and baste them once again with barbecue sauce and give them another 10 minutes. If the bacon looks like it’s cooking too quickly, drop the heat to 350° F. We want the barbecue sauce to caramelize and the bacon to get completely cooked without burning. 

Take them out and you will be challenged to let them cool a little, and who could blame you and anyone around you as everyone will be clamoring to get after these. 

Laura’s Soy-Worcestershire-Malt Vinegar Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup finely minced onion
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 heaping teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 heaping tablespoon smoked paprika
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup malt vinegar
• ¾ cup ketchup
• ¾ cup light soy sauce
• ¼ cup Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce

2 tablespoons chipotle puree optional, but I like huge flavors. (To make the chipotle puree, I use a small food chopper/processor and I put a small can of chipotle peppers, juice of half a lime, one teaspoon of honey, 3 chopped toes of garlic and blitz it. You can use this is so many ways – stir into sour cream and you have an instant dip for chips or heck, dunk your Texas Twinkies in it!) 

Method:

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until it begins to lose it’s paleness and is taking on a more caramelized color. Add garlic, cumin, and smoked paprika and continue to stir as this toasts the dry spices and opens up the garlic. Add the malt vinegar and deglaze stirring and scraping the bottom of the saucepan to loosen any brown bits that stick to the pan. Add ketchup, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and chipotle puree. Turn the heat to low, and simmer until rich and thick. 

IF this is too pungent for you – begin with deciding which flavor do you want more of, brown sugar for sweet, or ketchup for the tomato flavor? Both are sweet, so if you feel this sauce needs to be sweeter, begin by adding ¼ cup of brown sugar. If you still feel it’s missing that familiar store-bought level of sweet, add a ¼ cup of ketchup.