Follow basic smoked sausage preparation practices when making this sausage.
- Clean and Sanitize all of your equipment.
- Keep your meat and grinder parts super cold (below 34F) at all times
- Any liquid that is added to the mince needs to be ice cold
- Mix your very chilled meat and seasonings till the mince becomes very tacky
- Stuff the mince into sausage casings and prick out any air pockets
- Refrigerate your sausage overnight to allow the cure to work
- The next day follow this smoking schedule
-Dry your sausage at 90F – 100 for 1 hour, with your vents wide open
-Increase the temp to 125F for 1 hour and begin to add your favorite smoke
-Increase to 145F for 2 hour
-Increase to 155F for 2 hours
-Increase to 180F till the internal temp reaches 145F - Once the internal temp has been reached place the sausages in an ice bath to cool down and let them bloom at room temperature for 3-4 hours
- If you don’t have a digital smoker just cook these sausages low and slow so as to not render out the fat.
Here are a few things you might find useful when making a smoked sausage
- High Quality Natural Casings (AA Grade)
- Iodophor Sanitizer
- Knives for processing meat
- MK4 Thermapen (Accurate Thermometer)
- Sausage Pricker
- Iwatani Professional Chef Torch
- Insta Cure #1
- Non Fat Dry Milk Powder
- Meat Grinders
- Meat Mixers
- Sausage Stuffers
- Smokers
- Bella’s Cold Smoke Generator
- Custom Cutting Board (Use discount code 2GUYS15 at checkout for a sweet discount)

Enjoy the video and the recipe. If you have any questions feel free to ask away. If you make this at home I’d love to hear about how it came out!!
If you want to see the different things that we use in operation our be sure to check out our new Amazon Store.
2 Guys & A Cooler Amazon Storefront
Smoked Jalapeno Popper Sausage
A great spin on the classic party food
How much do you want to make? 1000 grams
Ingredients
- 400 g lean pork
- 300 g lean beef
- 300 g pork back fat
- 200 g cooked bacon crispy
- 100 g jalapenos
- 200 g cream cheese frozen and chopped into pieces
- 17 g kosher salt
- 2.5 g insta cure #1
- 2 g black pepper
- 3 g garlic powder
- 2 g onion powder
- 2 g cayenne powder
- 2 g smoked paprika
- 20 g nonfat dry powder milk optional
- 60 ml ice cold water
- hog casings
Instructions
- Clean your meat of any silver skin, sinew, arteries and cut into small strips or cubes. Place the meat and fat in the freezer for an hour or until the temp reaches 32f – 34F.
- Prepare all of your seasonings, dice the jalapenos, cook the bacon until crispy (the amount of bacon that the recipe calls for is in cooked weight not raw weight) Clean and rehydrate your casings.
- To prepare the cream cheese dice the cream cheese into cubes and place in the freezer. Once frozen you can rough chop to cut into smaller pieces or leave them as small cubes. Keep frozen till you are ready to use them.
- Grind your very chilled meat, fat, bacon, and jalapenos on a medium plate (6mm). Rechill your meat mixture.
- Add all of the seasonings and the water to your mince meat then mix till it becomes very tacky. If you grab a small handful it will stick to your hand if you hold your hand upside down.
- Once your meat has become tacky add the frozen cream cheese and mix to incorporate.
- Stuff your mince meat into the casings, link, and prick out any air pockets.
- Let the sausages rest in your refrigerator overnight uncovered to allow the cure to work.
Smoking Schedule
- The next day start by drying your sausage out and bringing them to room temp before smoking. I set my smoker to 100F with the door slightly open for 1 hour. This will dry out the sausage and get it ready for smokingNext raise the temperature to 125F for 1 hour and begin to apply smoke.Raise to 145F for 2 hours, then raise to 155F for 2 hours, then raise to 180F till the internal temp reaches 145F(If you don't have a digital smoker just cook these low and slow so as to not render out the fat)
- Once cooked submerge in ice cold water then allow to bloom for several hours at room temperature. Enjoy!
We are Amazon Affiliates which means if you happen to buy something from Amazon after clicking one of our links we get a tiny percentage. This happens at no cost to you and really helps us offset the costs of running this site. Thank you in advance.
One thing that might work for an unusual sausage is a Reuben sandwich sausage. Corned beef, sauerkraut, and cheese. I think that could be made work if the sauerkraut is fairly dry.
Another option would be to make various seafood sausages. Fish sausage, shrimp sausage, etc. A starting point might be various recipes for fish/seafood cakes, but deliver it in sausage form.
Thank you very much, You asked for suggestions… How about a Pop Open White Hot from Rochester.(Upstate New York) A classic since the mid 1920s. Thank you. Frank P
.
Just finished 10lb of these, and they are incredible, the heat from the jalapenos
is smooth out just right with the cream cheese…just a fantastic sausage, going to
be great at the camp this summer with a cold beer, Eric thank you AGAIN
You are very welcome. Love that cream cheese in this recipe!
I put this recipe in my #1 spot for summer barbeques. They are an absolute Bomb!!
Sweet. I agree. Very taste sausages
Just a heads up… A five pound batch on the calculator is really 7 1/2 lbs due to add-ins. I have 35 pounds on order. I didn’t catch it until I figured a large amount. I normally make 5 pound batches for me.