Armadilllo eggs and butts (pics)

So, I volunteered to cook for a wedding celebration of 2 close friends at their house last weekend. They were expecting about 35 guests. I made 2 butts and did my first batch of Armadillo eggs after some great suggestions from Don Marco and BBQ Bob. (Thanks guys!)

I made sure I had my camera with me for the smoke.

Here are the great jalapenos I got from Whole Foods, much bigger and fresher than the ones at the grocery store.



Here are the armadillo eggs assembled. I ended up using 4 lbs of ground pork for 6 eggs. Half had cream cheese and half has cheddar cheese.



Here are the 2 butts I smoked. I put them on at 6:50 AM. This pics was taken at 9:30AM.



The eggs went on at 2:30PM.





Butts came off at 4:45pm (internal temp of 202). Smoked the eggs a little longer.



Eggs are ready to come off !!! Internal temp is 180. Some of the cheese melted out and some of the pepper was showing, but so what. I ordered the Pineapple Haberno Texas pepper jelly earlier in the week, but they were backordered and I didn't get it until Monday. So, I just used some Stonewall Kitchen hot pepper jelly to glaze them.



Some closeups of the egg center




The Armadillo eggs were a big hit. Being very critical of my own BBQ, I wish I got slightly fattier pork as it was just a little drier than I expected. I could only find 85% lean ground pork and some people suggested that I shouldn't go over 80% lean. Also, I'm wondering if I could have taken them off a little cooler. What is the minimum internal temp of ground pork? I'm also going to use a little more seasoning in the mixture.

Nonetheless, I am definitely making them again!

ok i will say it , those aint armadillo eggs those are ostrich eggs

when i make eggs i keep the meat layer much thinner and since lean ground is about all you will find ,i use one of those tubes of the popular breakfast sausage ,some james guy , and i often mix with the cheap ground round that is about 73 or 75 percent .pound of each gets me a good dozen and a half eggs or more or less depending on the size of the peppers

Those are some Texas sized eggs for sure!

I make sure to cook ground pork to around 165°. Pork and beef don't necessarily need to be cooked that high (especially beef) BUT.... ground meat does in order to kill any dormant bacteria that may have been mixed in during processing.

I so happy that everything went well and want to thank you for sharing your pictures and experience.

I'd eat one of those eggs! Looks great!

Those eggs look awesome. I never made them before but I think I will tomorrow. Is it as simple as sticking a jalapeno filled with cheese in the middle of a ball of ground pork? If not, is there a recipe you followed? Thanks.

scgmhawk wrote:

Those eggs look awesome. I never made them before but I think I will tomorrow. Is it as simple as sticking a jalapeno filled with cheese in the middle of a ball of ground pork? If not, is there a recipe you followed? Thanks.

Whoa! Let's not oversimplify things here... it's a ball of seasoned ground pork and sometimes glazed with some kind of jelly...

Thanks, Munky! I appreciate the finer complexities of bbq!

OK, I'm afraid I have to reveal my total ignorance here. What are the things that look like unwrapped Kraft caramels in the first photo?

If it had a toothpick sticking out you'd
easily have identified it as a cube of
either cheddar or longhorn cheese!!

Thus creating the yolk.

As for the cream cheese versions, just tell them they
were made with just the egg whites!

YardBurner wrote:

If it had a toothpick sticking out you'd
easily have identified it as a cube of
either cheddar or longhorn cheese!!

Ah, OK. I guess they seemed too dark orange to be cheese to me. But then, I know my own digital camera isn't always all that great about representing true colors. Thanks Yard!

At any rate, they look yummy! I'm gonna have to try them one of these days.

Great job on those eggs, Xanman!

Ya know, I got to thinking about this as I was going to bed last night. (It's not a good thing to start thinking about food just as you're climbing into bed. It makes you need to go check out the fridge.) But anyway....

As I recall, a couple of people have said that they had a bit of trouble with a certain amount of the cheese leaking out of the eggs as they cooked, and I got to wondering if something that I use when making things like Chicken Kiev might not help.

After wrapping the sticks of cold, flavored butter in the flattened chicken breasts, I coat the breast rolls with a bit of beaten egg and then lightly dredge them in flour. They go into the fridge, uncovered, for a while (an hour or so) before I finish the final breading process. This egg and flour "paste" dries a bit and effectively seals the edges of the chicken breast so the butter does not leak out during the frying process.

I couldn't help wonder if that might also work for the peppers? Once you've stuffed the peppers with the cheese and whatever else, roll the peppers in a bit of beaten egg and then dredge them in flour. Put them in the fridge uncovered long enough for the "paste" to dry a bit, and then wrap them in the sausage. The egg and flour "paste" shouldn't add any flavor components to the eggs, nor should it be such a heavy layer as to impede the sausage sticking to the peppers. But it might help seal the stuffed peppers enough that the cheese won't leak out.

I haven't tried it, so I don't know for sure if it would work. Just an idea.

Never made eggs before, they look great. I will be making them soon however. Thanks for the pics.