Atomic Shrimp Boats

Most people have now heard of Atomic Buffalo Turds - here's a link in case you forgot. Another twist is the Atomic Shrimp Boat or ABT! Just as easy and just as tasty!

Simple ingredients:

• Quality Bacon
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Cream Cheese
• Medium size uncooked, tail / head off, peeled shrimp. I used 71 - 90 size (whatever that is).

Cut the jalapeno peppers in half and scoop out the seeds.

Spoon cream cheese into the peppers.



Cut the bacon strips in half. Place a still frozen shrimp on top of the cream cheese. I used still frozen shrimp because the cooking time is about 1 - 1 1/2 hours. I figured that if the shrimp were thawed, they might get over cooked. The frozen shrimp cooked up great and didn't taste over cooked or chewy using this method.

Wrap the cream cheese and shrimp stuffed peppers in a half slice of bacon. If you use quality bacon and stretch the piece when wrapping the pepper, the bacon will stick to itself when it contracts after you let go and you won't have to use tooth picks to keep the bacon in place. If your bacon won't stick to itself, feel free to use tooth picks to hold it in place.


Place on the smoker or grill at 250F grate temp. If you are using a gas grill or charcoal grill, make sure the heat is on one side of the grill and place the peppers on the opposite side - on indirect heat.



I cooked these for 90 minutes or until the bacon was completely cooked.

Atomic Shrimp Boats ready to eat!

Atomic Buffalo Turds - ABT's

Atomic Buffalo Turds (ABT's) are always a crowd favorite, easy to make, quick to assemble, and lots of variations available to match the tastes of your crowd! Also included in this recipe is the "secret" to making these tasty treats even easier to assemble!

The basic ingredients include jalapenos, cream cheese, bacon, and hard salami!

Per 1lb of fresh jalapenos:
1lb of jalapenos (usually about 12 peppers per lb)
1 - 8oz pack of cream cheese
1/2 lb of bacon
Small pack of hard salami


Lay the jalapeno on the cutting board and slit the top where the pepper seems to land and rest naturally.


Scoop out all the seeds from the inside. Try and leave the top and sides in tact - try not to break the pepper apart too much. You can see I'm not wearing any gloves in this picture - maybe you should!



Spoon 1 tablespoon of cream cheese into a slice of hard salami. This is the secret! If you try to spoon the cream cheese directly into the ABT it gets a bit messy. The hard salami folds into a taco and then slips right into the pepper!

Don't forget to get creative - add a slice of pineapple or ....?!?! into the pepper with the cream cheese and salami.

Wrap the pepper in a HALF SLICE of bacon - simple cut the entire lb of bacon in half to get the half slices.

NOTE: use quality bacon for this recipe - believe me, I've used all the brands and price points and it is not worth using cheap bacon to save a buck... I use Farmer John Maple Bacon. It is thick sliced, uniform shaped, and very flavorful. It doesn't string or fall apart.

Here's another key - if you use high quality bacon, stretch the bacon as you wrap the pepper. When you let the bacon go, it will contract and stick to itself and the pepper eliminating the need for tooth picks. When you are making a lot of these, the tooth picks stick out and reduce the grill space AND have to be picked out of each pepper - what a pain!

A perfectly bacon wrapped pepper!



Ready for the grill / smoker!

Only 2lbs of peppers left to go!


You can also use Anaheim chili peppers or yellow peppers or.....?!?! Use your imagination - the possibilities are endless. I do use more dry salami and cream cheese to stuff the larger peppers but that's not a bad thing - is it!?

I cook the peppers at 250 F grate temp for at least 1 hour but best results are 2 hours at 250F. The bacon gets a little more crisp and the pepper skin gets easier to bit through but is still crispy. About 15 minutes before you pull the peppers, you can dust them with some brown sugar to offset some of the heat or just to add another twist to the recipe.

Who's hungry?