At the Grilling Is Happiness tent at Naperville’s Ribfest, Perry will be grilling Dragon Claws which consist of baby bell peppers stuffed with a combination of Italian sausage and Spanish Chorizo, onions, and peppers, wrapped in bacon, grilled with smoke, then glazed with a honey butter barbecue sauce. Sticky sweet, spicy goodness with
just a breath of fire.
Burnin’ Love BBQ’s Dragon Claws Appetizer
Recipe adapted from MEAT FIRE GOOD: The Burnin’ Love BBQ Cookbook, by Perry P. Perkins
Ingredients List
40 whole baby bell peppers
20 slices thin sliced premium apple-smoked bacon
2 lb raw ground Spanish chorizo
2 lb hot Italian sausages, raw
2 sweet onion, diced
2 Tbs Tabasco’s Buffalo sauce
4 Tbs of seasoning rub (I like Lawhorn’s Original)
40 plain wood toothpicks, soaked
Glaze
4 cup Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce
2 cup honey
1 lb butter, melted
Instructions:
Wash the bell peppers, slice off the stem ends, and core. Rinse again.
Mix the rest of the ingredients, except the bacon, glaze, and BBQ rub.
Stuff each pepper, packing it firmly.
Wrap each of the peppers with 1/2 slice of bacon, stretching it around the pepper moving toward the top. Pin with a toothpick. Sprinkle lightly with rub, and load into slider grill baskets.
Fire up your grill and prepare for indirect cooking over medium-high heat. Add some pre-soaked fruit-wood chips if you want.
Cook the Dragon Claws indirectly, for 15-20 minutes, turning about halfway through. Move to direct heat to crisp the bacon.
Meanwhile, mix the glaze ingredients and bring to a simmer, remove from heat and glaze each pepper, cook another 5 minutes. Flip, repeat, then cook another 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and let rest 5 minutes before serving.
Perry Perkins is a Grilling is Happiness sponsored writer.
22 Responses
Your Comment looks and sounds delicious!!!!
This recipe sounds absolutely amazing!! I have to try this.
This is such a fun and original recipe that screams summer. At the grill demo you used a fun little gadget for filling these tasty treats. I believe it was a slider holder, but wanted to double check. These were delicious and I want to make them for my whole family to enjoy. Thanks!
Thanks everyone, this is one of my all-time favorites, so I’m really excited to see other folks enjoying it too!
Laura, I got my slider rack from Sears.com, here’s the one I use: http://www.sears.com/cuisinart-non-stick-slider-basket/p-07142479000P?prdNo=22&blockNo=22&blockType=G22
Another favorite with this gizmo, is one i mentioned at Ribfest, “Salmon Bacon Bites” My friend Dave Johnson is THE fishing guide here on Oregon’s Coast and always has a good supply of fresh salmon. His wife Tesha shared this recipe with me and it’s AMAZING!
Just cube a salmon fillet into 2 inch squares, and marinate the salmon squares in your favorite teriyaki (I like Yoshidas) for several hours. Wrap each square in 1/2 slice of thin bacon, secure with a toothpick, and pop into the slider racks (each “round” should hold 2-3 salmon bites. Grill over direct heat until the bacon is crisp, brush with more sauce, and move to indirect heat until the salmon is cooked to your liking. Seriously, it’s the bomb!
Lemme know if you have any questions, and be sure to come back and let us know how they turned out!
-Perry
[...] and Pork with Chinese Vermicelli, made all on the grill. Perry Perkins, from Burnin Love BBQ, did “Dragon Claws”, which are chorizo stuffed peppers wrapped in bacon. I did my BBQ sauce lovers Grilled BBQ Chicken [...]
Looks and sounds great!!!
Looks delish, can’t wait to try my hand at them.
That was a nice clip Perry. Down here in Ga lot’s of the Pro teams love making ABT’s with stuffed, bacon wrapped jalapenos but I really like the look of your stuffed peppers because you could go easy appetizer OR just go ahead and make them meal size and save yourself some time and effort if your on the road competing. I will definately look up your honey glaze recipe and give that a try too. Great Job!
Looks SOOO good!!! Can’t wait to grill this up! Thank you for the grilling tips!
I defiantly have to make this. It looks awesome.
Your Comments Looks interesting. Will have to experiment with that as we use no gas. Thumbs up on your “Salesmanship”.
Nicely done, Chef Perry!!!
The recipe is amazing (I was lucky enough to be a tester).
Chef, what is your favorite beer to enjoy along side your Dragon Claws?
Terry, living in the heart of micro-brew country, anything I choose is going to tick someone off. I think I’d rather talk religion or politics (after a few beers, of course!)
So, here goes…typically I’m a porter or stout kinda guy, but for something hot, spicy, and as packed with flavor as Dragon Claws, I like to drink light, like a pilsner, pale lager, or ale (The Ram’s “Buttface Amber”, and Full Sail’s Amber are two favorites).
A fruity ale, a Blue Moon with a slice of lime, heck…given the right crowd and weather, an ice-cold PBR or Corona will do the trick.
I’m not really a beer aficionado, after a hot day of standing over the grill, my favorite beer is usually the coldest one in the cooler…
-Perry
Yummm!!! Those look amazing! We are going to have to try these. Awesome video too.
“Blue Moon with a slice of orange”
Geez…
Looks good, Perry!
Thinking along the same lines as Terry, what would you serve with this to round out a meal? I’m thinking something with rice or maybe pasta? Whadya think? (Will you be throwing these on your weekly menus sometime soon?_
These look wonderful Perk! I really like that you’re using sweet bells instead of jalapenos (Hot Kisses). The salmon you mentioned in the comments sounds even better!
Congratulations Mr. Perkins. So proud of you.
as always perry makes it so you can go right hime and di it yourself no problem….and i agree…i LOVE that grill…..thanks perry!!!!
How can I get you to come make these for me? ;p
This looks so good. I wonder if we will see something like this in one of your weekly menus. It’s sounds just a bit spicy for me
Thanks everyone!
Carolyn, we could probably work this into a weekly menu, I’ll make sure we get this one up on the hautemealz.com blog, too. To cut the amount of spice, use all ground pork (or turkey) and omit the chorizo. A little salt and pepper, some fresh chopped herbs and you should have a mild and delicious version of Dragon Claws!
Let us know how it goes!
-Perry