Jalapeños Toritos Norteños

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Sharp paring knife or jalapeño corer
• •Small skillet for the machaca filling
• •Wooden toothpicks soaked in water for thirty minutes
• •Charcoal or gas grill with two heat zones
• •Long-handled tongs

Instructions

1. 1

   Rehydrate the machaca

   Place the machaca in a small bowl and cover with a few tablespoons of warm water. Let it sit for ten minutes while you prepare the rest of the filling. Good machaca is bone dry when you buy it. The water wakes it up just enough to cook with, not enough to make it soggy. Squeeze it gently between your fingers when the time is up and pull apart any clumps. The strands should look like fine threads.

   Real machaca de res is air-dried beef from the Norte, salty and concentrated. The pre-shredded carne seca in plastic bags from the supermarket is a compromise. If you can find machaca from Sonora or Nuevo León, that is what you want.
2. 2

   Cook the machaca filling

   Melt the manteca in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about three minutes. Add the garlic and cook one minute more. Add the rehydrated machaca and the diced tomato. Cook for five to seven minutes, stirring, until the tomato breaks down and the machaca takes on the fat and the color of the onion. La manteca es el sabor. Stir in the crumbled oregano off the heat. Let it cool to warm before mixing with the cheese.

3. 3

   Prepare the jalapeños

   Wear gloves if your hands are sensitive. Slice off the very tip of the stem end of each jalapeño, keeping the stem itself intact, you want the cap to hold. Using a small paring knife or a corer, hollow out the chile through the cut end, scraping out the seeds and the white veins. The veins are where the heat lives. Leave them in for a torito with bite. Take them out for one that lets the filling sing. Most of the white membrane should come out either way. Rinse the chiles upside down to flush any loose seeds and shake them dry.

   If your jalapeños are very hot, soak the hollowed chiles in salted water for fifteen minutes and pat them dry. This is what they do in the bars in Monterrey when the chiles come in fierce. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
4. 4

   Mix the filling

   In a medium bowl, combine the queso crema, the cooled machaca mixture, the grated queso Chihuahua, and the salt. Mix with a fork until evenly combined. Taste it. The machaca is salty and the cheese is rich, you want them in balance. If it tastes flat, more salt. If it tastes one-note, a little more oregano. The filling should be thick enough to hold its shape on a spoon.

5. 5

   Stuff the chiles

   Transfer the filling to a small zip-top bag and snip the corner, or use a small spoon. Pipe or push the filling into each hollowed jalapeño, packing it firmly to the bottom and stopping at the rim. Do not overstuff. The cheese expands on the grill and a chile that is bursting at the seam will leak everything onto the coals. A flush, packed fill is what you want.

6. 6

   Wrap with bacon

   Lay a strip of bacon flat on the cutting board. Place a stuffed jalapeño at one end at a slight diagonal. Roll the chile across the bacon, wrapping it in a tight spiral so the strip overlaps slightly with each turn. The bacon should cover the chile from the cut end almost to the stem. Secure the loose end with a toothpick driven through the bacon and into the flesh of the chile. Repeat with the rest. This is the moment that turns a stuffed pepper into a torito.

   Thick-cut bacon is the only kind that works here. Thin bacon cooks faster than the chile blisters and you end up with a soft, pale wrap. The whole point is the contrast between the crackling bacon and the tender chile.
7. 7

   Set up the grill

   Build a medium-hot fire in a charcoal grill, or heat a gas grill to medium. You want a temperature where the bacon renders steadily without flaring. If you have two zones, set up one direct and one indirect. The toritos start over indirect heat to let the chile soften and the filling warm through, then finish over direct heat to crisp the bacon. A backyard grill in Monterrey is rarely fancy. A simple charcoal pit will do everything you need.

8. 8

   Grill the toritos

   Lay the wrapped chiles seam-side down on the cooler side of the grill. Cover and cook for ten to twelve minutes, turning every three minutes, until the bacon is rendered and just starting to brown. Move them over the direct heat and grill four to six more minutes, turning often, until the bacon crackles and the jalapeño skin blisters and chars in spots. The cheese should be soft inside and the chile should bend slightly when you press the side. Pull the toothpicks before serving or warn your guests.

9. 9

   Rest and serve

   Let the toritos rest for three minutes on a cutting board. The filling is molten right off the grill and a torito eaten too soon will burn the roof of your mouth and disappoint everybody at the same time. Pile them on a platter with lime wedges, salsa de chile de árbol, and warm flour tortillas on the side. In Nuevo León, the flour tortilla is the bread of the table. The torito is meant to be eaten with one in your other hand. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Buy thick-cut bacon. Thin bacon cooks before the chile has a chance to soften and the whole texture falls apart. If you can find Mexican-style tocino from a carniceria, even better, it has a deeper smoke and more fat to render.
• •Real machaca, the air-dried shredded beef of Sonora and Nuevo León, is worth seeking out. Look for it at a Mexican carniceria or order it from a Norte producer. The vacuum-packed carne seca strands at the supermarket are a compromise, not an upgrade, but they will get you most of the way there.
• •If you cannot grill outdoors, these can be roasted on a sheet pan at 425F for about 25 minutes, turning halfway, then finished under the broiler for two minutes to crisp the bacon. It is not the same as charcoal smoke, but it is honest indoor cooking.
• •Queso crema in Mexico is not the same as American cream cheese. The Mexican version is softer, tangier, and less sweet. Philadelphia-style works in a pinch, but if you find queso crema or queso doble crema at a Mexican market, use it.

Advance Preparation

• •The machaca filling can be cooked one day ahead and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before mixing with the cheese.
• •The toritos can be fully assembled, wrapped in bacon, and refrigerated up to six hours before grilling. Pull them out twenty minutes before they hit the fire so the chiles do not seize over the heat.
• •Do not assemble more than half a day ahead. The salt in the bacon and the moisture in the cheese start to break down the structure of the chile and you lose the snap of the fresh jalapeño.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 200g)