Jalapeño Popper Egg Rolls with Sweet & Spicy Dipping Sauce

Brown the maple sausage.

Add the maple sausage to a skillet and cook until browned, breaking it into small crumbles as it cooks. Remove from the heat.

Pitmaster Secret: Maple sausage is one of the tricks that makes these different from your typical jalapeño popper. The subtle sweetness balances the bacon, jalapeños and savory seasoning without making the filling overly sweet.

Prep the jalapeños and onion.

Finely chop the onion and jalapeños.

You can control the heat here. Remove the jalapeño seeds and membranes for a milder filling, leave them in for more heat, or do what we did and keep some while removing the rest.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the browned maple sausage, three 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, chopped jalapeños, onion and 1 pound of cooked, crumbled bacon.

Add 2–3 tablespoons of BBQUE TEXAS Here Piggy Piggy Seasoning.

Mix thoroughly until the ingredients are evenly incorporated into the cream cheese.

Bag and refrigerate.

Transfer the filling to a large plastic or vacuum-seal bag and refrigerate until it firms up.

Pitmaster Secret: Don't skip the chill. Firming up that cream cheese mixture makes the egg rolls much easier—and much less messy—to fill and roll.

Turn the bag into a piping bag.

When you're ready to assemble, cut a small corner from the bag containing the chilled filling.

This makes it easy to pipe a consistent line of filling directly onto each wrapper.

Fill the wrappers.

Lay a large egg roll wrapper on your work surface in a diamond shape.

Pipe a line of filling across the lower portion of the wrapper, leaving enough room around the edges to fold and seal it.

Roll them up.

Fold the bottom corner over the filling, fold both sides inward and roll tightly toward the top corner.

Dip your finger in water, wet the final corner of the wrapper and finish rolling to seal.

Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.

Pitmaster Secret: Don't get carried away with the filling. A tightly rolled egg roll is easier to fry and less likely to open in the oil. Make them thick or skinny—just make sure they're sealed well.

Heat the oil to 375°F.

Once the oil reaches temperature, carefully add 2–3 egg rolls at a time.

Fry until golden.

Cook for approximately 2–3 minutes, or until the wrappers are crisp and beautifully golden brown.

Remove from the oil and drain before frying the next batch.

Pitmaster Secret: Fry in small batches. Overcrowding the oil drops its temperature, which can give you greasy egg rolls instead of the light, crispy shell you're looking for.

Mix the sauce.

In a small bowl, combine:

1 cup cherry jalapeño BBQ sauce

¼ cup sweet chili sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

A dash of BBQUE TEXAS Here Piggy Piggy Seasoning

Stir until completely combined.

Plate them up.

Pour the dipping sauce into a bowl and arrange the hot egg rolls around it.

Serve immediately while the wrappers are hot and crispy and the jalapeño popper filling is warm and creamy.