Preheat the oven to 400ºF if you’re baking these right away.

Then preheat a cast iron skillet over medium high, and brown the chorizo.

Drain off any extra grease, and mash the chorizo with the cream cheese or goat cheese using a fork or the back of a spoon.

Spoon the chorizo mixture evenly into the dates, packing all the filling into them as much as possible. You may also need 1-2 additional dates.

Wrap each date with a piece of bacon tucking the loose ends under. Or you can secure the bacon with a toothpick.

At this point, you can refrigerate these for a couple of days if you’d like. Remove the dish with the dates from the refrigerator while the oven preheats.

When you’re ready to serve, preheat the oven to 400° F. Place your dates in an ovenproof container, and bake for about 20 minutes, turning over once in the middle of the cooking time. 

If you’re using thick slice bacon, partially cook it in the oven at 425ºF on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cook just until it begins to render the fat but is still pliable. Then proceed with wrapping the dates when the bacon has cooled. And finally bake the dates for about half the time, around 10 minutes at 400ºF.