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Jalapeño Poppers are stuffed with a creamy cheese mixture, wrapped in bacon and topped with a BBQ sauce. They are a definite crowd pleaser and add a fun little kick to your party with their amazing flavor!
Why You Will Love This Recipe!
The spiciness level will vary according to your peppers, but a jalapeño is typically a pretty mild pepper and the addition of the cheese mixture, bacon and BBQ sauce help lower the heat level. This makes them a real crowd pleaser.
How can anything wrapped in bacon not be delicious!? Jalapeño Poppers are the perfect game day food.
Ingredients Needed
- Jalapeños. You need whole jalapeño peppers. Cut in half and seed.
- Cream cheese. Make sure it is room temperature
- Cheddar cheese grated. Can also use Monterey Jack Cheese.
- Green onion sliced
- Garlic powder
- Bacon. Thin back works better as it cooks faster. Cut each piece in half.
- BBQ Sauce. Our favorite brand is Sweet Baby Rays.
Tips from Leigh Anne
- Be sure to wash your hands well after handling jalapeños and don’t touch your eyes or face while working with them. If you have sensitive skin, you may want to wear gloves when working with peppers. If you don’t have gloves, I have put plastic sandwich bags over my hands while cutting and cleaning the peppers.
- To shorten the baking time of the jalapeño poppers, precook the bacon, cooking it about half way and then wrap around the pepper. This allows the bacon to get nice and crisp and not overcook the pepper
How to Make Jalapeño Poppers Recipe
- Cut the peppers in half, leave the stems on and clean out the seeds. The heat is in the seeds so if you want extra heat, leave some of the seeds in.
- Mix together cheese, softened cream cheese, green onion, cilantro and garlic powder.
- Mix together filling and stuff each of the jalapeño halves with a tablespoon or so of cream cheese filling. You want the filling to be even with the top of the jalapeño poppers.
- Wrap each half of a pepper in a half slice of bacon. Use a toothpick to secure the bacon.
- Place in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake at 375 degrees F for about 20-30 minutes until bacon is crispy and cheese is melted. Precooking the bacon will speed up this process. Without precooking the bacon they may take up to an hour to bake.
How to Serve Jalapeño Poppers
I serve them with a bowl of BBQ sauce for dipping but they are also delicious served with some Ranch dressing for dipping.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can make them the morning of the party, up to eight hours ahead of time. Fill and wrap the peppers and then cover with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator until ready to bake.
Store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
To bake them in the air fryer cook at 370 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until the bacon is cooked to your desired crispness.
I like to reheat them in the oven at 350 degrees F . Place them spaced out on a wire rack and bake for 5-10 minutes or until the top is crispy.
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Jalapeño Poppers
Ingredients
- 18 jalapeños
- 1 8 oz. cream cheese
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese grated
- 1 green onion sliced
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 18 slices thin bacon cut into halves
- BBQ sauce
- toothpicks
- rubber gloves.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
- Cut peppers in half lengthwise (wear gloves) . I like to keep the stems on the peppers as they look prettier that way.
- With a spoon, scrape out the seeds and light colored membranes
- Remember: the heat comes from the seeds and the membranes so if you can handle the heat, leave some of them intact.
- In a bowl combine the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, garlic powder and chopped green onion and mix together
- Stuff the hollowed out pepper half with the cream cheese mixture. make sure filling is even with top of pepper.
- Wrap bacon slices around each half, covering as much of the surface as you can. You can precook the bacon about half way for crisper bacon and to shorten the cooking time.
- Secure the bacon with toothpicks and place on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour if you haven't precooked bacon or 20-30 minutes if bacon is precooked.
- Brush lightly with BBQ sauce and serve with additional sauce for dipping.
- Serve hot or at room temperature
Tips & Notes:
- Be sure to wash your hands well after handling jalapenos and don’t touch your eyes or face while working with them. If you have sensitive skin, you may want to wear gloves when working with peppers. If you don’t have gloves, I have put plastic sandwich bags over my hands while cutting and cleaning the peppers.
- To shorten the baking time of the poppers, precook the bacon, cooking it about half way and then wrap around the pepper. This allows the bacon to get nice and crisp and not overcook the pepper
Nutrition Facts:
Christina says
Would turkey bacon work or do you need regular bacon?
Leigh Anne says
My only concern about turkey bacon is it has so much less fat it in and cooks so much faster I’m sure how it work. It might be worth a try though.
Joan says
Oh, I meant to mention that if you want the jalapeno to be less spicy, you can soak the halved ones in ice water for 30 minutes to reduce heat…and then dry carefully for awhile before filling and wrapping.