Baked Jalapeño Poppers

I’m understanding just how much I LOVE appetizers! Easy to cook, easy to snack on! This is a great finger food for any occasion! Especially a game day or a BBQ!

For jalapeño poppers some recipes say to buy larger jalapeños so you can fit more of the cream cheese mix, which is totally true but I also love making these with my fresh jalapeños from my garden and they aren’t always so big. So you can use which ever size is best or what is convenient. If you have fresh peppers I definitely support using those and they will be a bit spicier! The pictures I have here are just from this past week so they are store bought and large. I actually just started my indoor seeding which is for another post later 😉

Ingredients:

• 10-12 Jalapeños
• 8 oz Cream Cheese
• 1 cup Colby Jack Cheese
• 5 strips of turkey bacon crumbled
• 4 TBSP Breadcrumbs
• 2 Scallions
• 2 TBSP Parmesan Cheese
• 1 TSP Paprika
• 1 TSP Black Pepper
• 1 TBSP Olive Oil (approximately)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line baking sheet with foil.
3. Cut your jalapeños in half  lengthwise, I also chop the stem off before cutting in half. Scoop out seeds and if you want less spicier scoop out membrane.
4. Place your chopped jalapeños on your foil lined baking sheet and set aside.
5. In a medium sized bowl add in your breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, paprika and black pepper. Mix and set aside.
6. In another medium sized bowl add in your cream cheese, colby jack cheese and green scallions. Mix and set aside.
7. In a skillet, fry your bacon on medium heat until crispy. Turn off burner and let cool. Once cool you can either chop your bacon to crumbs on a cutting board or crumble with hands IF cool enough. I’ve done both ways and personally like crumbling by hands.
8. Add your crumbled bacon to the cream cheese mixture and mix well.
9. Scoop your cream cheese mix into each jalapeño
10. Dip each jalapeño in the breadcrumb mix.
11. Arrange them back on baking sheet to sprinkle paprika and drizzle olive oil on top.
12. Pop in oven for 12 mins and turn to broil for another 3 mins.
13. Serve hot and enjoy 🙂