Baked Jalapeño Poppers

This recipe for Oven Baked Jalapeño Poppers has it ALL going on. Spicy cheese, smooth cream cheese, crispy topping, all served up in a jalapeño. And you can make them in your OVEN.

regular poppers

Deli or restaurant poppers are deep-fat fried and all kinds of tasty, but if you eliminate the breading and bake them, you’ve got a winner of a low-carb appetizer. 

And you don’t HAVE to be someone counting carbs to enjoy them; everyone loves my Oven Baked Jalapeño Poppers. Even my kids, who don’t like spicy things, love these poppers.

Speaking of NOT TOO spicy try my Sticky Sriracha Wings for a low-heat and tasty alternative to regular Buffalo Wings. A fun new way to enjoy wings!

Baked Not Fried

It’s true! When you eliminate the frying, you can remove the breading. A typical breading on jalapeno poppers is bread crumbs or even panko, Japanese breadcrumbs. If you don’t deep-fat fry them, you don’t need breading.

That essential step cuts the calorie and carb load right down.

To make my poppers crispy but also low carb I top them with a small amount of grated parmesan for the crunch without the breading.

Also?? NO DEEP FAT FRYING. Which means no greasy smells lingering in your house. Or dirty oil to discard. Also while fats are good, too much fat is never good.

How hot are Jalapeno Peppers?

The heat in these is variable too. Sometimes we get extremely spicy jalapeños, and they can burn. And other times they are absolutely mild and flavorful.

For the most part, if you clean out the jalapeños and remove the pith and seeds, they lose most, if not all their heat. Even my kids can enjoy them with little to no burn.

But like I said sometimes we do get some extra spicy ones, and there doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason.

If you LOVE heat add more sriracha to the cream cheese mix. Or leave in the pith of the peppers for more spice. You can also leave out the sriracha if you can’t take any heat.

I do urge you to try some sriracha because the flavor it imparts is so outstanding!

Try Jalapeno Poppers on the Grill

Perfect on the grill! And if you CAN grill well then try my Grilled Jalapeño Poppers from last summer. We loved them so much that I had to bring them in once we put away the grill.

It was easy to figure out the baking time and temperature, and we’ve been enjoying them ever since. Make a batch and let me know how you like them!?

Don’t Overfill your poppers

When you buy your Jalapeños it’s a “best guess” at how many you will need. I’ve included a pound measurement so you know this recipe fills roughly 1 pound of peppers, big or small.

BUT sometimes the inside cavities are bigger or smaller depending on the thickness of the pepper. So you may have a little MORE OR LESS FILLING than you need. That happens with fresh produce. No worries!

If you get to stuffing your poppers and realize “I have TOO much filling to fill these peppers” simply fill the peppers almost to the top and stop there.

Repeat with all your peppers and save ANY extra filling to use as a dip. If you overstuff your peppers they will get messy, bubble over, and maybe even burn.

If your filling doesn’t appear to be enough to stuff your peppers just fill as many of the pepper as you can and set aside any extra unused peppers for another recipe. The most I’ve had leftover from all the batches I’ve made were 3 halves.

Be sure to add the parmesan layer on the top that helps seal the cream cheese and cheddar in the popper. That parmesan layer is there for a reason, to keep the filling IN THE PEPPER! Don’t skip it!

If you don’t have parmesan cheese you can press the peppers into breadcrumbs or panko for a tasty change to the recipe.

Change up your Poppers!

• Try adding a couple of slices of bacon to the cream cheese mixture. Fry, cool, and crumble right in the cream cheese step.
• Or add Monterey Jack or Swiss Cheese instead of sharp cheese.
• Or you could add onion powder or garlic powder instead of the sriracha if you want the flavor but no extra spiciness.

There are so many ways to change up your poppers you will never get tired of them. Your family might though, just an FYI.

Love Jalapeños?

• Check out my Baked Jalapeño Popper Dip recipe, it’s so easy and a huge crowd-pleaser!

• Or make them for dinner with this Jalapeño Popper Salad!
  
• Try this Baked Jalapeño Popper Dip
  
• Or this Fresh Jalapeño Dip
  
• Look at this Cream of Jalapeño Soup recipe!

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