Baked Jalapeño Poppers
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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
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
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!
Baked Jalapeno Popper Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound jalapeños about 12-14
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 Tablespoons Sriracha Sauce
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/3 cup grated parmesan
Instructions
- preheat oven to 350˚
- wash jalapenos
- split in half, use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and pith
- set on baking sheet
- mix the cream cheese with the sriracha, milk, and cheddar cheese
- divide the filling evenly between the cleaned peppers
- put the parmesan on a saucer
- press each popper cheese side down on the parmesan cheese
- bake in a 350˚ for about 15 minutes or until the peppers are fork-tender and the cheeses are melted
I totally love that these are baked and not fried! The perfect party food 🙂
I love, love, love jalapeno poppers! They are one of my absolute favorites! Yours look great! And I love baked! P~
These look fantastic and easy in the oven! I have always wanted to try to make these, but they always look so complicated and messy- these look right up my alley!
I love these lightened-up jalapeno poppers!! I’m pinning this to remember when my father-in-law gives us a giant basket of them from his garden this summer!
I love poppers and now I can enjoy them at home, guilt free.
This summer, I’m totally making these…when I have lots of people to share them with!!!
I love spicy food and would devour these.
These sound fantastic!! I don’t order them very often in restaurants because they’re usually fried and insanely unhealthy (though tasty!) but these sound even better! I love spicy food and these sound quick and easy, too. Definitely bookmarking this post for my next dinner with friends! Thanks for sharing 😀