Baked Jalapeño Poppers are filled with cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and Monterey jack cheese, coated in a crispy breadcrumb coating and baked. It's a slightly healthier take on the popular appetizer.
These Baked Jalapeño Poppers are seriously addictive. I ate at least 8 of them as soon as I finished taking photos. I kept going back for more, which is the sign of a good appetizer. These poppers have just the right balance of spice and cheese with extra flavor thanks to some bacon and garlic powder.
One of the challenges in making Baked Jalapeño Poppers is getting the breading to be as crispy as it would be if you fried the jalapeño poppers. I came up with a two part solution.
First I used panko which is bigger and crispier than breadcrumbs. And secondly, I added some crispy bacon. I loved the additional flavor and crunch from the bacon, but you could leave it out if you want.
The combination of panko and bacon gives the jalapeño poppers a crispy crunchy crust. There is also some cheese in the panko bacon coating, this helps it to stick to the jalapeño poppers.
The cheese filling is made with a mixture of cream cheese, cheddar, and monterery jack and is seasoned with some garlic powder. I love the burst of flavor that the garlic powder gives the jalapeño poppers. If you wanted to add a little extra spice to this recipe you could use pepper jack cheese instead of monterrey jack. You could even add a little hot sauce to the cheese mixture.
You can serve the Baked Jalapeño Poppers on their own, or with a side of ranch dressing for dipping. You may know that I am obsessed with homemade ranch dressing, and dipping the poppers in ranch is a way to tone down the spice level.
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How to make Baked Jalapeño Poppers:
Baked Jalapeño Poppers
Ingredients
- 3 slices of Bacon
- 12 Jalapeños Peppers
- ½ cup Panko
- ½ cup Cream Cheese room temperature
- ¾ cup finely grated Cheddar and Monterey Jack
- ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 3 Eggs
- ½ cup Flour
- ⅔ cup plain Panko
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the bacon on a parchment lined baking sheet, and bake until crispy. This takes about 10 minutes. Once the bacon is cooked, place it on a paper towel and blot off any excess grease.
- While the bacon is cooking, prepare the jalapeños. Slice them in half and remove the seeds.
- Next, place the bacon in a food processor along with half of the panko and pulse until the bacon is finely chopped. You add the panko in for two reasons, the food processor needs enough in it to churn and chop everything. Having some finer panko helps it stick to the jalapeños. Pour the mixture into a bowl, and stir in ¼ cup of the cheddar jack cheese.
- Then mix the remaining cheddar and jack cheese, cream cheese, and garlic powder together.
- Scoop the cheese mixture into the jalapeños.
- Pour the flour into a bowl. Crack the eggs into another bowl and beat them.
- Individually take each jalapeño and dredge it in the flour, then the egg, and then the panko mixture. Then place filling side up on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes at 400 degrees.
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