Spicy Jalapeno Poppers

Jalapeno Poppers are stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese, shredded cheddar, and crumbled bacon and then baked until gooey and bubbly. Creamy and spicy, they’re like a party in your mouth!

With crisp bacon, cream cheese, and spicy peppers all in one bite, they’re pretty hard to resist. Seriously good stuff.

As we all know, bacon makes everything better. You know what, though? So does barbecue sauce!

The only challenging part to this recipe — apart from not scarfing the entire batch before your guests arrive — is making sure the poppers don’t fall through the grill grates. Be sure to lay them across the grates rather than parallel to avoid this unwanted fate.

Ingredients

16 fat jalapeno chiles

1 red Fresno chile, seeded and finely chopped

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

3 tablespoons grated onion

2 cloves garlic, grated or pasted

1 teaspoon ground cumin

3/4 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Kosher salt and pepper

3/4 panko breadcrumbs

1/2 grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

All-natural cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees . Slice off one-third of the chiles lengthwise. Seed the chiles to make "boats" for the filling. Finely chop enough of the trimmings to measure 3 to 4 tbsp. (I usually use about half of the total amount, reserving any remaining jalapeno for other recipes, such as salsas.)

In a bowl, combine the chopped jalapeno and Fresno chiles, the cream cheese, onion, garlic, cumin and shredded cheeses. Stir until blended and season with salt and pepper. Spoon the filling into the hollowed-out chiles.

Stir the panko and Parm together on a plate and roll the stuffed tops of the poppers in the panko-Parm mixture. Arrange the poppers on a foil-lined baking sheet and coat with a little cooking spray. Roast until the chiles are tender-crisp and the filling is browned and bubbling, 15 to 18 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes and serve.