Go to Homepage
Get Our Cookbook

    Jalapeño Poppers

    These spicy jalapeño poppers filled with crispy bacon, cream cheese and parmesan are so simple and craveable you’ll be looking for any excuse to make them. (Spoiler alert: you don’t need one!)

    Categories:

    black plate with homemade jalapeno poppers topped with bacon and buttery panko crumbs

    World's Best Jalapeño Poppers.

    There are certain foods that, once put out at a party, are certain to quickly disappear. Guacamole is a forever favorite, but a close second has to be these homemade jalapeño poppers. They disappear within minutes of being served, which spurs frenzied requests for more. The combination of spicy, roasted jalapeño peppers, rich cream cheese, salty parmesan, and crunchy bacon hits all right the spots, every time.

    ingredients for easy oven baked jalapeno poppers

    How To Make Jalapeño Poppers In The Oven:

    You’ll find lots of variations of homemade jalapeño poppers recipes online, but we think we’ve struck gold with our recipe. We’ve added bacon to our baked jalapeño poppers (because...duh!), but instead of that tricky bacon-wrapped jalapeño popper stuff here, we just pre-cook it and mix it right in with the cream cheese filling. We top these loaded poppers with a buttery panko crumble for added crunch. Here’s how to make these ultra-addictive homemade jalapeño poppers:

    • Mix the cream cheese, parmesan cheese, cooked bacon, garlic, chives, and spices.
    • Halve the jalapeños and scoop out the seeds and membranes. The seeds are where the heat lives, so this helps keep the finished poppers mildly spicy (rather than super hot). Fill evenly with the cheese mixture.
    • Toss the panko with melted butter and spoon over the filled jalapeños.
    • How long to cook jalapeño poppers varies on how tender you prefer them, but aim for about 30 minutes at 350°F. When the bread crumbs are golden and that creamy filling is bubbling, they’re done. (Want to try grilled jalapeño poppers? Carefully foil wrap them and place on the grill until cheese is melted and the peppers are softened).
    glass bowl with cream cheese, parmesan cheese, chives and bacon for jalapeno poppers
    glass bowl with cream cheese jalapeno filling
    baking sheet with jalapenos cut in half and seeded
    cheese filled jalapeno poppers on a baking sheet
    stuffed jalapeno poppers topped with panko
    baked jalapeno poppers on a baking sheet

    How To Cook Crispy Bacon:

    Our easy jalapeño poppers recipe calls for roughly chopped pre-cooked bacon. We love the contrast of smoky bacon, creamy cheese and spicy peppers. To make lots of perfectly cooked bacon at the same time, just bake it in the oven! Here’s how to cook bacon so that it’s perfectly crisp:

    • Preheat your oven to 400°F.
    • Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil for easy clean up.
    • Set a wire baking rack on top of the baking sheet. This allows for more airflow while the bacon is cooking, which means lots of crisping.
    • Line bacon up on the baking sheet without overlapping.
    • Put the bacon in the oven and bake 20 minutes.
    • Carefully drain the bacon fat into a can or jar.
    • Allow the bacon to cool and then chop it up (or gobble it up). Store in the fridge for up to five days.
    baked homemade jalapeno poppers on a black plate

    Tools You’ll Need To Make This Easy Jalapeño Recipe:

    • We highly recommend some plastic gloves to make removing the seeds from your peppers safe and easy.
    • A good paring knife makes jobs like cutting the jalapeños in half lengthwise a breeze.

    What To Eat With Homemade Jalapeño Poppers:

    Whether it’s a viewing party, game day, or just your average Tuesday accompanied by a late night craving, there are certain occasions that call for excellent finger foods. These jalapeño poppers with cream cheese and bacon are always at the top of our list, but why stop there? Here are some other appetizers we love:

    baking sheet with jalapeno poppers topped with fresh chives and bacon crumbles

    Watch and Learn

    Jalapeño Popper-ific?

    We’re confident that these jalapeño poppers are the best you’ve ever had. We want to see how they turned out! Snap a picture of your handiwork and post it to Instagram tagging @themodernproper and #themodernproper. As always, happy eating (and even happier snacking)!

    Related Recipes

    Jalapeño Poppers

    Originally published: October 23, 2015

    • Serves: 4
    • Prep Time:  20 min
    • Cook Time:  30 min
    • Calories: 410
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe

    Ingredients

    • 10 fresh jalapenos
    • 8 oz parmesan cheese, shredded
    • 8 oz cream cheese, room temp
    • 4 pieces thick cut bacon, cooked and finely chopped
    • 2 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
    • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
    • 1/2 tsp salt
    • 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
    • 2 tbsp butter, melted
    • 1 cup panko

    Method

    1. Preheat oven to 350° Lightly grease a baking sheet and set aside.
    2. In a small bowl, combine the parmesan cheese, cream cheese, crumbled bacon, chives, garlic, salt, and pepper.
    3. Using kitchen gloves or a plastic grocery sack to protect your hands, halve each jalapeño lengthwise. Remove seeds and membranes using a paring knife. Spoon cheese mixture evenly into each jalapeño half.
    4. Melt butter and pour over panko. Toss to coat. Sprinkle evenly over each popper. Place the peppers, cut side up, on a baking sheet and bake on the bottom rack until the cheese has melted, jalapeños have softened and panko is golden brown. About 30 minutes.
    5. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

    Nutrition Info

    • Per Serving
    • Amount
    • Calories410
    • Protein18 g
    • Carbohydrates17 g
    • Total Fat13 g
    • Dietary Fiber2 g
    • Cholesterol88 mg
    • sodium833 mg
    • Total Sugars4 g

    Jalapeño Poppers

    Questions & Reviews

    Join the discussion below.

    or

    • Brandon Arrigo

      What kind of Parmesan do you use for this? 8 oz seems like a lot for fresh.

      You can use fresh or pre-shredded. Hope you enjoy Brandon!

    • Marilyn MacDonald

      Can I make your jalapeño poppers and the baked brie the night before baking them? I thought I wouldn't put the egg wash on the pastry until ready to bake and not sure if I should wait to put the crumbs on the jalapeño poppers until I am ready to bake them also. What do you think?

      Yep, all of that sounds great. Definitely recommend the egg was and the bread crumbs until just before baking.

    • Carolyn Fennell

      I really enjoyed making them, and they were excellent.
      I wanted to taste the hotness in them, so do you think that I could used the seeds from the peppers?

      Sure you can leaves some seeds if you want some heat.

    • Zena Dennis

      They turned out great! What else can I use the mixture in beside the jalapeno peppers? I imagine it would be great otherwise. Looking forward to this feedback. Thank you in advance.

      So glad you enjoyed them! We haven't really experimented with it much beyond using it in these poppers! You could try stuffed mushrooms maybe? If you try something, let us know how it turns out!

    • Ellen

      How would these hold up frozen? Mostly wondering if the cooked bacon will lose it's crispiness after freezing.

      I would freeze them prepared but not baked. Then I would bake them in the oven when you are ready to eat.

    • Brooke

      Delicious! Printing this one to make again.

      Thanks Brooke! So glad you loved its and want to make it again.

    • Doug

      Made these for a BBQ and everyone loved them. Delicious! I'll definitely do these again.

      That's so great to hear Doug! Thanks for trying them out we are so glad everyone enjoyed them!

    • Marci

      Perfect! I didn't change a thing. Huge hit.

      Thanks Marci, so glad you loved them!

    • Gene M

      I made some with jalapenos, which were great. I also made a few with Anaheim peppers, which are not nearly as spicy. Both were very good.

      Thank you Gene, we are so glad you loved them! Anaheim peppers sound like a delicious mild option!

    • Mark Smith

      Did this with jalapenos from my garden. Made about 30 , so I froze the majority and only made six.
      Madre dios these were HOTTTTT! Nota seed in the lot but these flat lite me up!

      Is there any way to calm these little peppers down?

      Haha. There is not a single ingredient in our recipe (aside from the jalapeños) that bring heat to this recipe. So I am going to have to say that you planted some hot little numbers! I can assure you that if you make them again with store bought jalapeños, you will not experience the same thing. 9/10 jalapeños as mild. We make these babies all the time! : )