Easy Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers

Learn how to make the easiest, most delicious jalapeño poppers! With my recipe, you’ll have perfect, bacon-wrapped poppers in no time. Make an extra batch because these fly off the plate!

These bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers are shockingly good. I’ll take a few of these over the store-bought fried poppers sold in grocery stores any day! Thin bacon is the secret to these incredible cream cheese stuffed poppers. Its fat renders down into the filling and over the peppers. So good!

If you love stuffed peppers (of course you do!), look at our sweet pepper poppers stuffed with cream cheese and bacon.

Key Ingredients

• Jalapeños: I look for firm, medium to large jalapeños without wrinkly skin. The larger the pepper, the easier it is to stuff and bake/grill it without it falling over.
• Cream Cheese and Chives: My jalapeño popper filling is super simple. I mix softened cream cheese with chives or green onion. This simple filling and the rendered bacon fat that runs down over the peppers make a seriously delicious bite!
• Bacon: I’m usually a thick-cut bacon kind of girl, but when it comes to bacon-wrapped poppers, I choose thin-cut bacon. This way, the bacon cooks more quickly and crisps up in the same time the peppers take to soften. If you have thicker-cut bacon, consider partially cooking it before wrapping it around your poppers. See this bacon-wrapped shrimp recipe as an example of precooking bacon before wrapping.

How to Make Jalapeño Poppers

The preparation for my jalapeño poppers recipe is the same whether you make them in the oven or on the grill. Plus, they’re really easy!

Halve each jalapeño from stem to end. Then, use a spoon to scrape out the seeds and white membrane. The seeds and white membrane make peppers spicy. Remove all the seeds and membranes for the mildest poppers. If you like things hot and spicy, leave the membrane inside the pepper, but remove the seeds. You’ll also notice I’m wearing gloves to protect my hands from the oils in the peppers. I wear them when I’m working with multiple hot peppers.

As mentioned above, my filling is super simple. It combines softened cream cheese with chopped chives or green onions. I use a spoon to fill each pepper half and then wrap it in bacon. You don’t need a lot of bacon for wrapping (too much will prevent it from crisping up in the oven). I take each slice of bacon and cut it into three smaller slices. Then, I use one small slice for each popper.

I usually bake my jalapeño poppers, but you can also grill them! The recipe below includes instructions for both cooking methods.

Jalapeño Popper Recipe Variations

I love these with my simple cream cheese filling, but I have a few more variations for you:

• Add some sweetness with onion or shallots cooked in a bit of butter. These crispy shallots would also be amazing.
• Add a melty cheese like shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack. Or swap half of the cream cheese with goat cheese.
• Cook up extra bacon, sausage, or chicken and stir into the cream cheese.
• Add a few dashes of hot sauce or diced peppers to make them extra spicy.
• A buffalo chicken version would be excellent. Stir in a little homemade buffalo sauce!