Who doesn’t love jalapeno poppers?
If you’re looking for a healthy alternative to this dive bar staple (or don’t want to deal with the mess of frying your own) try this baked jalapeno recipe.
Don’t follow the recipe religiously. As always experiment and have fun. I opted to dice up the jalapeno into smaller chunks (mainly after a bad experience in a bar in Michigan, where the jalapenos were so fresh I had the howling fantods for days). But I’m interested to see how these would turn out with a more classic styled halved jalapeno wrapped in the dough with some cream cheese.
Either way have fun with it.
You can also make your own pizza dough, or substitute for store bought if you’re strapped for time (which is exactly what I did).
Time you’ll need: prep: 30 minutes, cook 20-30 minutes
Things you’ll need:
- 16 oz of cream cheese
- 1 cup of mozzarella
- 1 pound of pizza dough
- 1/3 cup of chopped onion
- 12 jalapeno
- Garlic powder
- Red Pepper
- Salt
- Pepper
- 5 strips of bacon
What to do:
- Let cream cheese sit out to get to room temp so it’s easier to work with.
- Start with cooking the bacon, and chopping your veggies (onion, jalapeno). Once bacon is done, chop it up into small pieces.
- For the jalapeno, halve them, seed them, and soak ’em in cold water for 10 minutes (or longer if you prefer them to be less spicy) Also dice them up to smaller pieces if you don’t want jalapeno halves.
- Preheat oven to 400.
- In a bowl, mix your cream cheese, mozzarella, onion, jalapeno, bacon, salt, pepper, and a hearty helping of red pepper flakes and garlic powder.
- Cut your pizza dough into small squares and stuff a spoonful or two of the popper mix into each piece of dough. Wrap them up into small balls.
- *Roll each dough ball in a small bowl of filled with olive oil, garlic powder and salt to give it a nice coat. This is optional but delicious, so optionally delicious.
- Bake on a baking sheet for around 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
