Air Fryer Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers

These Air Fryer Bacon Wrapped Jelapeno Poppers are spicy, cheesy, creamy, salty and utterly moreish.  So quick and easy to make with just a few ingredients you can make these at home in under 20 minutes.  Perfect as an appetizer, afternoon snacks, and game days, these have a hint of smokiness for extra flavour!

Recipe Highlights

• Full of spicy, salty, creamy flavour
• Way healthier with no oil needed
• 7 basic ingredients
• Barely any mess
• Easy to make ahead for crowds
• Easy to adjust the flavours with different spice combinations
• Easy to adjust the level of heat up or down
• No deep frying needed to achieve crispy bacon crust
• A simple and impressive Air Fryer recipe

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes

• Jalapenos:  Not to be confused with long green chillies which look similar but a thinner and longer.  Jalapenos are fatter and around ¾ the length of a long green chilli.  As these are the hero of the recipe, make sure to buy fresh good quality ones.
• Bacon:  The best type of bacon is long and thin as it needs to be able to be easily rolled.  Thicker types of bacon can be hard to roll and stay in place.  I find prosciutto works well, but really any long strip “thin” bacon would be perfect. (I use 2 pieces per popper)
• Cream Cheese:  full fat or low fat works well but do make sure to flavour it as it is quite bland on its own
• Cheddar Cheese:  This adds extra creaminess and flavour which helps to cut through the saltiness of the bacon and the heart of the poppers.
• Seasonings:  I used equal amounts of onion powder, garlic powder and smoked paprika which gave the cream cheese a nice savoury smokiness without being over powering and much of the popper flavour comes from the delicious bacon!

How Spicy are Jalapenos Poppers?

They’re pretty spicy, however if you remove the seeds and white membrane and if they are eaten as a popper with cream cheese filling and bacon, the level of spice and heat is probably comparable to a medium level of thai curry. 

The cream cheese flavours, bacon flavour and textures all come together to reduce the level of heat of the popper to create a creamy, salty, warmly spicy snack or appetizer.

Making healthy savoury snacks is easy when you have an Air Fryer because you can gets lots of flavour, crispy edges with very little to no oil.

How To Make

1. Prepare Jalapenos:  Slice in half lengthways, remove the seeds and membrane (the white part) with a small spoon.  Leave the stem attached for presentation and for easy handling when serving and eating.

2. Make Filling:  Add softened cream cheese, grated cheese, smoked paprika, garlic powder and onion powder to a bowl and mix together until combined

3. Add filling to Poppers:  using a small spoon, fill each popper casing, smoothing out the top with the back of a spoon
4. Preheat air fryer on 325 degrees F/160 degrees C
5. Wrap Poppers:  take one piece of bacon and wrap around the popper and use a toothpick to fasten it in place

6. Place poppers into Air Fryer:  Add poppers to air fryer in a single layer.  If they wont all fit in a single layer, do them in batches.
7. Cook:  cook at 325 degrees F/160 degrees C for approximately 12 minutes until the bacon is golden and crispy.

How To Serve

Whilst you don’t really need anything to serve these with as they have so much going on flavour and texture wise, if you do like something a little extra, here are some easy options:

• Sweet Chilli Sauce:  I love the Ayam Light sweet chilli sauce for a convenient and healthy storebought option, but I also like to make my own sugar free sweet chilli sauce.
• Healthy BBQ Sauce:  I make my own smoky sugar free BBQ sauce which pairs perfectly with the creaminess of these poppers. 

Recipe Tips

• Jalapenos:  Remove all the seeds and white membrane as this is where the heat is.  Even without them they are still spicy.  I find using a teaspoon to remove the seeds and membrane works well.  Wear gloves if you want to avoid getting chilli on your fingers as it can take a while to “wear off”.
• Make Ahead:  If making in batches in your air fryer, you can make them ahead of time and keep them warm in the oven, or cook them all, refrigerate them, and reheat them all in the oven
• Alternative to Bacon:  if you;ve run out of bacon or want to add some variety to the toppings, instead of wrapping in bacon, add the cream cheese filling to the popper, then press down into panko bread crumbs.  This is a great idea for half bacon wrapped poppers, half panko crumb poppers.
• Cook in Batches:  if your air fryer isn’t big enough to lay the poppers in a single layer, cook in batches.  Over crowding the air fryer won’t allow the air to circulate as well and will make it harder to get the crispy golden bacon.
• Toothpicks:  These are important to hold the poppers together whilst cooking.  At first it might seem like the toothpick isn’t needed, but as they are cooking, the bacon may come away, so a toothpick comes in very handy to hold it all together.

You don’t have to go out to have Jalapeno Poppers.  They are easy to make at home and there’s no oil or deep frying needed. This recipe creates perfectly crispy, salty, creamy poppers with a medium level of heat.  Perfect for get together with friends, BBQ’s and Game nights.

More Air Fryer Recipes

• Air Fryer Cauliflower Bites
• Air Fryer Crispy Calamari
• Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets
• Air Fryer Smashed Potatoes