Air Fryer Jalapeno Poppers

These Air Fryer Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno 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 20minutes.

Course Appetizer

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

Total Time 20

Servings poppers

Calories 275kcal

Author Kim

Equipment

Air Fryer

Ingredients

12 medium Jalapenos sliced in half, seeds and membranes removed, stem preserved
1 cup Cream cheese light or regular (softened at room temperature)
¼ cup Grated or shredded cheese eg: cheddar
½ teaspoon Smoked Paprika
¼ teaspoon Garlic powder
¼ teaspoon Onion powder
24 slices of long thin Bacon strips or prosciutto

Instructions

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.
Make Filling: Add softened cream cheese, grated cheese, smoked paprika, garlic powder and onion powder to a bowl and mix together until combined
Add filling to Poppers: using a small spoon, fill each popper casing, smoothing out the top with the back of a spoon
Preheat air fryer on 325 degrees F/160 degrees C
Wrap Poppers: take one piece of bacon and wrap around the popper and use a toothpick to fasten it in place
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.
Cook: cook at 325 degrees F/160 degrees C for approximately 12 minutes until the bacon is golden and crispy.
Serve: Serve with your favourite dipping sauce like ranch, BBQ or aioli.

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! For an extra smoky flavour, increase smoked paprika to 1 teaspoon.
Calories: calories are based on 4 half jalapeno poppers per person. So for 6 people that would be 4 each.

Nutrition