Please a Crowd At Any Time With These Prep Ahead Stuffed Jalapeños (2024)

Recipes
Snacks and Appetizers

These cheese and bacon stuffed jalapeños make a great appetizer for a crowd whether it's game day or a casual weekend get-together.

Elise Bauer

Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.

Learn about Simply Recipes'Editorial Process

Updated April 05, 2024

24 Ratings

Dairy Is the Antidote to Jalapeño Heat

If you find that the pepper you've bitten into is just too hot for your tongue, cool it off with sour cream, milk, or cream cheese. That's the trick and the reason why cheese is so often paired with hot chiles.

There's something in the milk protein that lessens the impact of the capsaicin (the molecules that give chiles their heat). Which is one very good reason why stuffed jalapeños are stuffed with cheese, among other things.

By the way, if you want mild peppers, look for peppers with smooth skins. Striations tend to indicate that the pepper has been stressed while growing, and that can mean a hotter pepper.

Please a Crowd At Any Time With These Prep Ahead Stuffed Jalapeños (5)

Baked Jalapeño Poppers—Mixing It Up

The other good reason why stuffed jalapeños are filled with cheese is they taste good that way! Hank and I decided to experiment with stuffed jalapeños this week.

We stuffed them with cheddar, with jack, with pepper jack, with cream cheese, with bacon mixed with lots of other things, and we ended up with two favorites.

Favorite StuffedJalapeño Flavors

One of our favorite jalapeño poppers was the cream cheese stuffed jalapeño filled with onions, cilantro, cumin and a little bit of jack cheese. The other favorite is similar but has jack cheese and bacon instead of the cream cheese. But you can really do whatever you want here.

Mix it up. Try adding some shrimp, or barbecue sauce. Use queso fresco instead of the cream cheese. Out of the two baked jalapeño poppers recipes below, I loved the way the cream cheese enveloped the jalapeños in my mouth. Hank likes the bacon and jack (well, he would like the bacon version, no duh.)

Please a Crowd At Any Time With These Prep Ahead Stuffed Jalapeños (6)

Why Wear Gloves?

When working with jalapeños, it helps to wear disposable gloves. If you don't have gloves, coat your hands with some cooking oil to protect your skin before working with the peppers. Once you are finished, wash your hands thoroughly with warm soapy water. Do not touch your eyes for several hours after handling the peppers.

Make Ahead

You can prep everything and keep them in the fridge a day ahead, and then bake the peppers when you're ready to serve them.

Do you have a favorite stuffing for stuffed jalapeños or baked jalapeño poppers? We would love to hear about it!

Love Jalapeños? Here Are 5 More Recipes to Try:

BBQ Bacon Jalapeño Poppers
Pineapple Jalapeño Pitcher Margaritas
Cheesy Jalapeño Pul Bread
Jalapeño Bread and Butter Pickles
Jalapeño Cornbread

Baked Stuffed Jalapeños

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time25 mins

Total Time40 mins

Servings12 servings

Ingredients

For the cream cheese filling version:

12 jalapeño peppers (see Recipe Note)
1/4 cup minced onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3/4 cup cream cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon salt (more or less to taste)
2 ounces jack cheese, cut into 2 1/2-inch long batons

For the bacon and jack cheese filling version:

12 jalapeño peppers (see Recipe Note)
1/4 cup chopped cooked bacon
1/4 cup minced onion
1/2 cup shredded jack cheese, plus another 2 ounces of jack cheese cut into 2 1/2-inch long batons
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Method

Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Prepare the jalapeños for stuffing:
You can either slice the jalapeños in half lengthwise or you can slice off the top one-third (lengthwise) of each jalapeño to make a boat shape out of each pepper.
The halved jalapeños will go further (twice as many stuffed peppers), but you can put more filling into the boat-shaped peppers. Your choice.
If you choose to make the boats, you can mince the tops and add them to the filling if you want some extra heat, or save them for another recipe.
In either case, scrape out all the seeds and ribs from each jalapeño with a spoon (a grapefruit spoon works great).
Mix:
Mix together all the filling ingredients except the jack cheese batons.
Stuff the jalapeños:
Pack the filling into the peppers and nestle a baton of jack cheese onto the filling of each one.
Bake:
Arrange the peppers on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake at 375°F for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and lightly browned, and the peppers are cooked.
Cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Did you love the recipe? Let us know with a rating and review!

Stuffed Peppers
Game Day
Super Bowl
Cheese
Green Chiles

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
53	Calories
4g	Fat
2g	Carbs
3g	Protein

Show Full Nutrition Label

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 12
Amount per serving
Calories	53
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 4g	5%
Saturated Fat 2g	10%
Cholesterol 10mg	3%
Sodium 86mg	4%
Total Carbohydrate 2g	1%
Dietary Fiber 1g	3%
Total Sugars 0g
Protein 3g
Vitamin C 2mg	9%
Calcium 87mg	7%
Iron 1mg	3%
Potassium 66mg	1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.