Best Ever Jalapeño Poppers Recipe

Let me first start by writing that I am not culinarily inclined. Seriously. I love to cook; but that doesn’t mean that I cook well. I have had some success preparing food in the past; but, more often than not, my efforts end in failure. With that said, I’m happy to report that my most recent cooking escapade went extremely well! So well, in fact, that I thought I’d share it with you here.

I‘m pretty sure that I first discovered jalapeño poppers when the guys and I toured through El Paso, Texas a few years back. Growing up in Virginia, I wasn’t around spicy food all that often. Admittedly, I was more of a deep-fat-fried kind of guy. I know that type of food was terrible for me, but Garfield would have been proud. The great thing about jalapeño poppers is that they’re hot, but not overly so. Since they are seeded and fried, a lot of the kick is taken out; so they have a bold taste but won’t melt your face off. In other words, they’re pretty delicious, which is why I set forth to make them.

I’ve included the recipe I used below. I plucked it from allrecipes.com so the credit for this goes to user HLSANDS. If you choose to give this a try sometime, I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did!

Ingredients:

12 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 (8 ounce) package shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon bacon bits
12 ounces jalapeño peppers, seeded and halved
1 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup dry bread crumbs
2 quarts oil for frying

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and bacon bits. Spoon this mixture into the jalapeño pepper halves.
2. Put the milk and flour into two separate small bowls. Dip the stuffed jalapeños first into the milk then into the flour, making sure they are well coated with each. Allow the coated jalapeños to dry for about 10 minutes.
3. Dip the jalapeños in milk again and roll them through the breadcrumbs. Allow them to dry, then repeat to ensure the entire surface of the jalapeño is coated.
4. In a medium skillet, heat the oil to 365 degrees F ( 180 degrees C). Deep fry the coated jalapeños 2 to 3 minutes each, until golden brown. Remove and let drain on a paper towel.

A word of warning: before cutting your jalapeños, I’d totally recommend putting on some gloves. Maybe I’m just a pansy, but those jalapeño juices burned the hell out of my bare hands! Also, you may want to allot about an hour or so to make these. The recipe looks fairly basic, but it took me a while to prepare. Cleaning up the mess afterwards was pretty time consuming as well. However, it was totally worth it.

What’s your favorite food? If you have a recipe that you enjoy, I hope you’ll pass it along! Who knows, maybe I’ll share it in a future food-related post. Why not? I had a delicious time putting this one together

Hope this finds you feeling healthy!

-Mason