POP! Our Jalapeno Poppers
I mentioned these once, and I'm finally coming back with the 'recipe' and some pictures.
We make two different types. One uses fresh jalapenos, cream cheese, a little mozzarella if you want it, crumbled bacon and breadcrumbs. The other uses fresh jalapenos, cream cheese, mozzarella (again, if you want it) Frank's Red Hot Sauce, diced chicken and bread crumbs. Both of them are yummy, and when I make them, I generally make some of both.
The first thing to do is wash the jalapenos, cut off the stems, cut them lengthwise and remove the seeds and ribs. You should wear gloves when you do this, because there are volatile oils that will get on your hands. If you forget and rub your eye later, even if you've washed hands, it can be really painful. Trust me on this, K?
This time, I used 13 really big jalapenos, so there are 26 halves. I divided one block of low-fat (neufchatel) cream cheese, but not evenly. I put more cream cheese for the bacon ones, since the chicken adds so much volume to the other recipe. I put mozzarella in both, but it's not necessary. I didn't have any diced chicken on hand, so I used a couple of chicken nuggets, chopped up. What a slacker. I go by color with the red-hot sauce. Pale pumpkin seems about right.
Fill each pepper half, about level full. Fill them all before you start with the breading, so that if you have not enough (or too much) you can even things out. I don't coat them in anything to bread them...I just smush the cheesy part into the breadcrumbs. They stick. That's that.
Put them in pans and bake them at 375 degrees.
I just learned this a while back,and I think it's very interesting - the longer you bake them, the milder the peppers become. 20 minutes for hot, 30 for medium, 40 for mild. We are at high altitude, so things take longer to cook. I cook ours for 40 minutes and they come out about medium, and very tasty.
Out of the oven, these are good. They become fantastic when you top them with a bit of thinned down peach jam. Just put a little water in a little jam and warm it up. The flavor combination is really, really good. We've run out of plain jam, so we're using jalapeno-peach jam right now, and that's good too.
The final product:
They are best made fresh, but I make double batches and freeze some 'raw'. When we want to eat them, we pop them in the oven (still frozen) and bake. They come out a little softer, but still really tasty.
I hope you like them - we really do! They are not difficult to make, and they're so yummy!
We make two different types. One uses fresh jalapenos, cream cheese, a little mozzarella if you want it, crumbled bacon and breadcrumbs. The other uses fresh jalapenos, cream cheese, mozzarella (again, if you want it) Frank's Red Hot Sauce, diced chicken and bread crumbs. Both of them are yummy, and when I make them, I generally make some of both.
The first thing to do is wash the jalapenos, cut off the stems, cut them lengthwise and remove the seeds and ribs. You should wear gloves when you do this, because there are volatile oils that will get on your hands. If you forget and rub your eye later, even if you've washed hands, it can be really painful. Trust me on this, K?
This time, I used 13 really big jalapenos, so there are 26 halves. I divided one block of low-fat (neufchatel) cream cheese, but not evenly. I put more cream cheese for the bacon ones, since the chicken adds so much volume to the other recipe. I put mozzarella in both, but it's not necessary. I didn't have any diced chicken on hand, so I used a couple of chicken nuggets, chopped up. What a slacker. I go by color with the red-hot sauce. Pale pumpkin seems about right.
Fill each pepper half, about level full. Fill them all before you start with the breading, so that if you have not enough (or too much) you can even things out. I don't coat them in anything to bread them...I just smush the cheesy part into the breadcrumbs. They stick. That's that.
Put them in pans and bake them at 375 degrees.
I just learned this a while back,and I think it's very interesting - the longer you bake them, the milder the peppers become. 20 minutes for hot, 30 for medium, 40 for mild. We are at high altitude, so things take longer to cook. I cook ours for 40 minutes and they come out about medium, and very tasty.
Out of the oven, these are good. They become fantastic when you top them with a bit of thinned down peach jam. Just put a little water in a little jam and warm it up. The flavor combination is really, really good. We've run out of plain jam, so we're using jalapeno-peach jam right now, and that's good too.
The final product:
They are best made fresh, but I make double batches and freeze some 'raw'. When we want to eat them, we pop them in the oven (still frozen) and bake. They come out a little softer, but still really tasty.
I hope you like them - we really do! They are not difficult to make, and they're so yummy!
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