WORLD’S BEST JALAPEÑO POPPERS
For me, Super Bowl Sunday always includes a delicious assortment of appetizers and desserts. In all honesty, I never know who is playing in the Super Bowl until the day of, but I still look forward to it for a few reasons: getting together with friends and family, hearing someone either rock (or butcher) the national anthem, better-than-average commercials, a fun halftime show, and the FOOD.
I’ve made these jalapeño poppers for the past few Super Bowls. My dad created this recipe and, like we have said before (and will say again), his recipes are the best. We all worship everything he does in the kitchen, and these poppers are no exception. Most people have discovered that jalapeños, bacon, and cream cheese were made for each other, but few have been let in on the secret that a little fresh basil, crushed garlic, chopped sun dried tomatoes, and lemon zest will take an ordinary popper and transform it into something DIVINE.
One thing I want to mention is this: when picking out your jalapeños, the secret is choosing the ones which are medium sized! Don’t grab the huge ones, and don’t grab the puny ones. They need to be big enough to fit a decent amount of filling in them when they are cut in half, but not so large that they take forever to cook!
So, let’s begin! You start with this all-star cast of ingredients:
I know I only show a few basil leaves in this picture, don’t let it deceive you. I ended up using at least twice as many as this by the end! And my shallot was a little on the large size. I used about 3/4 of it.
Prep the jalapeños by cutting them in half length-wise and scooping out the seeds. Chop off the long stems, but make sure to keep a little lip on the end so the filling won’t fall out. You want them to look like long, shallow jalapeño-shaped bowls. Once they are all sliced and seeded, set them aside while you prep your filling.
Unwrap the cream cheese and microwave it for 5-10 seconds if it is still super cold. Now, add the garlic (I use a garlic press), 1/4 tsp kosher salt, 1 minced shallot, 1/4 c of chopped sun dried tomatoes, the zest of one lemon, and a large handful of chopped fresh basil leaves.
Now it’s time for the bacon. Take a big knife and cut your entire pack of bacon in half. You only use a half piece of bacon for each jalapeño half. Take the fattest part of bacon and place it over your filling, then wrap it around and use the other end to cover up the rest of the filling. The key here is covering up your filling so it doesn’t ooze out when your poppers are cooking!
Now, place all your peppers on your baking sheet. I put a cooling rack inside my pan under the poppers to keep them from sitting in the bacon grease while they cook. You don’t have to put them on a rack, but if you have one, you should try it.
World’s BEST Jalapeño Poppers
by Clark Frogley
Ingredients:
- 12-13 medium-sized jalapeños, cut in half and seeded
- 12-13 strips of smoked bacon, cut in half
- 1 pkg philadelphia cream cheese, softened
- Large handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
- 1 small shallot, minced
- 1/4 c sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, minced
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Directions:
- Prep jalapeños by cutting them in half and using a spoon to remove the seeds. Set aside.
- Mix all remaining ingredients except for the bacon in a mixing bowl and combine well.
- Use a spoon to spread some filling into each half jalapeño, filling them level with the sides of the pepper.
- Wrap each half pepper with a half piece of bacon. Be sure to overlap slightly and cover all of the filling with the bacon.
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (optional: and place a cooling rack on top of the foil inside your pan). Now line peppers in the pan. You don’t want them to be touching each other.
- Bake peppers at 350º for 25-30 minutes, or until the bacon is nice and crispy and the filling is oozing slightly.
- Remove from the oven and serve warm!
