Air Fryer Bacon Jalapeño Bombs

Oh man, has it been awhile since I last posted a recipe on here! In the time that has passed I have moved states, bought a house, and gave birth to a tiny human! While all of this has happened I have kept up cooking but have completely dropped the ball on posting. That changes here. I have gotten so many cool gadgets to aid in my adventure to cook all things delicious. One of my newest toys is my new air fryer.

 

I can say without any doubt that I completely love it! I make so many amazing things in here and they come out fantastic. Deliciously crispy without having all that grease in the house. I don’t have to worry about smelling the grease, discarding the grease, or cleaning up after the grease. Best part is despite the lack of grease I’m not having to give up flavor or that wonderful crunchy, crispy texture that we all know and love when it comes to having something deep fried.

My family tends to make a lot of french fries and nuggets for the little one. This thing cooks faster than the oven, no grease from a fryer, and not mushy from the microwave. HUGE WIN!

 

I am not here to talk about the nuggets I make for my 18 month year old today, Im here to talk about some delicious jalapeño poppers. Not those breaded frozen things you buy at the store, I tried those and they do not compare. Homemade is truly better in this case and they really don’t take much time to toss together either. I made these in my air fryer and omg! These cooked up in 11 minutes!!!!! This recipe is for 10 delicious bacon wrapped poppers that turn out so good you will have trouble waiting for them to cool down enough to pop right in your mouth. The creamy cheesy yummy filling pairs so perfectly with the bit of heat from the jalapeño and of course bacon. Bacon speaks for itself, anything wrapped in bacon is going to be fantastic. So lets jump to the ingredients I used!

• 5 Jalapeno Peppers (Bigger is better!)
• 2oz room temp cream cheese
• 2oz shredded cheddar cheese
• 5 slices bacon cut in half
• fresh ground pepper

 

Not a lot of ingredients and all stuff you’ll be able to get at your local store or probably already have in your fridge.

So what you wanna do is cut up your Jalapeños. First cut off the stems then slice them vertically so each jalapeño goes from 1 whole pepper to 2 perfect pockets ready for stuffing! Use a spoon to scoop out all the seeds.

For the stuffing, literally all you do is mix your cream cheese, cheddar, and a bit of pepper. Thats it.

Take a bit of the filling and put it into your jalapeño half. I freshly grated my cheddar as I find it melts better but you don’t have too. I had a bit of cheddar leftover so I put it on top of the mix.

Don’t overstuff the poppers if its too much then it’ll just melt out into the bottom of the air fryer, then you’ll have less deliciousness to eat! No-one wants that!

Next we take our bacon and wrap it! 1 half piece of bacon per popper.

Try to get as much coverage as you can and simply secure it with a toothpick.

Please let whoever is eating them know there is a toothpick there… I mean that is if you share these and don’t eat them all yourself!!

This is thick cut bacon as its what I had in the fridge but if you use regular Im sure this will come out just as delicious and possibly have crispier bacon.

We are almost done making these guys! By this point I had been in the kitchen about 10 minutes. That means between prep and cook time you are less than half an hour away from jalapeño cheesy bacon goodness!

I put a bit of aluminum foil on the bottom part of my air fryer to kinda help with cleanup. Then I lay these in a single layer in the basket.

375 for 11 minutes

Now this is how it turned out!! There  was also some melted cheese the kinda spilled over that is piled on this plate. Thats why I say not to overfill them!

These were delicious. My husband loved them, I loved them, my son cried because I wouldn’t share. True story, I didn’t think he’d really appreciate the jalapeño like we did lol. These are completely customizable too. I think next time I make these I may add some chives to the filling or even sun dried tomatoes and basil. You can try different types of cheese as well, maybe instead of cheddar you do a gouda, gruyere or even like swiss. Make this recipe with your own flair!

I hope you try this recipe and enjoy it as much as my family did! Enjoy!