Bacon. Cream Cheese. Jalapenos. Enough said, right?
These oven-baked little beauties are as delicious as they are easy to make. They’re also easy on the budget – something else we’re all looking for these days.
14 jalapeno peppers
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
7 bacon strips
berry sauce or ranch dressing (optional)
First of all, be careful when working with jalapeno peppers. If you want to be entirely safe, use disposable gloves. Handling the inside of a jalapeno can burn your skin – and if you transfer the oils to your eyes…. AGONY! Take extra precautions and don’t touch your face, whatever you do.
Can you tell that this gal has been there, done that?
For Bacon-Wrapped/Cream Cheese-Stuffed Jalapenos
- Cut a slit in the peppers – lengthwise (pictured above). Remove the seeds and membranes and discard.
- Spread about a teaspoonful of softened cream cheese into each pepper.
- Cut bacon strips in half and partially cook in a skillet. You want them to be pliable, so be sure not to overcook them.
- Wrap each cheese stuffed pepper with bacon and secure with a toothpick.
- Place in an ungreased baking dish and bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 20 – 30 minutes. The longer you bake the peppers, the milder they’ll taste. If you have plenty of peppers to spare, I’d suggest testing one after 20 minutes, then (if that’s too hot) again at 30 minutes. They’ll actually be fine cooked for 45 minutes.
Serve either by themselves or with a little dish of ranch dressing. The bacon wrapped jalapenos drizzled with Ranch dressing are extra pretty and taste fantastic. The ranch helps tone down the heat of these little guys.
Vegetarian Alternative? Just skip the part about wrapping the peppers in pork shawls. Place them in the oven, as is. Either serve plain or use a simplistic berry sauce like the one described below the picture.
For the vegetarian (or baconless) version, I like to make a really simple little “Berry Sauce.” For the peppers shown here, I heated 4 TBS Red Pepper Jelly and 1 TBS Raspberry Preserves until I achieved the consistency I needed for drizzling. You can combine basically whatever fruit preserves you have on hand with red pepper jelly – I just prefer the sweetness of raspberry preserves. Drizzled across the top, it makes an already impressive and pretty dish even more so.
This method creates a sauce that will thicken FAST, so drizzle asap. If it begins to get too thick to drizzle.. which it will… sit your bottle in a cup of hot water.
If you’re feeling adventurous, here’s a Copycat Recipe for Arby’s Bronco Berry Sauce from Top Secret Recipes!
