Once upon a time, long long ago, MrGillis and I had what you could call a “social life”- punctuated by events, friend type people and even the occasional late night.
On one such occasion- we had a potluck unBBQ and requested that people bring something different from the usual bbq fare.
A friend who had recently lost a lot of weight asked if we’d be ok with her bringing a “diet” food and we told her “of course!”, because this is free food we’re talking about.
Well, she brought with her a variation of these baked jalapeno poppers and they were a huge hit. They are a delicious, healthy version of a bar favorite that are fairly easy to make, if a bit time consuming until you get the hang of it.
So time to gather your ingredients.
This is my recipe to make 30 finished poppers.
What you Need:
- 15 fresh jalapenos
- 1 egg
- 1 lime
- Hard Sharp Cheddar Cheese
- 2 Garlic Cloves
- 1 package FULL FAT regular cream cheese
- Japense Style Panko bread crumbs
- Sour cream (pictured separately because I forgot to include it the first time)
- Olive oil
- Garlic Powder
- Onion Powder
- Cilantro
- Salt
- Pepper
Preheat your oven to 325 and get to work.
Step one is to split your peppers and clean them out really well. You can wear gloves when you do this to protect your skin, but I don’t honestly. I just rinse my hands in milk and then wash with soap and water before touching anything else.
Step two is to make the filling –
- Soften the Cream Cheese in your mixer
- Add in egg
- squeeze in the juice from half your lime
- add 2 tbsp sour cream
- add crushed garlic cloves
- add 1/4 cup shredded cheddar
- season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and cilantro to taste
I use probably 1/2 tsp each of the salt and pepper and then heaping 1/2 tablespoons of the garlic and onion powders… cilantro I literally just shake in until it smells like enough.
I know, I’m such a stickler for details. Wait, it gets better.
Step three is to mix your dry breading mix that you will coat your pepper with.
For this step, you need Plain Panko, Garlic and Onion Powders and Cilantro. Basically, throw a bunch of all of it onto a plate, blend together with your fingers and then move on.
Step four is to stuff your cream cheese mix into your peppers and then cover in your panko crumb mixture. Drizzle a very little amount of olive oil over the tops to keep the bottoms from burning… like 1 tsp or cap full….
Yeah, I know, super pretty.
Once your peppers are stuffed and covered with crumbs, throw those suckers in the over for at least 30 minutes. We like our peppers SUPER cooked so we’ve kept them in as long as a hour before. They really just get better.
On the other hand, if you like a firm pepper just cook for 20 minutes and then use your broiler to get the crumbs to the desired golden brown. 
I eat them as is, but MrGillis insists that they HAVE to be dipped in pizza sauce (i’ve questioned his taste level for years.)
Either way, I hope you enjoy them and impress your friends for many nonbbqs to come.
Until next time, have a wicked good day.
Gillis Gardens, LLC 