Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers

We love spicy, savory snacking foods, and our recipe for gluten-free and keto-friendly Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers is just the ticket! These are super quick and easy to make at home for get togethers, game nights, or a simple, fast weeknight meal—just split fresh jalapeno peppers, add cream cheese mixture, wrap with bacon and bake! Make sure to use thin-cut bacon (the thinnest you can find!) and don’t overlap it too much or it won’t crisp up very well. We like our bacon crispy, not limp. Perfect for entertaining, these can be easily prepped ahead of time. Just pop them in a 400° oven for 20 minutes when you’re ready, let them cool and serve with cold beers and plenty of chips and guacamole. We always make short work of eating these poppers—it’s not at all a stretch to eat 4-6 of these per person, so plan accordingly and consider making a double batch! Check out our tips below for some other helpful hints.

How hot are these jalapeño poppers?

Usually, jalapeño peppers provide medium heat, but occasionally you’ll come across some that are hotter than normal. To make them less spicy, make sure to remove all of the seeds. They often aren’t very spicy in our opinion, but we love spicy foods and your heat tolerance might be different from ours. In general, once these are filled with cheeses, roasted and wrapped with crispy bacon, the heat level goes down dramatically in our experience. If you’ve ever roasted chilies, or any vegetable really, you’ll know that the natural sweetness comes forward and helps to balance the flavor, and that’s exactly what happens in this recipe.

Tip: Wear gloves when working with and handling fresh chilies and avoid touching any exposed skin. We have some hilarious (and some not-so-hilarious stories) of friends and coworkers who have not taken this warning to heart and paid the price after rubbing their eyes or face, just for a split second, but the damage was already done.