How to Make High-Protein Jalapeño Poppers
Jalapeño poppers are one of those “naughty” foods that always look and sound so good. But between the cheese-like substances a lot of places pack their jalapeños with and the deep frying that often happens, it’s a snack food to steer clear from.
Until now.
This jalapeño poppers recipe is the perfect food to serve on game night, as an appetizer, when you’re watching a movie or just because. It’s probably one of the healthiest jalapeño popper recipes out there, too.
Healthy? Yep. For a two-popper serving, it’s 157 calories and very good on macros: 3.5 grams of carbs, 12 grams of fat and 10 grams protein.
Key ingredients
These poppers are stuffed with delicious feta and goat cheese. Because goat milk is superior to cow’s milk, that means you’re going to get a ton of calcium and vitamins without the amount of inflammation that cow’s milk can invoke.
People who have trouble digesting cow’s milk often find that goat cheese doesn’t bother them in the same way. And feta cheese is one of the healthiest cheeses on the planet.
These stuffed jalapeño peppers are also full of flavor, thanks to a zesty blend of cumin, chili powder, paprika and oregano. These combine to produce a Tex-Mex like flavor.
So we can avoid pork, here we use turkey bacon. If you can get your hands on beef bacon, that’s a great option, too.
And finally, because every spicy snack needs a cooling dip, this pairs deliciously well with our creamy, homemade avocado ranch dressing. Yes, you need to make this one!
How to make jalapeño poppers
Start by halving the jalapeño peppers and preheating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line one or two baking sheets with parchment paper (depending on how big your peppers are), and set aside.
Dice up half a white onion. Get out the spices: cumin, chili powder, paprika and oregano.
You’re also going to skip the yellow processed cheese that’s found in most jalapeño popper recipes and instead head straight to the good stuff: feta and goat cheese.
Mix together all the ingredients, minus the jalapeño peppers and turkey bacon, in a medium-sized bowl, until it’s all well combined.
Then, using your hands and a spoon, stuff each pepper with the cheesy mixture. Next, wrap each stuffed jalapeño pepper with a slice of turkey bacon.
If you’d like to keep some of the poppers meat-free, you can skip the turkey bacon on some. These jalapeño peppers are tasty even without the bacon. Your vegetarian friends will thank you later!
Bake the poppers for 20 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly, and serve this jalapeño poppers recipe warm with the avocado ranch dressing.
Other appetizers or game day snacks
- Buffalo chicken dip
- Chili cheese dip
- Cowboy caviar
- Loaded nachos
- Avocado deviled eggs
- Goat cheese and artichoke dip
- Homemade hummus
- Spicy kale chips
Jalapeño Poppers Recipe
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
This jalapeño poppers recipe is the perfect food to serve on game night or as an appetizer for an outdoor meal.
Ingredients
- 12 jalapeño peppers, stemmed removed, sliced in ½ length-wise and seeds removed
- ½ white onion, diced
- 1 package turkey bacon (or beef bacon)
- ½ cup goat feta
- ½ cup shredded goat cheese
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- sea salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Line a baking sheet, or two, with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium-sized bowl add everything except the jalapeños and turkey bacon, mixing until well-combined.
- Using your hands, fill each halved jalapeño with the cheese mixture.
- Wrap jalapeño with turkey bacon and place on baking sheet.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
- Pair with our avocado ranch dressing, optional.
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Category: Appetizers
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Mexican
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 poppers (85 g)
- Calories: 157
- Sugar: 1.8g
- Sodium: 110mg
- Fat: 11.7g
- Saturated Fat: 5.7g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5.1g
- Trans Fat: 0.06g
- Carbohydrates: 3.5g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 10g
- Cholesterol: 48mg
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I can’t wait to make this recipe. For my little grandson I’ll use the other sweet peppers, and the jalapenos for me thanks dr. Axe your wonderful dr.
Very good stuff
Nita, I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe!
I think you forgot to print the avocado ranch dressing!
Hi Reba, I linked to the recipe in the article, but here it is again for convenience: https://draxe.com/recipes/avocado-ranch-dressing/. I hope this helps! Blessings.
Make sure you wear gloves when handling peppers or you’ll be trying to figure out how to stop your hands from burning and possibly your mouth or eyes.
Great advice! Thanks, Bina.
What is the avocado ranch dressing.
A link is provided in the article, but you can find it here for convenience: https://draxe.com/recipes/avocado-ranch-dressing/. I hope this helps!
This recipe looks interesting. However, I’ll have to hunt down some Beef Bacon to try. Turkey bacon is just not okay in my world! But, I never did care for the cauliflower substitute for mashed potatoes either.
Beef bacon sounds great too! Let us know if you try it and what you think.
How spicy hot are these jalapeño peppers?
They have a bit of a kick to them, but you can tone them down by removing all the seeds and reducing the spices.
I’d love it if you’d make recipes printable please.
Number 7 – Pair with our… (what??)
I think that’s the avocado ranch dressing missing ;)
Thanks, Rachel! You are correct.
These are my favorite spices and veggie w/ the best cheeses! I am making these this weekend with peppers I have frozen from my vines the previous season!!!