Sometimes recipes just speak to you. Yesterday I came across this recipe for Stuffed Jalapeños from The New York Times and was just like, “I need that in my life.” So, I ran out to the store yesterday afternoon and bought the ingredients. As always, I threw my spin on the recipe and ended up with these Cheesy Stuffed Jalapeños. And while I’m eating these tasty little jalapeño poppers on my own, they’d make a great little appetizer or party finger food to share with your friends!
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Keep Your Costs in Check
Cheese is usually pretty expensive, so I mixed my filling with some slightly lower cost ingredients to help bring the price down. Sour cream is about half the price per pound as cheese, plus it helps smooth out the filling making it easy to scoop and spread. Green onions not only give great flavor, but they also help bulk up the filling a bit. But most importantly, I just made sure not to go overboard when filling my peppers. By balancing the inexpensive peppers with the more expensive filling, I was able to stretch the price out over more food. Sometimes you just have to hold back with that cheesy goodness and be “reasonable.”
Can I Make These Stuffed Jalapeños Ahead?
Yes. You can prepare and stuff the jalapeños ahead, then refrigerate, and bake just before serving. I suggest trying to make them no more than a day ahead of time, though, as the filling may start to get a little watery as the salt draws out liquid from the scallions and jalapeños.
Can I Add Meat to the Stuffed Jalapeños?
Yes! If you want to get a little more involved, you can add a little meat to your stuffed jalapeños. Bacon and sausage both pair well with cheese and jalapeños. To add sausage, simply brown some ground Italian sausage, then stir it into the cheese filling before stuffing the jalapeños. For bacon, you can either cook the bacon and crumble it into the filling, or wrap the stuffed jalapeños with raw slices of bacon. You may need to bake them slightly longer with the bacon wrapper than you do without bacon.
P.S. Wear some sort of rubber or plastic gloves while working with the peppers to help avoid spreading those spicy oils to your eyes or other sensitive areas. That stuff will STING.
Cheesy Scallion Stuffed Jalapeños
Servings 24 pieces (4 per serving)Ingredients
- 4 oz. cream cheese ( $1.00)
- 4 oz. Monterey jack, shredded ($1.00)
- 1/4 cup sour cream ($0.25)
- 3 scallions (green onions), sliced ($0.17)
- 1 clove garlic, minced ($0.08)
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves ($0.20)
- 1/2 tsp chili powder ($0.05)
- 1/8 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 12 jalapeños ($2.45)
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment. In a medium bowl, stir together the cream cheese, Monterey jack, sour cream, scallions, garlic, cilantro, chili powder, and salt.
- Carefully slice each jalapeño down the center, lengthwise. Use a spoon to scrape out the ribs and seeds. Dip your fingers in the cooking oil and spread the oil over the outer surface of the peppers.
- Spoon about 1 Tbsp of the filling into each hallowed jalapeño half. Arrange the peppers on the prepared baking sheet in a single layer (use two baking sheets if necessary).
- Bake the peppers in the preheated oven for 18-22 minutes, or until the peppers have softened and the cheese on top is slightly browned. Serve hot.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to make Stuffed Jalapeños – Step by Step Photos
Start by preparing the filling. In a medium bowl, stir together 4oz. cream cheese, 4oz. shredded Monterey jack, 1/4 cup sour cream, 3 green onions (sliced), 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves, 1 clove of garlic (minced), 1/2 tsp chili powder, and 1/8 tsp salt.
Stir until everything is really well mixed, then set the filling aside. Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
Slice 12 jalapeños lengthwise, then use a spoon to scrape out the ribs and seeds. You can cut the stems off first if you like, but I decided that I prefer to leave the stems on. They help hold in the cheese as they bake and the stems kind of act as a nice little handle for the appetizer. Once scooped out, dip your fingers in a little cooking oil and spread the oil over the outer surface of the peppers.
Line a baking sheet with parchment (or two baking sheets if needed). Scoop about 1 Tbsp of the filling into each jalapeño and spread it end to end. Because peppers vary in size, the amount of filling might not be exact. Once filled, arrange the peppers on the prepared baking sheet so they are not overlapping.
Bake the peppers for 18-22 minutes, or until the peppers look soft and the cheese is slightly browned. Cooking time will depend on the size of your peppers, so just watch them closely. Serve the Cheesy Scallion Stuffed Jalapeños while hot!
I’m not sure I can even explain how hard it was for me to stop after three peppers… Three pepper halves, anyway. My mouth was saying yes, but my stomach was saying, “You better quit before you regret it!” 😂
I had to tweak this when I made it:
Used plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream because that’s all I had.
I didn’t use the scallions
Doubled the recipe except for the garlic
Put in cooked back bits and didn’t add the salt.
They were gone in less than 10 minutes!
Been making jalapeno poppers for years, I tried this recipe last week and had to make again this week.
I learned this from Gordon Ramsey- to easily remove the seeds from the peppers, simply take the palm of your hands and gently push down on the pepper. Roll back and forth on a cutting board a few times while still pushing down. Then slice off the stem and tap/shake the pepper gently and the seeds will easily fall out!
These were delicious, recipe followed as is plus the addition of some panko breadcrumbs sprinkled on top for some crunch as suggested by another commenter. The jalapenos weren’t too spicy since the seeds were removed. The flavor was really savory and balanced especially for something really simple and quick to prepare. I will definitely be making these again!
Not the first time I’ve made this mistake- definitely take the advise to use gloves when handling so many jalapenos! I got lazy and didn’t and my hands burned for a couple hours.
Made these last week as written, not really paying attention to the servings. I ended up freezing half the batch and they reheated beautifully from frozen in about 15 mins at 375. Love these and will make (and freeze!) a double batch next time. These will be great to have on hand during football and anytime, really ;) love your site!
I have made these twice now and they are delicious! Thank you for a great recipe. Your website is amazeballs.
I’m one of those weird people who has problems with alliums–specifically raw onions which taste to me like pure sulfur. I’m not crazy about scallions either, particularly when they end up hard little lumps in stir fries and other savory dishes. I guess the only item in this botanical family I can tolerate raw is garlic. BUT–I adore cooked onions and usually have some sauteed soft onions in my fridge to toss into nearly anything. I used them for this absolutely delicious treat–I would suggest that folks who want a milder popper, use poblano peppers cut in quarters lengthwise.
I have been jonsing for decent jalepeno poppers since I worked at a Tex/Mex joint 100 years ago. I must make these with a panko/butter topping…I need a crispy-crunch with my poppers! Now if I could only get all my friends to move back so I could serve these at a party. (All my friends live far away. So sad!)
These look great, and they seem easy to make into a Vegan version. It’s always good to have a go to appetizer anytime of the year!
One other way to cut down the cost of the recipe is maybe try a local market for your peppers. I can get the same about for only $1.00! Thanks for sharing!
I can get jalapenos all day long for about $2.25 per lb at any of my local supermarkets–and less when peppers are on special or during the summer at a local farmers’ market. Cilantro, however, is expensive (almost $2.00 per bunch, or about $8 or more per lb) so I grow my own, nor is cheese ever downright cheap.
These look great!
P.S. I miss the weekly recap :)
I have some (fresh) frozen whole jalapeños from my csa last fall. Do you think this would work ok with previously frozen peppers?
Hm, now that I think about it, I’ve been using frozen green/yellow/red pepper hunks in a dish calling for sliced cheese and an anchovy, then roasted, and they come out great, and this isn’t that far off, as an idea. Thanks! It never occurred to me to do this with jalapeños! :)
Someone please remind me why I’m vegan? Right. These look great though!!!
My husband accidentally picked up vegan cream cheese once and it was impressive – we finished the whole tub of it on our bagels! I don’t remember its melting-action, but as Michelle says (above), I think you could totally make these vegan!
We also love these on the grill! I usually pop them in the microwave for 5-7 minutes just to get the peppers softened a bit and then finish them off on the grill.
Mmmm nom nom nom. I love this blog.