Bacon-wrapped Jalapeno poppers

I know it’s been forever since I’ve posted. School is sucking me dry and my second-week-of-September sinus infection arrived a week early. Now it’s good old fashioned bronchitis just to make things more interesting.

But I did something today that I want to share with the world. It’s not new or revolutionary. I’m sure there are a ton of Pinterest posts about it already.

I wrapped bacon around peppers stuffed with sausage and cream cheese. And baked them. Then devoured them. With zero regret. ZERO!

I posted a pic to twitter and snagged the attention of Brittany, who is my SEC football diva-in-crime. She’s as much a huge LSU fan as I am Bama. We agree to part ways on the game involving those two teams, but the rest of the time, she and I love to talk football. She wanted the recipe and I typed it out for her. I thought I might as well post it here even though I’ve been lacking in having a life, lately. I’ll do a catch-up post later. I just can’t let these things remain hidden in my kitchen. I’m not going to fancy up the recipe. These beautiful bites do not need anything fancy.

Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers

Prep time: 30 minutes (first time I did this..45 minutes)

Cook time: 40 minutes

A few things to keep in mind:

1. This recipe isn’t exact. You will have some stuffing left over, but if I half the recipe, I don’t have quite enough. The stuffing is awesome in mushrooms, or as a hot dip for crackers/chips.
2. I have burned my hands from handling jalapenos. The oils got deep in my “drumstick” part of my thumbs/hands. The deep burning lasted a few hours. I use now use gloves to take out the seeds and membranes.
3. The bacon needs to be regular length bacon. I tried the center cut which is shorter and the pieces didn’t wrap very far on my fat peppers. The regular length works much better.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of ground pork sausage
• 2 cups of shredded Swiss cheese
• 1 package of cream cheese 8oz.
• ½ cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• 10 Jalapeños
• 1 package of bacon, cut in half

1. Get cream cheese out to start softening. Grate other cheeses and set aside.
2. Cook sausage fully in a skillet.
3. Cut the stems off peppers, then cut peppers lengthwise. Remove white membrane and seeds. To further reduce the heat, use a spoon to scrape out the ribs that held the white stuff. If you have one of those grapefruit spoons with the serrated edges, that is the perfect tool for these. Otherwise, use a regular spoon or paring knife.
4. Now preheat oven to 350*
5. Mix the stuffing: In a large bowl, add the sausage (drained) to cream cheese, Swiss, and cheddar. Mix thoroughly.
6. Fill the peppers with stuffing. Take a bite of stuffing every now and then to make sure it’s still good 😉
7. Wrap each one with half a slice of bacon.
8. Line a cookie sheet pan with foil. I can fit 20 peppers snugly on a regular sized cookie sheet.
9. Bake 40 minutes. Remove peppers to paper towel to drain off excess bacon grease. They will be swimming in it. OR, I just tilt the pan over a bowl and most of it pours off.