This recipe is my way of simplifying a baked stuffed jalapeno recipe. The original recipe was  given to me by a co-worker.  She instructed me to cut the peppers in half lengthwise, clean out the seeds and veins, and then fill them with cream cheese.  These filled pepper halves were then wrapped with one-third to one-half of a slice of bacon.  Then they are baked until the bacon is crispy and crumbly, and the cheese is warm and gooey.   They are delicious, too.  Unfortunately, they take a while to wrap with bacon.  The bacon has to be secured with toothpicks.    It’s very time consuming.  I love to cook, but I love to visit with my guests, too.

I came up with a different way to make stuffed jalapenos that didn’t require quite as much hands-on time.The first step remains the same.  The peppers are halved and the seeds and veins removed.The peppers are set aside while I mix together a block of cream cheese and some crumbled bacon.  Once the mixture is well combined, fill each of the jalapeno halves with the mixture and arrange them on a parchment lined baking sheet.  You can bake them as they are, but if you want to go a step further, you can either dip the top of the filled jalapeno in some more shredded cheese, or you can make use of those last little crumbs in the bottom of your tortilla chip bag.  (I’m always finding a bag full of these in the back of my pantry.)Crush the tortilla chips into a fine crumb, then dip the exposed cream cheese into the tortilla chip crumbs.  You can also spoon the tortilla crumbs over the top, pressing down to secure them to the cream cheese mixture.   You can also skip this step and bake them without any breading, but I like the crunch this adds. Return them to the baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly,  and the topping lightly browned.  You will hear them sizzling when you open the oven to check.  The result is one of Baker’s Man’s favorite appetizers.  These can also be made a day in advance and stored in the refrigerator, minus the crumb topping,  until you are ready to bake them.  Allow them to sit for 5 minutes after removing them from the oven  before serving.    The filling is very hot and needs to cool off a bit before you try to eat them.   Give Stuffed Jalapenos a try and let us know what you think.  Thanks for visiting Patty Cake’s Pantry.