Bacon-wrapped Shrimp Jalapeño Poppers

Bacon-wrapped Shrimp Jalapeño Poppers are made with four of my favorite things: spicy jalapeños, sharp cheese, pan-fried shrimp and bacon. They are super easy to put together and bake up crispy in the oven. Make them ahead of time and bake when you are ready to serve.



My grocery stores here in Dubai are hit or miss when it comes to some ingredients. All year-round we can find the little red chili peppers that are often used in Asian cooking but habaneros and jalapeños turn up less frequently. I’ve learned over the last almost four years of living here to take advantage, and quickly, when I see those two.

I make my own habanero sauce that we eat on just about everything so I buy the peppers, remove the stems and wash them immediately. Then I freeze them in a Ziploc bag until I am ready to make sauce. Making habanero sauce requires weather cool enough to open the windows and doors to let some fresh air in and that won’t happen here until a little later in the year.

When decent-sized jalapeños appear, I make poppers. Traditional jalapeño poppers are filled with cheese, breaded and deep-fried but for many years, I’ve been either breading and baking mine, or wrapping them in bacon and baking them. Either way makes a fabulous, delicious jalapeño popper.

I’ve been on kind of a shrimp kick lately, with last week’s bacon-wrapped spicy baked shrimp and spicy salmon shrimp burgers on this blog and, even today, make sure you check out my Cucumber Shrimp Cups on the Sunday Supper Movement website. They are pretty and tasty!

When there were jalapeños in my local grocery store and Sunday Supper announced a football food theme, I knew what I had to do! Add shrimp to my bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers as well. Best decision ever! If you are gearing up for football season, you'll want to make these and possibly everything else on the list below. Let the games begin!

Ingredients
24 medium shrimp, peeled and cleaned
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 1/2 oz or 100g cream cheese, softened
3 1/2 oz or 100g extra sharp cheddar, grated
2 cloves garlic, garlic pressed or very finely minced
12 fresh jalapeños
12 slices streaky bacon

Method
Preheat your oven to 425°F or 218°C.

Heat a skillet and drizzle in the olive oil. Quickly cook the shrimp for a few minutes, sprinkling them with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Cut jalapeños in half lengthwise. I like to cut carefully through the stem as well so each half still looks like it has a stem.

Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and membranes. If you don’t like things too spicy, you can discard these. I like to add them to the cheese filling.

Mix together the cream cheese, cheddar, garlic and salt. Chop the membranes of the jalapeños and add them in along with the seeds, if desired. Give the whole bowl a few good grinds of black pepper and mix again.

Fill the jalapeño halves with the cheese mixture. Top them with a shrimp each. Cut the bacon slices in two and wrap one around each shrimp topped jalapeño popper.  Secure the bacon with a toothpick.

Set them in a baking pan.

Bake for 20 minutes in your preheated oven or until bacon is crispy and cheese is turning golden as well.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to our host today, Coleen of The Redhead Baker and our event manager, Shelby of Grumpy's Honeybunch. How I wish I could get together with all my Sunday Supper friends to watch football. Who am I kidding? I really just want to eat all these fabulous dishes!


Appetizers

• Atomic Buffalo Turds by Fantastical Sharing of Recipes
• Avocado Corn Salad by Books 'n Cooks
• Bacon-wrapped Shrimp Jalapeño Poppers by Food Lust People Love
• BLT Bites by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Buffalo Cauliflower Bites by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Buffalo Chicken Meatballs by Highlands Ranch Foodie
• Buffalo Chicken Taquitos with Cilantro Crème by Cooking with Carlee
• Chipotle Lime Chicken Fajita Sliders by Flavor Mosaic
• Cucumber Shrimp Cups by Sunday Supper Movement
• Game Day Burger Sliders by Dessert Geek
• Gyro Meatballs & Herbed Yogurt Dip by My Life Cookbook
• Ham and Salami Rollups by Bottom Left of the Mitten
• Healthier Patatas Bravas by Caroline's Cooking
• Kale Pesto Dip by Cooking Chat
• Lemony Chicken Wings by Basic N Delicious
• Liptauer (Hungarian Cheese Spread) by Curious Cuisinere
• Loaded Guacamole by Casa de Crews
• Loaded Smashed Potatoes by The Hungry Goddess
• Mexican Spinach Dip by Meal Planning Magic
• Nachodillas with Jalapeño Bean Dip by Palatable Pastime
• No-Bake Almond Energy Bites by Pies and Plots
• PB&J Wings by The Crumby Cupcake
• Pork Belly Sliders by Grumpy's Honeybunch
• Queso Blanco Dip by Life Tastes Good
• Roasted Jalapeno and Chorizo Queso by The Texan New Yorker
• Sausage Pizza Dip from Family Foodie
• Ultimate Taco Dip by Monica's Table

Main Dishes

• Bacon Swiss Burger Sliders by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Black Bean Chili by Cricket's Confections
• Blackberry Sriracha BBQ Wings by Cosmopolitan Cornbread
• Honey Lime BBQ Chicken Thighs by Our Good Life
• Mexican Pizza by Chef Next Door
• Oven-Fried Chicken Tenders by Food Done Light
• Oven-Fried Fish Sliders by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
• Philly Cheesesteak Sliders by The Redhead Baker
• White Chicken Chili by Powered by BLING

Side Dishes

• Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad by Crazed Mom

Desserts

• 5-Ingredient Buckeye Dip by A Mind Full Mom
• Brownie Bomb Bars by Turnips 2 Tangerines
• Chocolate Football Cookies by The Freshman Cook
• Miso Salted Caramel Ice Cream Sandwiches by Ninja Baker
• Touchdown Popcorn Toffee Bark by The Weekend Gourmet
• White Chocolate Toffee Chunk Cookies by That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Pin Bacon-wrapped Shrimp Jalapeño Poppers!

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Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Popper Stuffed Chicken

Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Popper Stuffed Chicken is EXACTLY what it sounds like: Jalapeño popper stuffing in chicken breasts, wrapped in bacon and baked to crispy perfection. It's like your favorite appetizer in a dinner-sized portion.

There was a time last year when I was on a serious jalapeño popper kick, starting with this recipe for jalapeño popper chicken chili topped with crispy bacon. It was freaking fantastic! Not just as chili but also as a hot dip with chips.

Then I got the idea that a bacon jalapeño popper grilled cheese sandwich would be good. And, oh, my mercy me! Was I RIGHT!

Then I made these divine bacon-wrapped jalapeño popper stuffed chicken breasts from Closet Cooking. I was on a roll, folks! But here’s where I failed you. I never did share them.

But seeing as how it’s the beginning of the second week of Bacon Month,  I’m about to rectify that!

Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Popper Stuffed Chicken

Flattening chicken breasts helps them cook faster and tenderizes them, but the best part is that, thanks to their increased surface area, you can stuff them with jalapeño popper ingredients and wrap them with bacon before roasting.

Ingredients
3 chicken breasts
Salt and pepper to taste

For the filling:
3 jalapeños
4 oz or 115g grated cheddar cheese
4 oz or 115g cream cheese (at room temperature)

To wrap:
6 slices streaky smoked bacon

Method
Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Lay your chicken breasts between two pieces of cling film and gently pound them thin with a rolling pin. Season them with salt and pepper on both sides.

Chop your jalapeños finely and mix them together with your cheddar and cream cheese.

Put one third of your stuffing mix on each chicken breast.

Roll them up, tucking in the sides as you go.

Wrap each roll with two slices of the bacon.

Bake in your preheated oven until the bacon is golden and the chicken is cooked through. This should take about half an hour.

Enjoy!

Jalapeño Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Way back in February, I was minding my own business when a certain post from Katherine at Eggton arrived in my inbox.  It was witty and fun, much like Katherine herself, and the recipe was for a tasty grilled cheese sandwich made with cheddar and cream cheese and ham.  It gave me a scathingly brilliant idea!  (Anybody else grow up watching Hayley Mills in the Trouble with Angels movies?)  How about a jalapeño popper grilled cheese sandwich, I immediately said to myself, using bacon instead of her ham and adding in jalapeños and garlic?  And, ooh, oooh, I could serve them with avocado halves filled with ranch dressing!  Yes, I could!  I had all the ingredients on hand so it didn’t take me long to answer that question.  I kid you not, jalapeño popper grilled cheese sandwiches are fabulous!  I hope you will agree.  I share this recipe along with many thanks to Katherine for the inspiration.

Ingredients
4 oz or 115g grated cheddar cheese
4 oz or 115g cream cheese (at room temperature)
1-2 tablespoons butter (at room temperature) for buttering bread
6-7 slices smoked bacon
1/2 - 1 fresh jalapeño (depending on how hot you like it)
1/2 large clove or 1 small clove garlic
6 slices sandwich bread

Optional for serving: ranch dressing and avocados

Method
Fry your bacon until crispy then drain it on a paper towel.  Using a sharp knife, chop the bacon into small pieces

Slice the jalapeño in half, removing the membranes and seeds, if you don’t like things too spicy, leaving them in if you do.  Mince your jalapeño and garlic very finely.

As you can see, I left the seeds in, but we are gluttons for spicy punishment.

Mix your cheeses together with the minced jalapeño and garlic.

Add in the chopped bacon and stir well.

Butter one side of each slice of bread. Lay out a piece of cling film on your work surface then place the bread so the buttered side is on the cling film.  (One piece of cling film per sandwich.)

Put a third of the jalapeño popper cheese filling on three of the slices of bread.  Close the sandwiches with the remaining slices, making sure to leave the buttered side out.

Fold the cling film over and gently press down on the sandwich.

Grill on your griddle pan, until the cheese is all melted and the bread is nicely toasted on both sides.

Serve each sandwich with some ranch dressing to dip.  Extra points if you serve the ranch dressing in a half avocado.

Enjoy!

If you are a fan of jalapeño poppers, you might also enjoy this jalapeño popper chicken chili. (Link in the caption.)

Jalapeño Popper Chicken Chili