{Food} Jalapeno Popper Dip

While checking out Pinterest I found a delicious recipe for Jalapeno Popper Dip and knew I had to try it. My whole family enjoys spicy food, especially my dad, and he grows his own jalapenos (along with some other peppers too!). Yesterday my mom was in town and brought me a bag full of them so I could make the recipe. The original recipe calls for the jalapenos to be cut up but doesn't say anything about roasting them first. I love the flavor that roasting brings out in all peppers and so I popped these in my oven on broil for maybe 10 minutes total (5 on each side). Don't they look pretty?


The recipe also calls for bacon, which who can argue over delicious bacon!?! I am trying to eat healthy, as is the rest of my family, so I bought bacon that was uncured. Uncured bacon doesn't have nitrites and nitrates that are unhealthy for people. Yes, bacon is fatty, but I didn't use much in the recipe and only stole 1/2 slice for myself in the process.

After the peppers were roasted, I cut them in half, removed the seeds, and piled them on top of each to dice them.



Both the peppers and the bacon were diced. I have a nice knife set that came with the knife with the grooves on the side (I have no idea what it's called) and it makes this job easy and quick! I might do this with gloves on next time only because as I was getting ready later and any time heat came in contact with my hand, even after washing, the heat from the peppers made it super sensitive to heat from my blow dryer. Two types of heat, so that sentence may be confusing. Heat temperature and heat from peppers... yeah, I'll stop now.





The recipe called for Panko bread crumbs mixed with parmasean cheese and butter. I used a smaller dish so I didn't use nearly as much as the recipe called for and I still thought it was over powering. We eventually mixed it up, which helped, but I don't see this as a necessary part of the recipe.



Overall, we enjoyed the recipe but there could be some changes. We discussed adding different varieties of peppers, more peppers (which I did but I mean it when I say we like spicy!) and less crumb mix. Another huge change that I did was substituting the mayo for sour cream. I am not a big mayo person and I feel that it makes recipes seem extra fatty and greasy. I actually used light sour cream so the fat count went down a lot.


My recipe:

16 oz. cream cheese
1 1/4 c. light sour cream
2 c. shredded cheese - I used the "Fiesta" blend, but any cheese would do
8-10 jalapenos, depending on preference - cooked and diced
8-10 slices of bacon - cooked and diced

Topping:
1/2 c. bread crumbs (my grocery store only sells lemon pepper panko, so I had to use original bread crumbs, not Panko - this could make a difference or not)
1/2 c. parmasean cheese, grated
2 T butter, melted

Super easy instructions:
The cream cheese needs to be soften to room temperature and then you mix the first five ingredients together. Top with the topping mix and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Mine was in a small, 8 inch round container but I'm sure you could adjust the time depending on your container. Enjoy!

I'll definitely make this again for work events or future family gatherings. It made plenty for five adults and Lily, who ate a few small dips. We have some leftovers too.