Air Fryer Jalapeño Poppers

These Air Fryer Jalapeño Poppers are perfect for a game day snack, or to be served as an appetizer any day! They’re much healthier than your favorite restaurant jalapeño poppers, and you will love the combination of creamy, cheesy, hot, and crunchy when you eat them!

What Are Jalapeño Poppers?

These are a restaurant copycat creamy stuffed jalapeños that are not deep-fried. They tick all of the boxes in terms of flavor and texture, but they’re not breaded or deep-fried in lots of oil like the restaurant ones. But let me tell you, the crunchy buttery panko topping is everything! You will love the combination of creamy and crunchy with every single bite!

How to Prep the Jalapeños

The best advice that I can give you is, do not forget to wear gloves! Jalapeños can be quite hot, and if you don’t wear gloves and accidentally rub your eyes, you will regret it. I learned this the hard way!

So wear gloves, and slice each jalapeño in half lengthwise leaving the stem intact on both halves (for aesthetics). Using a small paring knife or a spoon, remove the seeds and the membrane of the pepper. If you like a little bit of heat, leave s little of the membrane and discard the rest.

Repeat with the rest of the jalapeños, and they’re ready to be stuffed and air fried.

The Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make Jalapeño Poppers:

• Jalapeños – fresh large jalapeños (more on prepping them below).
• Cream cheese and sharp cheddar cheese – cream cheese. is a must but cheddar can be substituted. You can use other types of cheese such as Monterey Jack, or parmesan.
• Garlic powder – to flavor the cream cheese mixture. You can also add onion powder if you like.
• Panko and butter – for the best ever buttery crunchy topping!

How to Make Air Fryer Jalapeño Poppers

• Preheat the Air Fryer to 390°F (200°C).
• In a medium mixing bowl, combine cream cheese with garlic powder and cheddar.
• In a separate small bowl, combine panko crumbs with melted butter.
• Take each jalapeño half, and fill with cream cheese mixture then top with panko breadcrumbs.
• Place in the Air Fryer basket, and air fry for 5-6 minutes.

How Long to Air Fry Jalapeno Poppers For

So this depends on the size of your jalapeños, and the brand/size of your air fryer. I have this Air Fryer, and my jalapeños weren’t large. I found 5 minutes to be perfect.

It also depends on how much heat you want, I found that air frying the jalapeños for longer makes them milder, but keep in mind that they will also lose their shape if cooked for long.

So start checking the jalapeños at 4 or 5 minutes, and see if they need a bit longer or not.

Recipe Video

While this is a very easy recipe, but it always helps to watch a short video, so I created a quick video for you to see how I made these Air Fryer jalapeño poppers.

Top Tips

• You can make bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers by wrapping each with a slice of bacon and secure it with a clean toothpick. If you don’t use a toothpick, the bacon will shrink and won’t stay wrapped around the popper.
• You can also dice a few slices of bacon, cook them on a skillet and mix them in the cream cheese mixture if you like.
• Adding fresh herbs such as chopped chives or parsley adds flavor to the filling.
• Add grated parmesan cheese to the filling for extra flavor.
• If following a gluten-free diet, use gluten-free panko breadcrumbs.
• There are other alternatives to panko, you can substitute it with crushed chips, or crushed Doritos.
• Make it low-carb and skip the breading.
• Jalapeño poppers can be made in advance and frozen. Cook from frozen but increase the cooking time by 2-3 minutes.

Make Them in the Oven

If you don’t have an Air Fryer, you can make jalapeño poppers in the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C), and bake for 8 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the panko is crispy.

Serve these jalapeño poppers with ranch, and blue cheese dip!