Roasted Jalapenos in Oven or Air Fryer

Roasted jalapeno in oven, smoked or in an air fryer are great for tacos or a spicy sauce! Charred jalapenos bring a whole new flavor and heat for hot recipes like air fryer salsa and others you love.

How to Roast a Jalapeno

I don’t know about you but when I hear that something has been roasted I picture needing a big drum with huge flames. Not true. I first used my Traeger with some hatch chiles to do this same thing. You could use the same instructions for smoked jalapenos too this way if you wanted to cook them outside.

That will give it well a smoky flavor (duh) which is really nice, depending on what you’re using them for. The biggest part of doing this is to not just get the insides tender but also to be able to slide the skin off easily too. And you’ll want to remove those seeds inside with the membranes because that is where the heat is at!!

Really, the more seeds you leave inside any type of green pepper the hotter they will remain. There are thin strands that are white in color in the center as well. If you remove both from the jalapeño it makes them milder. From there you want to dice small or leave the half whole and serve on top of a juicy hamburger (if you can take the heat).

All you literally need for any of these methods would be some olive oil and the whole or halved pieces you see here. Use a knife and slice off the stems and ends because you won’t eat those no matter what and it is easier for the heat to get in there with them gone. In the oven you will then;

Oven Roasted Jalapenos

• Preheat the oven to 360 F. Jalapenos can be baked whole or cut into halves.
• To make the pepper less spicy, remove the seeds and inner membrane.
• You should do this with latex gloves.
• Cover the baking sheet with parchment and grease it with olive oil.
• Lay out the halves or whole peppers with the stalks cut off. Brush or spray oil on the outsides.
• Sprinkle salt on all of them and bake for 10 minutes for soft brown charred skins on the peppers or 7 minutes for firmer, greener peppers.
• When done pour them into a paper bag, fold shut and let them sit in there for 15 minutes.
  • this will allow them to steam a bit and separate the skins even better for you to pull off

It can be easily peeled if you get the skins browned. Peel the finished pepper dice fine and use immediately in our queso dip with meat after roasting. Always wash your hands after touching the pepper directly.

Ok so we have made air fryer jalapeno poppers here, these are just plain as if you were going to use them in another recipe. No matter which way you want to cook these babies you need to be prepared. They are HOT, and will linger on your hands if not protected. The best way to save yourself a lot of tears use gloves when touching, period.

Air Fryer Roasted Jalapenos

• If you want to air fry jalapeno or a few, start by preheating your machine to 390 F for 5 minutes. Rinse them and pat them dry with paper towels.
• Arrange in your air fryer basket so they aren’t overlapping. Roast the peppers for 10 minutes total.
• At the 5 minute mark open the machine and carefully flip each one over.
• When the timer is up don’t open the basket for another 3 minutes. This is to help the jalapeño peppers both soften more.

I use this method to make air fryer peppers too for fajitas and it works amazingly well. With that I add strips of marinated beef or chicken.

How to Roast Jalapenos for Salsa

You could add thick slices of onions and even cherry tomatoes in there at the same time if you wanted to make roasted jalapeno salsa. Then all you would need to do from there would be to loosen the skins to discard and blend everything until as smooth as you wanted it to be.

You could also use a gas stove to char the outsides as well. This isn’t quite as safe as you can imagine as you need an open flame, wear gloves to hold them over the top until it blackens. Allow to slightly cool and peel off the skin so you can use the flesh within it.

Beyond not being as safe as roasting jalapeños in the oven to me it is harder to do a lot all at once. This is kinda’ a one at a time method but is possible if you want it done really quickly.

Charred Jalapenos

I hope you were able to learn how to roast these in the way you’re interested here. You can jump to recipe below which explains how to char them in the oven specifically. Air fryer method is explained above and Traeger jalapenos instructions are linked near the top of this post as well. See which is your fave!

What is the best way to roast jalapenos?

That depends on whom you ask and what you have to work with. If you want to do this at home the easiest way I would use your oven as we explain below.