Smoked Jalapeno Poppers at 350

Smoked jalapeno poppers at 350 are great! Easy Traeger recipe stuffed with cream cheese wrapped with bacon is the best party appetizer that can be as spicy as you’d like them to be. Follow our bacon wrapped recipe, or no bacon is wonderful too.

Traeger Jalapeno Poppers Wrapped in Bacon

There are so many things you can do with these spicy bites. This one uses them fresh and whole but could be cut in half and done the same way. You can make dried jalapeno in your oven or dehydrator so you have them on hand all year long too. Love doing this.

Take those a step further if you want to make jalapeno powder for a seasoning in all the things. If you love spicy foods this may become your favorite way to add heat and flavor. If you have ever stuffed the inside of a vegetable you know it is all about the filling. I mean the outside is just kinda’ a vessel but in this case it’s the spice source.

Stuffed Peppers Ingredients

With larger items like grilled stuffed peppers you can just kinda’ scoop it in there and bake. With these you have a much smaller cavity so a small spoon or even a knife can be used to fill the center of them. If you choose to slice them in half lengthwise it isn’t as difficult to maneuver.

• 10 large jalapenos
• 1 lb bacon precooked but still soft and pliable, you can do this in the oven, air fryer or make smoked bacon
• 8 oz cream cheese softened
• 1/2 c cheddar cheese shredded
• 8 scallions diced
• 1 tsp chili powder, garlic powder and salt

What cheese is in jalapeno poppers?

As far as smoking jalapenos it is not really much different than if you put them into the oven. You still need to preheat your source, and I would use a disposable aluminum pan either way. You can double or triple the amount as long as they don’t overlap and both pans fit on the grate.

You can use a pellet grill / smoker or if yours plugs in you can make them as an electric smoker recipe as well. The latter tends to be smaller so you may not be able to make as many at once though.

How to Make Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers

You do not have to add bacon to this, but why wouldn’t you?? They can be placed into the tray without it all wrapped up but the flavor is out of this world with it on the outside. You will want to precook it a bit first so you get a bit of a crisp but still pliable first. If not it will take a long time to actually cook, much longer than the pepper would take.

• Prepare bacon, if not using pre-cooked pieces, by laying slices on large baking sheet.
• Cook on stovetop until still pliable or this is how to cook bacon in the oven with aluminum foil
• The slice of bacon needs to roll around the poppers. Chop scallions.
• In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, cheddar cheese, scallions, and seasonings. Slice ends off of jalapeno peppers. Use a pepper corer or knife to hollow out and remove seeds from the insides.
• Use a knife to scoop up cream cheese mixture and fill inside of each pepper with it.
  • or to reduce the heat by slicing in half to remove seeds and membrane first
  • use a paring knife to fill middle with softened cream cheese mixture and wrap that half in bacon
• Wrap bacon around peppers and place in foil pan.
• Can secure with a toothpick if needed.
• Set smoker to smoke setting. Once the smoker starts to smoke, set temperature to 350° F.
• Place aluminum foil pan on smoker grill grate. Smoke for 30 minutes – 45.

All you’re doing in the last stage is really giving your food a smoky flavor, and softening the outsides. Since you skip the blanching peppers step the heat will do somewhat of the same thing here. If you want them softer then just leave them in for longer.

How Long to Cook Stuffed Jalapenos on Smoker

You need about 40 minutes to get these done, depending on how tender you want them to become. This is just one of many great Traeger appetizers out there. Perfect for game day especially if it is a warm day, always better to cook outside at that point. From desserts to side dishes like smoked bread and more there really isn’t anything you can’t cook on this baby.

Of course you can make great appetizers inside using your air fryer too which won’t heat up your house either, but if you have your meat on the grill anyway mind as well throw these on too. If you wanted it all to be done around the same time you could create more of a super smoke atmosphere in your machine by setting lower to 250 degrees.

The cook time would almost double for this temp. but honestly above 250 isn’t technically a smoker recipe. You get less smoke overall but of course it gets done faster so there is a give and take as far as that goes. If you have been doing this for a while you know how to adjust to your needs, for newbies you’ll get the hang of that quickly too.

How to reheat bacon wrapped jalapenos

If you have leftovers you can save them in an airtight container. I would definitely reheat the next day in your air fryer to crisp the outside back up! Preheat to 400 for 5 minutes, lay them in and crisp for about 3 minutes or so. Must say that day 2 of these heated this way may be my fave, even better than day one.

You can jump to recipe below and get started! If you add something else into your mix like smoked paprika, or another source of heat you love let us know! We love trying new tweaks along the way that have worked well for you.