These Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Peppers are not only ridiculously delicious, but fit nicely into a low carb diet. This is one appetizer that I’ll definitely be making again, and soon.
Cheese-stuffed and bacon-wrapped banana peppers will go fast when you serve them up.
I used my home-grown banana peppers for this Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Peppers recipe. If you can’t find banana peppers, then Anaheim peppers are a good alternative. Hungarian Wax peppers and jalapenos are also good substitutes, as long as you don’t mind the added heat.
This recipe calls for seven or eight banana peppers, which will each be split in half lengthwise. Use more or fewer peppers, depending on their size, or if you prefer, you can adjust the amount of the cheese filling depending on the size of your peppers.
This recipe calls for placing the peppers on a rack fitted in a baking pan, so as to allow the bacon to evenly crisp all around the peppers. I find it easier to place and space the peppers on the rack before filling with cheese and wrapping with bacon.
I used a mix of cheddar cheese, cream cheese, and garlic powder to make the cheesy stuffing. This part of the recipe is pretty flexible, since you could go with varying ratios of cream cheese and cheddar; you could also substitute jack, gouda, goat, and other cheeses for part or all of the cheddar.
The next step is wrapping thinly sliced strips of bacon around the cheese-stuffed banana peppers. I cut each piece of bacon lengthwise into three separate strips. Since I ended up with 15 stuffed pepper halves, that meant that I used 5 pieces of bacon, cutting each into three separate lengths. (Give me an A+ for math, and don’t ask what happened to that last half of a pepper, okay?)
When making Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Peppers, I highly recommend placing foil under the rack for easier cleanup. I assure you that bacon grease and some cheese will drip while these cook in the oven.
After roasting these in a 425F oven for about fifteen minutes, you’ll pull out these gorgeous and irresistible Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Peppers.
Crispy bacon and browned cheese…yessss…this Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Peppers recipe makes a rich and truly satisfying appetizer or snack.
What do I consider a serving? Three? Five? Um, all fifteen? I think it depends on whether you’re having these as an appetizer, a heavy snack, or even a meal.
Seriously, I ate half of this recipe for a meal, and the remaining half the next day for another meal. By the way, a glass of red wine goes great with these Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Peppers. If you’re serving them as an appetizer, I would consider this recipe to be enough for four or five people.
Be sure to store the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge overnight. They warm up beautifully in the microwave the next day, and taste just as good.
Here’s the printable recipe:
- 7 or 8 banana peppers (Hungarian wax, Anaheim, or even jalapenos also will work)
- ¾ cup cheddar cheese (jack, gouda, and other cheeses will work also)
- 3 ounces cream cheese
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 5 bacon strips
- Preheat oven to 425F and place oven rack in middle of oven.
- Prepare baking pan by lining with foil and then place baking rack on top of foil lined pan.
- Cut off stems of peppers, slice lengthwise into halves, and remove seeds.
- Place pepper halves on rack with cavities facing up.
- Combine cheese, cream cheese and garlic powder in a small bowl and mix until relatively smooth.
- Divide and spoon cheese mixture evenly in all of the pepper cavities.
- Place bacon strips on a large cutting board and cut each bacon strip lengthwise into 3 skinny strips.
- Wrap each skinny bacon strip evenly around each stuffed pepper half.
- Roast cheese-stuffed bacon-wrapped peppers for approx.15 minutes, until bacon is crisp and cheese is browned on top. Watch them carefully in last few minutes to make sure they don't burn.
- Let rest 5 minutes before serving.
If you make these low carb Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Peppers, please let me know how you like them in the comments section! Enjoy!
–G
It looks like your peppers did good this year! I think I only got 2 peppers off my plant 🙁
Yes, my first year to grow peppers (potted and on the driveway), and I was alarmed by how fast they produced! I had waaay better success with peppers than tomatoes! –G