Sausage Stuffed Jalapeño Peppers – Easy Jalapeño Poppers
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Sausage stuffed jalapeño peppers, also known as jalapeño poppers, are a fail-proof appetizer. If you’re having a group of guests over, these are sure to be a crowd-pleaser.
There are many ways you can stuff a jalapeño, but our cheesy, flavorful poppers have been our go-to for a long time. If you’re looking for jalapeño poppers that are quick and incredibly flavorful, try our recipe! This is just one of the many ways you can use up some jalapeño peppers from your harvest.
If you’re not a fan of the heat level of jalapeños, you can also stuff a milder pepper such as sweet banana peppers or even mini sweet peppers. See more stuffed pepper recipes here.
Here at Pepper Geek, we like things spicy, so we’re using standard jalapeños for our sausage stuffed peppers. The only thing wrong with this recipe is that it’s too tasty. You’ll want to devour the whole batch yourself!
It seems more and more common that jalapeño peppers from the supermarket are lacking in spice. There’s nothing more disappointing than expecting a little kick from your jalapeno and it tastes like a bell pepper.
We suggest harvesting fresh jalapeños from the garden or purchasing your peppers at a farm stand or country store. The heat is dulled slightly while the peppers cook, and the resulting spice level is perfect in these poppers.
When it comes to cooking stuffed jalapeños, there are several methods you can use. You can grill them, bake them, or even air fry them. While the taste of grilled stuffed jalapeño peppers is incredible, we usually go for baking them.
We use our Ninja Oven because it’s the perfect size to whip up a batch of these appetizers quickly without heating our entire oven.
Tips For Making The Best Sausage Stuffed Jalapeño Peppers
- Make sure to brown your sausage completely and drain off any excess fat. Pat the sausage dry before incorporating into your stuffing.
- Use fresh jalapeños from the garden or local farmers market to ensure you’ll still get a little kick. You can add a bit of cayenne pepper to spice them up if your jalapenos are mild.
- Serve them right away. You can prepare the peppers and stuffing ahead of time and cook them just before they’ll be eaten (which will be quickly).
- We found these taste best with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. You can also use shredded cheddar.
- Keep a close eye while they are cooking to avoid burning. You want the top to be just turning golden brown before removing them from the oven.
- Use a flavorful sausage. We like to use to hot and spicy Italian sausage, but you can experiment with different kinds.
How To Make Sausage Stuffed Jalapeño Peppers
Ingredients:
- 10 large jalapeño peppers
- 8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
- ½ lb ground hot Italian sausage
- 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
- Smoked paprika or fresh green onions (for garnish)
Steps:
Choose roughly 10 large jalapeños. Like we mentioned earlier, we suggest using fresh peppers from the garden. Using gloves, you’ll want to slice your peppers in half and scrape out all the seeds and ribs.
You can save the seeds and plant them later!
Wearing gloves is important to avoid burning your fingers. If you happen to forget, check out our article on how to stop chili burn on your hands.
To prepare the filling, mix the softened cream cheese, cooked sausage, shredded cheese, and cayenne pepper. Distribute filling evenly amongst all peppers.
Bake at 375°F for 20 minutes on a foil-lined baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking oil or rubbed with olive oil. Again, the Ninja Foodi Oven is amazing for quickly-made batches, plus it’s the perfect size! If your peppers aren’t golden brown, leave them in a couple more minutes.
Top with a sprinkle of smoked paprika, fresh chives, or green onion, and serve immediately!
Sausage Stuffed Jalapeño Peppers (Poppers)
Ingredients
- 10 Jalapeño Peppers sliced lengthwise and de-seeded
- 8 oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese
- 1/2 pound Hot And Spicy Ground Sausage cooked and drained
- 1 cup Freshly Grated Parmesean Cheese
- 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper optional
- 1 pinch Smoked Paprika optional, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Using gloves, slice jalapenos in half and scrape out seeds and ribs. You can leave some of the white flesh in for extra heat.
- Mix together cooked sausage, softened cream cheese, grated cheese and parmesan cheese.
- Distribute filling evenly among all peppers.
- Bake on foil-lined baking sheet for 20 minutes at 375°F or until golden brown.
- Garnish with smoked paprika or fresh green onion and serve immediately.
Notes
- As an alternative to smoked paprika, try garnishing with fresh chives, green onion greens, or more cayenne (if you like it extra spicy)!
- The Ninja Foodi Oven is a great way to make quick batches of jalapeño poppers.
Have you ever tried sausage stuffed jalapenos with cream cheese? We know there are lots of variations to homemade jalapeño poppers, so leave us a comment and tell us what you’d recommend!
Crystalyn
Crystalyn loves spicy food and getting creative in the kitchen. When she isn’t finding new ways to use hot sauce, shes very busy watching cat videos on the internet.
Very easy and delicious. I had stuffing left over so filled up a few chunks of bell pepper. Milder but very tasty!
I’ve using a similar variant for years. This is the best and easiest way to make poppers. The bacon wrapped variant might be better looking though.
I bake and dice bacon and add to the filling. I also substitute cheddar for parmesan cheese. This is also the time to use dehydrated and flaked peppers, which one has grown.
This recipe is easier to make with less clean up than all others. More importantly, your personally tweaked ratios are easier to obtain.
BTW, making your personally spiced sausage adds another dimension.
Everyone loves these! My family that hates heat still appreciates them when I make sure all the flesh is removed. I have made these with pineapple ghostpeppers also.
My twist, wrap a half strip of bacon around them.
I would like to add also a Big Thank You to Both of You for my success in the pepper garden.
I also used my smoked paprika that I made last year from my garden grown paprika peppers.
Very welcome, thanks for following along with us! We’ll be smoking jalapeños very soon to make some chipotle powder.
@peppergeek, What type of wood do you use for smoking the jalapeños? When they make smoked paprika they use oak wood.
I grew Sandia Chili last year and again this year, last year one of the things I made from them was Sandia Chili powder. Great.
Just raided the Pepper (green) House, 5″ jalapenos. Mouth of Fireworks, full of flavor.
I used sweet Italian sausage because I like the added fennel, and also extra sharp cheddar, not to mention any VT cheese by name.
Skip the bacon.
Yum, love sharp cheddar. Nothing like massive, fresh picked jalapeños for making poppers!
You two are great. Keep it up
YOU’RE great. Thanks though…☺️
Absolutely delicious. We just had them for lunch, a hit!
😁 so glad to hear it!
HA! I will use my sweet jalapeños so everyone will enjoy them. My varieties are Sweet Popper and Nadapeno. They are delicious and taste NOTHING like bell peppers. Thanks for the great recipe! I have also made jalapeno popper stuffed chicken breasts with the regular jalapeños….really fabulous entree
!