How to Make the Best Deep Fried Jalapeo Poppers. There are a few tricks to getting jalalpeo poppers right. Photographs Vicky WasikThe first time I ate jalapeo poppers, things went very wrong. It was many years ago and I had just gotten my tongue pierced on a whim. When I left the piercing shop, they sent me off with an instructional aftercare sheet on how to treat the fresh piercing. Jalapeño Poppers' title='Jalapeño Poppers' />One of the tips was to avoid spicy foods for the first several days. Fast forward a few short hours, and I was sitting in a restaurant with friends. Menu Clinton Township, Michigan Green Lantern Lounge Pizzeria Pizza, Food, Drinks, Restaurant, Bar. Bite into one of our delicious Jalapeno Poppers Cheese Curls and it might return the favor. Because behind that big, cheddar cheesy flavor is a zesty little pinch of. Jalapeos stuffed with a zesty, cilantro cream cheese mixture, wrapped with thick cut bacon and roasted over cherry wood. Traeger Pellet Grills, LLC. Jalapeo Popper Mummies a Halloween Food Craft on Frugal Coupon Living plus additional Halloween food crafts for kids and adults. One of them ordered jalapeo poppers, and a plate of the golden fried snack arrived at the table. I was so hungry, and they looked soooo good, filled with that irresistible melted cheese. How much could it hurt I asked myself. Just one little popper, thats all I need. I took a bite, breaking through the crisp crust to that gooey cheese. The heat of the jalalpeo slowly worked its way through my mouth. My piercing began to tingle, then burn. The pain kept growing, unchecked. Within minutes, I was having trouble talkingmy tongue had started to swell, and soon was so big that it was being constricted by the piercing barbell itself. Lish tehrine, I croaked. Ah need Lishtehrine. I was supposed to rinse with Listerine after each meal to keep things clean, but I hadnt gone to a store to buy it yet. I raced out of the restaurant to the nearest drug store, my tongue throbbing, then dumped half a bottle into my mouth, rinsing and spitting. Slowly, the pain started to recede, the swelling reversed, and I recovered. Theres only one moral of this story dont eat jalapeo poppers right after having your tongue pierced. Its a really bad idea. Any other time, though, is a good time for jalapeo poppers, especially Super Bowl Sunday. To work on my own recipe, I started by looking at some of the highest rated recipes online. I tried one of them, cutting whole jalapeos open with surgical precision, stuffing them with a mixture of cream cheese and shredded cheddar, and coating them in a simple breading, first a dip in milk, then breadcrumbs. The results were a total disaster the breading sloughed off in the oil and the cheese boiled out, leaving hollow, greasy jalapeos behind. Heres another moral Dont always trust highly rated recipes on the internet. With now two jalapeo popper disasters behind me, I was resolved to make things right. After rounds of testing, I now have a method that wont lead you astray. The Cut. The original jalapeo poppers are made with halved jalapeos, each like a little boat thats stuffed with cheese, breaded, and fried. That works well in more industrial settings, where companies have the buying power to get jalapeos of only one specific size. In real life, thats not as easy Go to any store, and youre likely to find a range of jalapeo sizes, from little ones to huge ones. Just take a look at the variety I got in a single shopping trip. Since theres no way to guarantee the size of the jalapeos youll find, I decided not to make a recipe that called for whole or halved jalapeosits just too likely that youll sometimes end up with ones that are awkwardly large. After trying a few different cuts, I settled on cross sections. By slicing the jalapeos into 1 inch rings, we can control for variations in their size and end up with much more consistent jalapeo pieces. I like this cut too, because it creates truly bite size poppersyou know, poppers you can actually pop into your mouth. One word of warning when working with chilies like jalapeos wear gloves. I sometimes forget, or think it wont be such a big deal, and inevitably rub my eyes hours later, as I did after one of my early tests for this recipe. It hurts. a lot. In fact, Im adding that to my list of jalapeo popper disasters that I want to help you avoid. To make the rings, I start by trimming off the top and bottom ends of each jalapeo. Then I remove the seeds and white inner ribs. A small melon baller works very well for this. The Filling. The original jalapeo popper is made with a cream cheese filling, and after lots of testing, Ive decided thats the bestand most foolproofway to go. I spent a bit of time trying to work out another cheese filling, and played with cheddar several different ways. I had high hopes for the gooey cheese filling you see above. I used Kenjis recipe for cheese that you can mold into slices and then re melt. I was able to successfully pipe the molten cheese into each jalapeo ring, then let it cool until set. But what I found is that a cheddar cheese filling expands and releases steam more than cream cheese when heated, blowing out and flooding into the oil. You end up with what you see above. And some seriously fouled up oil thats desperately in need of filtering if you want to reuse it. To help you head off yet another disaster are we up to number four now, I decided that its best to avoid this approach. Cream cheese, meanwhile, melts beautifully all by itself. But pure cream cheese doesnt mean it has to be plain cream cheese. To get more flavor, I mixed in some ground cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, and lime juice. You can be creative here with whatever add ins and spices appeal to you smoked paprika and lime would be a fun one. I fill each ring with my seasoned cream cheese. Once theyre all filled, its time to get started on the breading process. The Breading. Jalapeos are not the easiest vegetables in the world to bread for frying. Shake And Bake Pork Chop Recipe more. The culprit is their glossy skins, which repel water, making it hard to develop a good coating. I started by using a standard egg then breadcrumb breading, but found that for things this size, you just end up with a little too much breading. I wanted a much thinner coat so that the snack is really all about the jalapeo and the filling. A milk based breading it is. But its not so easy to get it to stick. Just take a look at how the milk beads on the surface of the jalapeo in the photo above. A lot of recipes I found make the mistake of breading the jalapeo poppers with just a dip in milk followed by breadcrumbs, but its hard to get a good single coat because liquids fail to stick to the pepper skin. To solve this, I do a double layer of dredging, first soaking the poppers in milk followed by flour. I let the floured poppers sit for several minutes, then return them to the milk bath. Some of the flour will wash off in the milk, but there should be enough to form a pasty coating that wont run off the jalapeo skins too quickly. Then I drop the poppers into fine breadcrumbs, tossing and pressing to coat. That first coating with flour helps the breadcrumbs stickand stay onmuch better. The finished poppers should have a nice, solid coating on them thats neither too thick nor too thin. Frying. I drop the poppers into 3. F oil and fry them, turning from time to time, until golden. Note how these have held together, the breading intact, the cheese still inside. Paper towels help absorb any excess oil. Be sure to salt them when theyre still hot. Let them cool for a few minutes before servingyou want these to be jalapeo poppers, not jalapeo mouth burners. Count that as yet one more disaster best avoided.