Baked Banana Pepper Poppers

Craving a quick and easy appetizer that’s bursting with flavor? Look no further than Baked Banana Pepper Poppers! Fresh banana peppers are hollowed out and stuffed with a creamy, cheesy spread, then rolled in a crispy, crunchy breadcrumb coating.

Baked to perfection, these poppers are the perfect balance of creamy, cheesy goodness and a satisfying crunch. They’re guaranteed to be a quick and easy favorite at your next gathering!

We love spicy here at our house, or rather the majority of us do.

From Cajun Food to Thai food, the spicier the better for me.

When it was announced that we’d doing a “Spice It Up Theme”, it took only a few minutes for me to decide what I wanted to make.

At the beginning of the summer, we planted 10 Banana Pepper Plants, 6 Jalapeno Pepper Plants (including 2 mammoth varieties), 2 Chili Pepper Plants and then countless regular pepper plants (red, green, purple and yellow).

In fact, the “pepper” part of my garden probably takes up about half the garden to be honest.

I didn’t know how well everything would do. We had such a terribly hot and dry summer last year, that I didn’t have high hopes for this year, but we went with it anyway.

What did happen, was that all 10 banana pepper plants are thriving this year. To date, I am pretty sure we have pulled more than 100 banana peppers from our plants and they just keep growing.

All 10 of the plants have at least 3-5 more growing in various stages now. That will be between 30-50 more.

All the other pepper plants are doing really well too, but those banana peppers are just insane.

So far this summer we’ve pickled banana peppers, eaten them on sandwiches, eaten them in salads, put them in dips, cooked them into pasta dishes and so on.

A couple of nights after pulling another 40 of them and adding them to our already growing collection in the fridge, I decided I was either going to have to pickle another batch.

Or I needed to figure out some new ways to use them because there were just too many to eat them in salads and sandwiches and not risk some going bad.

We had a big conversation about how they are pretty interchangeable with jalapenos. Couldn’t we just make jalapeno poppers with them?

Oh yes. And we did. And I am SO glad we did. I have a feeling these will become a big treat around here. We managed to devour the first batch in a matter of minutes (we made 14).

The second batch we doubled the recipe and made 28. It took a little longer to consume them and there was much water drinking and dragon breathing abounding but they were just so freakin’ good! It was one of those things were you could not eat just one. So, so good. A new favorite around here.

Special note: Since we made them the first time, we have made them 4 more times and each time we think we need to make more.

If you are making this for a party or gathering of more than 5 people, I strongly urge you to account for 3-4 halves per person in attendance. They go fast!

Let’s get started.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Clean Your Banana Peppers with cold water. 

Set them aside to dry. Mix up your cheesy mixture.

Slice the tops of each pepper. (just the top end) 

If you’re lucky like me, you’ll enlist a kids help. This is my son Ryan. Well, his hand.

And we make so many of them that I needed both of his hands plus one extra kid so we weren’t in the kitchen for 2 hours making these.

Next, slice the banana peppers in half lengthwise. 

Try to make as straight a cut as you can to end at the tip.

Next scrape out all the little seeds.

Do this part gently, because the banana peppers are fragile, you can easily split them or tear them.

If you do, they are still usable, you just have to be super careful the rest of the steps.

Once you’ve removed the seeds, it helps to rinse them off in cold water one last time to make sure you’ve got them all gone.

Fill each banana pepper halve with cheese mixture.

I usually use a lot and just sort of mold the cheese mixture into a long ovalish shape to go in there, but you can do whatever works best for you.

Cover them and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Once chilled, dip the banana peppers into milk, then flour and set aside to dry about  5 minutes.

Make sure they are covered pretty well with milk and flour. Allow about 5 minutes or so for them to dry.

After 5 minutes, dip them carefully into your beaten eggs.

Try not to squeeze them as hard as my son did. haha Cover them completely in egg.

Transfer them immediately to the bread crumbs and gently coat them.

I roll the banana peppers around in the bread crumbs. I sprinkle them over the banana peppers.

Whatever. Just get them coated up real well.

Put them into a 350 degree preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Check out the other fantastic Spice It Up Lineup!

Snappy Starters & Snacks

Hatch Chile, Grape & Grilled Onion Salsa from Shockingly Delicious
Sriracha Popcorn from The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen
Cheese, Smoked Paprika and Fennel Crackers from What Smells So Good?
Baked Banana Pepper Poppers from Daily Dish Recipes
Smoky Salmon Chowder from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings

Fiery Main Dishes

Spicy Stuffed Mexican Peppers from Peanut Butter and Peppers
Baked Tilapia en Escabeche from La Cocina de Leslie
Thai Cashew Chicken from Doggie at the Dinner Table
Skillet Jambalaya from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
Firecracker Chicken from Juanita’s Cocina
Za’atar Chicken with Fattoush from Food Lust People Love
Crispy Oven Fried Buffalo Chicken Tenders from In The Kitchen With KP
Skinny Buffalo Chicken Strips from Webicurean
BBQ Chicken Pizza with Poblano Peppers and Pepitas from The Wimpy Vegetarian
Spicy Thai Beef Salad from Magnolia Days

Searing Sauces & Seasonings

Homemade Buffalo Sauce from Growing Up Gabel
Homemade Sriracha Sauce from kimchi MOM

Zesty Sweets & Sips

Cinnamon Streusel Scones from Killer Bunnies, Inc

Recipe for Baked Banana Pepper Poppers

Baked Banana Pepper Poppers

Nicole Cook

Fresh Banana Peppers filled with a creamy cheesy spread and rolled into crispy crunchy breadcrumbs. These Baked Banana Pepper Poppers are a quick and easy favorite.

4.59 from 17 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 40 minutes mins

Course Appetizers, Snacks and Small Bite Recipes

Cuisine American

Servings 14

Calories 199 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

For the Cheese Filling:

• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 8 ounces shredded mild Cheddar cheese
• 1 Tablespoons finely minced garlic
• 3 strips bacon cooked and crumbled
• ¼ teaspoon paprika paprika for more smokey flavor or use cayenne pepper for some more spice

For the Poppers:

• 7 banana peppers
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs whisked
• 1 cup bread crumbs I used garlic and herb for some added flavor

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, mix the first 5 ingredients together to get your cream cheese filling. Set aside.
• Clean Your Banana Peppers with cold water. Set them aside to dry.
• Once dry, slice the tops of each pepper. (just the top end) Next, slice the banana peppers in half lengthwise. Try to make as straight a cut as you can to end at the tip.Next scrape out all the little seeds. Do this part gently, because the banana peppers are fragile, you can easily split them or tear them.
• Fill each banana pepper halve with cheese mixture.
• Cover them and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
• Once chilled, dip the banana peppers into milk, then flour and set aside to dry about 5 minutes.
• After 5 minutes, dip them carefully into your beaten eggs, coating them entirely.
• Transfer them immediately to the bread crumbs and gently coat them.
• Transfer the bread crumb coated banana peppers to your baking sheet.
• Put them into a 350 degree preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Nutrition

Calories: 199kcalCarbohydrates: 15gProtein: 8gFat: 12gSaturated Fat: 6gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0.01gCholesterol: 53mgSodium: 236mgPotassium: 108mgFiber: 1gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 370IUVitamin C: 4mgCalcium: 165mgIron: 1mg

Keyword easy appetizers, easy snack recipes

Tried this recipe?Please leave us a rating and then share a photo on Pinterest or Instagram and tag us @dailydishrecipes or #dailydishrecipes — we can’t wait to see what you’ve made!

Share this Recipe!