Stuffed Hot Cherry Pepper Poppers

Name: Stuffed Hot Cherry Pepper Poppers
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 1/3 lb Italian sausage; 4 oz cream cheese (softened); 1/4 cup bread crumbs; 1/4 cup packed parmesan cheese; 2 tbsp minced scallion; 3 tbsp minced parsley; 1 tbsp minced garlic; salt and pepper; 1 egg; 10 oz fresh hot cherry peppers ((you can also use pickled cherry peppers in a jar))

by Joanne Ozug May 31, 2018 (updated January 16, 2019)

These Cherry Pepper Poppers are stuffed with a delicious herb & garlic cheese filling, then baked until bubbling and golden. This recipe is great finger food for parties and entertaining!

You can think of these Stuffed Cherry Pepper Poppers as like a stuffed mushroom, but with a spicy and flavorful pepper in place of the usual mushroom cap. They’re SO tasty!

This recipe is a recreation of a dish I had on a recent trip to Miami, where I had cherry peppers stuffed with chorizo and cheese. I’ve eaten stuffed mushrooms plenty of times, and I don’t know why I had never thought of doing something similar with peppers.

Whenever I see beautiful cherry peppers at the grocery store that are firm and fresh, I buy a bunch of them to make this recipe.

First, a little warning about cherry peppers…they are HOT! And they’re kind of like jalapenos, where sometimes they are not that spicy, but then you randomly get a REALLY spicy one, and there’s absolutely no way to tell until you put one in your mouth. So if you like spicy, proceed, but if you don’t enjoy heat, this might be too spicy for your tastes.

How to Make Stuffed Cherry Peppers:

Start by browning a link of Italian sausage in a skillet, until cooked through and almost crispy like bacon:

Combine that in a bowl with cream cheese, fresh garlic, parsley, egg, bread crumbs (sometimes I put cooked quinoa instead FYI), scallions, and parmesan:

Mix that up:

Cut the cherry peppers in half, and remove all the seeds and as much of the ribs as possible, to cut down on the heat:

(And yes I’m wearing gloves. I always wear them when working with chilies and they help SO much. This is the kind I buy, it’s $6.50 for 500 gloves so they are worth it)!

Lay the cherry peppers out on a pan:

Then stuff each one with a scoop of the filling:

Roast until the peppers soften and the stuffing browns:

For more vegetable appetizers, I love Stuffed Mushrooms, Zucchini Fritters, Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos, and Chicken Salad in Endive Cups. Enjoy!