Stuffed Hot Cherry Pepper Poppers
I have a looooooong list that I keep of food inspiration on my computer, and anytime I go out and eat something delicious and want to remake it, I put it on my list. These Stuffed Cherry Pepper Poppers have been on my list ever since a trip to Miami, where I had cherry peppers stuffed with chorizo and other delicious things. Here is my version!
If you’ve never had cherry pepper poppers before, you can think of them as kind of like stuffed mushrooms, but spicier!
A little warning first 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.
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:
Enjoy! Have a wonderful holiday weekend!!
Stuffed Hot Cherry Pepper Poppers
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)
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Remove the meat from the sausage casing and crumble the sausage into the pan. Brown for about 5 minutes until cooked through and crispy. Let cool slightly, then chop into smaller pieces.
- In a large bowl mix to combine the sausage, cream cheese, bread crumbs, parmesan, scallion, parsley, and garlic. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then stir in the egg.
- Halve the cherry peppers and remove the seeds and ribs with a melon baller. Stuff each cherry pepper with a scoop of the filling. Place on a sheet pan and roast for 20 minutes. Enjoy!
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YUM! Love this idea!
These sound good. Thank you.
Oh yes!! Perfect…I want one now!! thanks for sharing these are going on some menu this weekend!
These are adorable! I want to pop them all in my mouth! Perfect party food and the color is just gorgeous.
These look beautiful!!! I’ll have to find cherry peppers!!!
What great little poppers!! I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen these type of peppers!
This is right up my alley! Love the spicy!
Hi Joanne! First time commenting. I found you through a comment you left on Derek Halpern’s site.
These look so yummy! I learned the hard way to protect my hands when handling hot peppers! I had burning nail beds for hours. :/ Now I stick my pepper-handling hand in a plastic produce bag to protect them. Lol!
Hi Michelle, oh wow, that must be an old comment haha. He is great though =) And that’s smart to use the produce bag to protect your hands. The gloves are great too!
These sound amazing! Love your suggestion about using quinoa instead of breadcrumbs!
Thank you Mary!
This looks amazing!!
These look fantastic!!
These look so cute and so delicious! I like spicy things, but my husband LOVES them! Will have to put this on my list the next time we have party appetizers. 🙂
Mu aunt used to make a version of these for family gatherings, I forgot how good they were.
This ones a keepers. We used plain goat cheese, sweet white onion and Panko bread crumbs. I cut a sliver of the bottom of each pepper to get it to sit up straighter. But they didn’t run. Will grow hot cherry peppers again next year just for this recipe lol