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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!

Stuffed Hot Cherry Pepper Poppers

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 mins

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!

5 2

2 reviews

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)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Remove the meat from the sausage casing and crumble the sausage into the pan.
3. Brown for about 5 minutes until cooked through and crispy. Let cool slightly, then chop into smaller pieces.
4. 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.
5. Halve the cherry peppers and remove the seeds and ribs with a melon baller.
6. Stuff each cherry pepper with a scoop of the filling.
7. Place on a sheet pan and roast for 20 minutes, until the peppers look softened and the filling is golden brown on top. Enjoy!

by Joanne Ozug

Recipe Notes

 

Nutrition Information Serves 6     adjust servings

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
Amount Per Serving	As Served
Calories 213kcal Calories from fat 150
% Daily Value
Total Fat 17g	26%
Saturated Fat 8g	40%
Transfat 0g
Cholesterol 70mg	23%
Sodium 369mg	15%
Carbohydrate 8g	3%
Dietary Fiber 1g	4%
Sugars 2g
Protein 9g

Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:

	Calories	2000
Total Fat	Less than	65g
Sat Fat	Less than	25g
Cholesterol	Less than	300mg
Sodium	Less than	2,400mg
Total Carbohydrate		300g
Dietary Fiber		25g

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Post originally published in August 2014, and updated in May 2018 with more photos and writing. This post contains an affiliate link.