Jen’s Air-Fried Bacon-Wrapped Chicken and Cheese Stuffed Jalapeño Poppers

My kids’ school has a night called mini-school when they walk the parents through the kids’ schedules, the teachers talk about the curriculum, and contact info is exchanged. It goes for a few hours right when dinner would be. That’s our excuse night to grab Little Caesars for the kids and go out for a beer and hors d’oeuvres dinner after the meeting. Nice. On the last one, we popped over to a little place down the street called the Drunken Donkey. They have a great beer selection, every sports broadcast you’d wanna see, games, and beer-based munchies. Perfect. We ordered Bacon Thingies, poppers stuffed with chicken and cheese, and wrapped in bacon over shredded iceberg lettuce with a ranch drizzle. They were fantastic.

The Final Four’s coming up. I thought this would be the perfect excuse to bust out the air fryer and try to make some bacon thingies. It worked beautifully, so I thought I’d share. My youngest doesn’t like jalapeños too much, so I stuff a few mini bell peppers for her, and she adored those. I’m rocking an extra large Philips with a shelf, so I can fit 16. You can set the peppers in yours ahead of time to see how many you can fit.

If you love them, please come find me again! 😀

Jen’s Air-Fried Bacon-Wrapped Chicken and Cheese Stuffed Jalapeño Poppers

Serves 4 as an entrée or 8 as an hors d’oeuvre

16 jalapeño or mini bell peppers
Remove stems, seeds, and membranes. Mine are big enough to use an apple corer on. Put in the air fryer at 390° for 5 minutes. Remove and rest.

1 ½ cups shredded or chopped cooked rotisserie chicken
1 ½ cups shredded Mexican cheese (cheddar or jack would be nice, too)
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
Combine and stuff peppers. I had about a tablespoon of filling left. My doggies helped out with that. If you don’t have dogs, any leftover can be saved to use in scrambled eggs.

16 slices bacon
16 toothpicks
Wrap bacon to cover the open end of the pepper, then wind it around like a mummy. Secure with a toothpick, keeping the cut-side up.

Place 8 peppers, cut-side up, in one layer in the air fryer. Add 8 more on a shelf for a second layer. Air fry at 390° for 7 minutes. Rotate the peppers so that they’re on the opposite shelf, still cut-side up. Air fry for 7 more minutes. Remove and rest 1 minute.

¾ cup mayonnaise
¾ cup sour cream
½ cup buttermilk
2 T ranch powder (using Hidden Valley homestyle this time, but Penzey’s is my favorite)
Combine and spoon some into 4 dip bowls. You’ll have some left over.

To plate…
Cover 4 plates with shredded iceberg lettuce
Top with 4 poppers
Add a ranch dipping bowl.