Chicken Bacon Ranch Jalapeño Poppers
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Jalapeno Poppers, but make them infinitely better by mixing ranch seasoning, diced chicken breast, and crumbled bacon into the cream cheese mixture then top’m off with crispy cheesy smokey panko. THE BEST.
I’ll admit this. I took photos of this recipe YESTERDAY thinking I had an entire week before Super Bowl Sunday…. turns out it’s THIS Sunday. OOPS. So I literally dropped everything to get these Chicken Bacon Ranch Jalapeno Poppers here on the blog for y’all to make this weekend! I normally talk a bit here, but I don’t have time for that today. Let’s keep it short and sweet. These are incredible and you absolutely need to make them!
HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN BACON RANCH JALAPENO POPPERS:
Gather your ingredients!
- Jalapeños- If you’re nervous about them being too spicy for everyone. Grab a bag of those mini sweet peppers and mix them up! The sweet peppers have zero spice and taste delicious too!
- 1/3 less fat cream cheese
- nonfat Greek yogurt
- Bacon crumbles
- chopped and cooked chicken breast
- ranch seasoning packet (the restaurant dressing version is my favorite one, you can use the regular packet but start with about half the packet and add more if you need it)
- shredded Mexican cheese blend made with 2% milk
- panko breadcrumbs (be sure they are the panko bread crumbs, the super fine breadcrumbs just do nothing for this recipe)
- light butter (or butter if you want!) I use this Brummell and brown version, but there are lots of different brands that carry something like this.
- diced green onions (or dried minced onion or even onion powder is fine too)
- smoked paprika, salt, and garlic powder
- cooking spray
First things first. YOU NEED TO WEAR GLOVES.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, grab a sheet pan and line it with some parchment paper.
Don’t forget your gloves! Slice jalapeños in half length wise and then scoop out the seeds and membranes with a small spoon. Don’t forget your gloves! Don’t scratch your nose! Or your eyeball! Don’t you dare!
Maybe open a window too.
In a bowl add chopped chicken breast, diced green onion, cream cheese, nonfat Greek yogurt, crumbled bacon, shredded cheese, and ranch seasoning packet. Mix together super well!
Again, wearing gloves, stuff each jalapeño half with chicken, bacon, ranch cream cheese mixture. Probably about 2 tablespoons in each pepper less for the smaller peppers little more for larger ones.
In a small microwave safe bowl melt 1 tablespoon of light butter in the microwave (about 12 seconds should do it). Add in 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs along with 1/4 tsp smoked paprika, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, a few pinches of dried parsley (for color really not a must have ingredient), a pinch of salt. Gently stir together really well. Add in 1/4 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend and stir.
Top each jalapeño popper with the cheesy panko topping. To ensure you don’t waste the topping. Hold each pepper over the bowl of breadcrumbs while you press the bread crumbs on top of each pepper so that any excess drops right back into the bowl of crumbs. As you can see some still gets wasted, but not nearly as much as if you were to top them each oh the tray.
Finally, Place them into a preheated 400 degree oven and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the topping is golden brown. After you remove from the oven, let’em just set for about 5-10 minutes. Don’t go and burn the roof of your mouth off okay?
and here they are! You just wanna reach into your screen and pop one into your mouth, right? I know I do! I’m so glad that these are literally in my fridge right now and I can go have a small plate of them for lunch.
These Chicken Bacon Ranch Jalapeño Poppers are exactly what you need to enjoy those commercials! Ahem, I mean, the football game! Ha! I’m just kidding, y’all know I mean the half time show.
Make. Eat. Repeat!
Now, you know what would be even more awesome? Dipping them into some of my homemade Skinny Ranch!
Chicken Bacon Ranch Jalapeno Poppers
Ingredients
Jalapeno Poppers
- 15 medium jalapeño peppers
- 4 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese
- 1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup bacon crumbles
- 1/2 cup reduced fat shredded Mexican cheese blend
- 2 cups diced and cooked chicken breast (grab a rotisserie chicken for extra ease!)
- 1 packet restaurant style/buttermilk recipe hidden valley ranch dressing seasoning packet if using a different a different ranch seasoning packet start with half the packet and taste and add more if you think it needs it!
- 2 diced green onions
Cheesy Panko Topping
- 1 tbsp light butter
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 cup reduced fat shredded Mexican cheese blend
- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs don't use fine bread crumbs
- couple pinches dried parsley (not a must have ingredient just adds some color)
Instructions
Jalapeno Poppers
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, grab a sheet pan and line it with some parchment paper. WEARING GLOVES, Slice jalapeños in half length wise and then scoop out the seeds and membranes with a small spoon. Don’t forget your gloves! Don’t scratch your nose! Or your eyeball! Don’t you dare!
- In a bowl add chopped chicken breast, diced green onion, cream cheese, nonfat Greek yogurt, crumbled bacon, shredded cheese, and ranch seasoning packet. Mix together super well!
- Again, wearing gloves, stuff each jalapeño half with chicken, bacon, ranch cream cheese mixture. Probably about 2 tablespoons in each pepper less for the smaller peppers little more for larger ones.
- Top each jalapeño popper with the cheesy panko topping. To ensure you don’t waste the topping. Hold each pepper over the bowl of breadcrumbs while you press the bread crumbs on top of each pepper so that any excess drops right back into the bowl of crumbs instead of being wasted.
- Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the topping is golden brown. After you remove from the oven, let’em just set for about 5-10 minutes.
Cheesy Panko Topping
- In a small microwave safe bowl melt 1 tablespoon of light butter in the microwave (about 12 seconds should do it). Add in 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs along withsmoked paprika, garlic powder, and salt. Gently stir together really well. Add in 1/4 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend and stir.
Made these for the first time & brought them to work for our Cinco de Mayo celebration, they were a HUGE hit!! Easy to make & came out looking as good as your photos! This recipe is definitely a keeper!
Ok, first off…I’m by now means a cook. I literally am the worst. But these were SO easy to make!!! My husband just tried them & absolutely loved them (so did I!!!). Can’t wait to make them again!!
WOW! These were to die for! I thought they were fairly simple and easy to assemble. I had some of your chipotle chicken on hand so I used it. Think it added an even better POP to the jalapeno! I’m not lying when I say I try and plan my weekly meals around cooking these once a week or every two weeks.
oh my goodness! the addition of the chipotle chicken sounds like the best idea EVER
These are so good and I am not a popper person but these are lovely. I used canned chicken and they still came out amazingly. Can’t wait to make again.
These were amazing! Huge hit at the Super Bowl party we went to. Not one person knew they were “skinnyish” but me. I don’t do spicy food and I ate 3 of these without any problems!
Yay!!! So happy they were a hit at the party. Thanks for letting me know!
These were even better than I had hoped!! So delicious and so simple!
Thank you so much Kathleen! So happy you enjoyed!
These are fantastic and so easy to make! I’m not a jalapeno popper person at all, but the chicken really added to these so I’m not just eating a mouthful of cream cheese. I don’t do spicy, so I made a recipe with half jalapeños for my husband and half sweet peppers for me. Hubby loved them!
So happy you enjoyed them!!
I made these last night for a couples game night, both me and the other wife are doing WW and these were a hit with everyone!! My husband told me we should def make them again! Thank you for sharing them! 🙂 I haven’t been disappointed with anything I’ve tried from you 🙂
I made these yesterday for a small game night with another couple, both of us wives doing WW and they were soooo good! Everyone loved them and my husband said we should make them again 🙂 thank you for sharing Star! I haven’t been disappointed with any recipe I’ve tried so far!
I’m so happy everyone enjoyed these, Leanne!! Thanks so much for stopping back and letting me know and rating the recipe too!
These look incredible! Can’t wait to try them
Well I know what I’m making for Super Bowl! When the husband has a serious spicy addiction these may become a household staple on regular rotation hahaha. Enjoy Half Time!
Yay!! I hope you and your husband enjoy, Kerri!