All the flavors of jalapeño poppers wrapped up into a tasty meatball with a surprise cheese-filled center. This is a family favorite!
What would you say if we took a normal meatball, changed things up, and turned it into a jalapeño popper meatball? That’s right, get ready to sweat because we’re making jalapeño popper meatballs in the kitchen today. It has diced jalapeño mixed in with ground meat and then stuffed with cream cheese in the middle. They are addictingly delicious, and a family favorite.
These are surprisingly versatile. You can make these meatballs in bulk and freeze them, just add 10 to 15 minutes to the cooking time when you’re ready to cook. You can also easily turn them into a killer meatball sub. If you’re a bit nervous about the spice, you can use more or less jalapeño to your taste. No need to heat yourself out!
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Meat options for Jalapeño Popper Meatballs:
We love these meatballs with beef, but you can use pork, chicken, or really any ground meat.
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How many jalapeños should I use?
If you want to make a mild and kid-friendly meatball, stick to 1/2 of one jalapeño. For medium heat, 1-2 jalapeños, and if you’re really wanting a good spicy kick, use 3 whole jalapeños.
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Serving Suggestions:
These are hearty enough to serve plain as a main dish, but you can also also serve over rice or mashed potatoes. Our favorite way to eat jalapeño popper meatballs is on a sub with bbq sauce instead of marinara.
If you like this recipe, you may be interested in these other hearty ground beef recipes:
Watch the video below where Rachel will walk you through every step of this recipe. Sometimes it helps to have a visual, and we’ve always got you covered with our cooking show. You can find the complete collection of recipes on YouTube, Facebook Watch, or our Facebook Page, or right here on our website with their corresponding recipes.
We loved this recipe! So flavorful! We veganized it by using impossible beef, plain oat milk, vegan cheddar and cream cheese. They’re amazing on their own and even better with bbq sauce. Only trouble I ran into is I couldnt get 20 tablespoons out of the 4 oz of cream cheese so I did a teaspoon or so instead. I also worried a Tbsp would make the meatballs too big (we used 1 1/2 lb of the impossible beef vs. 1 lb) but looking at your pictures I may try the tablespoon next time.
I have celiac. I there something I can use in place of bread, or would it be okay to just leave it out?
There are a few gluten free bread crumbs out there. Fred Meyer/Kroger brand has some good ones, or you can find GF Panko breadcrumbs at most stores (generally right next to the regular ones). Alternatively, you can just leave out some GF bread for a day to dry it out and throw it in the blender to make your own bread crumbs. I also have celiac so I know the struggle. It gets really easy once you find all the good substitutes for staple ingredients though. 🙂
I will definitely be making these. These are making my mouth water just looking at the pictures. YUMMMMMMM
Made this tonight and everyone loved them. I was careful with the jalapeños but will use 2 next time. Thank you for another great dinner idea
Awesome
Will definitely try them …looks delicious
These were really yummy! Forget to get a fresh jalapeno so used pickled ones and added an egg to the mixture. Bbq sauce was delicious with them! Definitely will make these again!
Could I cook these on my smoker?
I’m sure they’d be delicious smoked.
I made these with 1/2 cup almond flour instead of regular flour and omitted the milk to make them keto.
They were really good!
This sounds great and I will try it this week – how do you think this would pair with fetuccine Alfredo?
It’d be an interesting twist and add a lot of flavor.
When I think of Fettuccine Afredo, I think chicken or seafood. Parmagiana cheese and white wine. I guess you could eat Beef meatballs with Fetuccine but it isn’t my cupof tea.