Who doesn’t love a jalapeño popper? (For the uninitiated: jalapeño poppers are jalapeños stuffed with cream cheese, then wrapped in bacon and baked or grilled until the bacon is crispy and the cheese is melted. They’re addictive, rich, and the perfect combination of creamy, spicy, and smoky.) Now imagine that flavor stuffed into a juicy chicken breast and covered in crispy bacon. It’s as delicious as it sounds, I promise.
This is one of those recipes that looks impressive but is actually pretty straightforward to make, and it’s been part of my regular grilling rotation since I was first learning to cook on the Kamado Joe. This is primarily a kamado grill recipe, but I’ll give you oven instructions too if you don’t have a grill.
Why This Works
The combination is simple: cream cheese and jalapeños stuffed inside butterflied chicken breasts, wrapped in thick-cut bacon, then grilled until the bacon is crispy and the chicken is perfectly cooked. The bacon bastes the chicken as it cooks, keeping it moist. The cream cheese gets all melty. The jalapeños (seeded, so they’re not overwhelming) add just enough heat and flavor without dominating everything else.
It tastes rich and indulgent, but here’s the thing: it’s also reasonably healthy. Each chicken breast comes in at about 460 calories and packs 49 grams of protein. Since I’ve been on Mounjaro, I usually eat about half of one for dinner and save the rest for lunch the next day. That high protein content keeps me satisfied, and the richness means a little goes a long way.
It’s the kind of thing you serve with a light, crunchy salad to offset all that bacon and cream cheese.
About the Ingredients
Bacon
Use thick-cut bacon for this. Regular bacon will cook too fast and get burnt before the chicken is done. Thick-cut holds up to the longer cook time and gets crispy without turning into charcoal.
I like Wright’s Applewood Smoked thick-cut bacon best. Kirkland’s brand from Costco is also good, though it’s a bit saltier than Wright’s. Use what you can get, but make sure it’s thick-cut.
Jalapeños
Seed the jalapeños unless you really love heat. Seeded jalapeños give you flavor and a little kick without overwhelming the dish. One small jalapeño per chicken breast is about right.
If you want extra flavor and smokiness, you can pre-roast the jalapeños on the grill before you dice them and stuff the chicken. Just throw them on the grill while it’s heating up, char the skins, let them cool, peel them, seed them, and dice them. It’s an extra step, but it adds a nice depth of flavor.
Make-Ahead Option
You can prep these the day before through the bacon-wrapping step. Just cover them and keep them in the fridge overnight. Pull them out about 20 minutes before you’re ready to grill so they come closer to room temperature.
This makes weeknight grilling much easier; you can do all the prep work the night before, and then it’s just a matter of lighting the grill and cooking them.
What to Serve with It
These are rich. Bacon, cream cheese, chicken; it’s a lot. You need something light and fresh on the side.
I usually do a spinach salad with blue cheese and mandarin oranges (the sweet citrus cuts through the richness beautifully). A crunchy coleslaw also works really well. Something crisp, something acidic, something that provides contrast.
Notes on the Recipe
Butterflying the chicken: Cut horizontally through the thickest part of the breast, stopping about half an inch from the other side so it opens like a book. You want it fairly even in thickness so it cooks evenly.
Seasoning: Season the chicken lightly. The bacon adds a lot of salt, so you don’t need much. I usually just use salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder. You can also use BBQ rub, seasoned salt, or kitchen pepper but I like to keep it simple and let the bacon, cream cheese, and jalapeño flavors be the stars.
Wrapping the bacon: Two pieces of thick-cut bacon per breast, wrapped around the chicken in a spiral. Secure with toothpicks. The bacon will shrink as it cooks, so wrap it snugly but not super tight.
Temperature: You’re looking for an internal temperature of 145-150°F when you pull them off the grill. The chicken will continue cooking in the carryover heat and reach a safe 155°F. If you cook them all the way to 165°F on the grill, they’ll overcook and be dry.
Foil-wrapped heat deflectors: If you’re using a kamado grill, wrap your heat deflector plates in foil before you set them up for indirect heat. This catches all the bacon drips and grease, making cleanup much easier.
Oven method: If you don’t have a grill, this works in the oven too. Put the chicken on a rack set on a baking sheet (so the bacon can crisp up all the way around) and bake at 400°F for 20-30 minutes until the bacon is crispy and the chicken reaches 145-150°F internal temperature.
Jalapeno Popper Chicken Breast
Ingredients
- 2 each chicken breast boneless, skinless
- 2 oz cream cheese
- 2-3 small jalapeno peppers seeded and diced
- 4 strips bacon thick cut
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- If you're using a grill, light your grill and let it settle at around 400°F. Set a deflector over the coals for indirect heat. If you're baking in the oven, preheat your oven to 400°F.
- Butterfly each breast, cutting evenly through the breast, but leaving each side connected.
- Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Be generous with the pepper but go easy on the salt as the bacon adds quite a bit of saltiness. Here is where you can add any additional seasoning like bbq rub or garlic or kitchen pepper.
- Mix together the cream cheese and the diced jalapeno and spread half of the mixture on one side of the butterflied breasts. Fold the breasts back together so the filling is sandwiched between the two halves.
- Wrap each breast with 2 strips of bacon, using toothpicks to hold the bacon in place. You don't need 100% coverage, but try to cover as much of the breast as possible.
- Grill or bake for 20-30 mins or until the bacon is nicely crispy and the internal temperature of the chicken reads 145°F – 150°F. (Be sure that you're probing into the meat of the breast and not into the cheese in the center.
- Remove from the heat and allow to rest for about 5-8 mins before serving.
Variations
Cheese options: You can add shredded cheddar or monterey jack to the cream cheese filling if you want it extra cheesy. About 2 tablespoons per breast.
Spice level: Leave some jalapeño seeds in if you want more heat. Or use poblano peppers if you want all the flavor with almost no heat.
Hatch green chile version: If you have roasted Hatch green chiles, use those instead of jalapeños. Same amount, same method. Different flavor profile but equally delicious.
What’s your go-to stuffed chicken recipe? Do you grill or bake? Let me know in the comments.