A jalapeno pepper.
Jalapeño poppers are a dish made from jalapeño peppers, stuffed with a mixture of spicy cheese, beating and frying. While many people classify jalapeño poppers as Mexican cuisine because they contain chili peppers, they are likely an invention of the American Southwest, marrying the Latin love of heat with the American obsession with fried everything. You can find jalapenos made by a variety of companies in the frozen food sections of many cottage markets, and they’re also available hot at some convenience stores and markets that offer hot meals. Of course, you can also make jalapenos at home from scratch.
Jalapeno peppers are often battered or breaded before being placed in the fryer.
Several dishes in the American Southwest are made with stuffed peppers, and all of these dishes are fairly easy to prepare. In the case of jalapeños, the cook begins with the filling, which can be cream, cheddar, or jack cheese. The filling is usually flavored in some way, sometimes even with bits of pepper. The filling is then placed in hollowed out jalapeños and the chiles are either dipped in batter or breaded before being placed in the fryer.
Yellow cheddar and jack cheeses are popular fillings used to make jalapeños.
To remove whole peppers for stuffing, cooks cut off the top of the pepper and carefully remove it. If the cut is made just around the pepper, sometimes the seeds will come out with it. Otherwise, a knife should be inserted into the pepper to remove the seeds. It’s a good idea to wear gloves during this process, as the oils in the pepper can cause a severe sting, especially if the mucous membranes are inadvertently touched.
There are all kinds of variations on the basic jalapeno popper. For example, some cooks like to use beer batter for added flavor, and breadcrumbs are often added to thicken it. Cooks can also experiment with stuffing other peppers or adding hot peppers to the cheese mixture to give the jalapenos a bite. Health-conscious cooks may choose to bake, rather than fry, their jalapeños.
Jalapeno peppers aren’t terribly hot, especially when the seeds and white membranes are removed from the peppers to make jalapeno poppers, but the pepper adds a kick. When combined with the creamy cheese filling and greasy breading on the outside, the spiciness of the pepper can be reduced even further. This is why some people like to eat their jalapenos with hot sauce to get some of the heat back.