Bacon Jalapeño Habañero Popper Grilled Cheese

This is one of those things I saw on the internet and I just had to try it and make it my own. And I owned it!

Bacon Jalapeño Habañero Popper Grilled Cheese

Prep Time 20 minutes • Total Time 1 hours
Difficulty Level:

Directions

Pre-heat your oven to 375. Slice your jalapeños in half and de-seed.

Chop the habanero up real fine and add the cream cheese garlic powder and hot sauce and stir to combine.

Spoon the cream cheese mixture into the halved jalapeños, there may be a bit left over depending on the size of your peppers, put any leftover cream cheese on your bagel tomorrow morning.

Set the peppers cream cheese side up on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil for easy cleanup and put them in your pre-heated oven for 20 minutes.

While they are baking you can cook your bacon until it’s crispy and prep your grilling station. I like cast Iron, but any large flat griddle like surface will do. Once the jalapeños are done layer the sandwich like so:

Bread
Cheese
Jalapenos
Bacon
Cheese
Bread

At this point you can either spread some mayo on the outside of the sandwich or put some butter in the pan for the grilling (mostly depending on how you grew up eating grilled cheeses). Pop that on your pre-heated but not too hot sandwich grilling station (this is the hardest part) you want to melt the cheese without burning the bread. If you are just beginning, start on a lower heat or if you have one use a panini press, it will take a bit longer but your food will be safer. (I even burnt mine a bit, shhhh.)

Pair this with some homemade tomato soup!

Ingredients

  • 4 large slices Sourdough Bread
  • 8 Cheddar Cheese Slices
  • 4 Jalapenos, I grabbed 2 red and 2 green, halved deseeded
  • Habanero red fresh chopped fine
  • 1 tbsp Smoked Habanero Mango Hot Sauce
  • 1 tsp Toasted Garlic Powder or Garlic powder
  • 4 oz. Cream Cheese
  • 5 slices halved of good bacon
  • Butter or Mayo for bread