Mini Jalapeño Popper Egg Rolls

Mini Jalapeño Popper Egg Rolls are crispy, creamy, cheesy handheld bites packed with bacon, sharp cheddar, cream cheese, and just the right amount of jalapeño heat! Whether you air fry, deep fry, or bake them, these irresistible appetizers are dangerously addictive and perfect for game day, parties, or anytime you’re craving something indulgent and delicious.

Love More Recipes? Try Cranberry Roll Ups or this Christmas Tree Spinach Dip Breadsticks next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Crispy, creamy, and full of flavor, these Mini Jalapeño Popper Egg Rolls are the perfect bite-sized appetizer. Stuffed with a cheesy jalapeño filling and fried or baked to golden perfection, they deliver just the right amount of heat and crunch. Great for parties, game days, or snacking, they’re an irresistible crowd favorite.

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Ingredient List

For the Filling:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2–2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 6–8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (about 3/4–1 cup)
• 1/2–3/4 cup finely diced jalapeños, membranes and seeds removed (adjust heat to taste)
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional)
• Pinch kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
• 1–2 teaspoons hot sauce (optional, for extra heat)

For the Wrappers and Sealing:

• 12–16 egg roll wrappers or 20–24 wonton wrappers (for minis)
• Small bowl of water (for sealing edges)
• Oil spray or neutral oil for cooking

For Deep Frying (if using this method):

• Peanut, canola, or vegetable oil, for frying (2–3 inches depth)

For Serving:

• Ranch dressing for dipping

Substitutions:

• Cheese: I’ve used pepper jack, Mexican blend from Aldi, even mozzarella when I ran out of cheddar
• Bacon: Turkey bacon when my mom visits because she doesn’t eat pork. Works okay
• Jalapeños: Pickled from a jar are fine. Just squeeze them dry really well first
• Wrappers: Wonton makes appetizer-size. Egg roll makes meal-size basically

Why These Ingredients Work

Cream cheese is the glue. Without it you’ve got loose cheese shreds and bacon falling everywhere.

Sharp cheddar actually tastes like cheese. The mild kind disappears completely against everything else.

Bacon’s why my brother-in-law asks me to make these every single time he comes over. Made them without bacon once for my vegetarian friend’s birthday and honestly they were just okay.

Jalapeños give you heat without destroying your mouth. I scrape the seeds out so my kids will eat them. Leave some in if you like sweating while you eat.

Green onions taste like onions but calmer. They make the filling look less like baby food too.

Garlic powder, onion powder, make things taste more interesting. Smoked paprika is supposedly optional but my aunt always knows when I skip it and gives me this look.

Egg roll wrappers get crunchy and they’re thick enough that you can actually stuff them properly. Wonton wrappers are for when you want tiny party bites.

Essential Tools and Equipment

Bowl for mixing. Knife. Something to cut on. Bowl with water.

Air fryer, big pot if you’re frying, or sheet pan if you’re baking. Oil spray for air fryer and oven. Thermometer for frying because eyeballing it gives you greasy egg rolls.

Paper towels if frying. Brush if you have one but I just spray everything.

How To Make Mini Jalapeño Popper Egg Rolls

Step 1: Make the Filling

Put cream cheese, cheddar, bacon, jalapeños, green onions, and spices in a bowl. Mix till combined. Looks like thick dip.

Cream cheese has to be soft or this doesn’t work. Learned that the hard way when I tried mixing cold cream cheese and ended up with chunks everywhere. Leave it out an hour or nuke it for 15 seconds.

Step 2: Set Up Your Rolling Station

Stack of wrappers on counter. Wet paper towel on top because they dry out stupidly fast and crack. Water bowl. Plate for done ones.

Step 3: Fill and Roll

One wrapper. Diamond shape, corner toward you. Scoop filling into center area, maybe two big spoonfuls. One spoonful for wontons.

Dip finger in water. Wet all edges. All of them. Bottom corner up and over. Roll twice. Left and right corners fold in. Keep rolling till you run out of wrapper. Squash the top edge down.

First couple look ridiculous but then you get it. Keep going till filling’s gone.

Step 4: Choose Your Cooking Method

Air Fry (My Favorite—Crispy with Less Oil!):

Air fryer to 370°F. Egg rolls in basket, no stacking. Spray with oil. Not a little spritz, actually coat them.

Seven to nine minutes depending on your air fryer. Mine’s old so takes longer. Flip at five minutes. Spray again. Should be deep gold color. If they’re still pale add another minute. Wait before biting or you’ll regret it.

Deep Fry (Classic Restaurant-Style Crunch):

Oil to 355-360°F. Thermometer required, not optional. Drop in three egg rolls. Fry around four minutes, flip them twice so they brown evenly.

Scoop out, paper towels. Let oil heat back up before next batch. If you don’t wait the next ones come out greasy and gross.

Bake (Hands-Off and Easy):

Oven 400°F. Parchment on pan. Egg rolls seam down. Oil spray.

Eighteen to twenty minutes. Flip at ten, spray more oil. Done when brown and crunchy looking. Takes forever but you can do other stuff.

Step 5: Serve and Enjoy!

Wait two minutes minimum. Burned the roof of my mouth so bad the first time I made these that I couldn’t taste anything for three days. Ranch on the side. Stand back because people get aggressive.

You Must Know

Seal the edges properly or they explode and you’ve got cheesy bacon gunk all over your air fryer basket. Wet every edge. Press hard.

Don’t overstuff. Your brain says more filling equals better. Your brain is wrong. Too much and they burst.

Personal Secret: Always make one test egg roll first. Cook it by itself. Tells me if seasoning’s right and if my sealing technique’s working before I waste the whole batch.

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

Oil spray is not negotiable for air fryer and oven. Light mist does nothing. Drench them till they’re shiny.

Oil temperature when frying matters more than you think. Too cold makes them absorb oil and get soggy. Too hot burns the outside while inside’s still cold. Stay 350-365°F.

Heat level’s your call. No seeds for wimps. Some seeds for normal people. All the seeds plus hot sauce for show-offs. My cousin puts habaneros in his and I think he has brain damage.

Bursting problems? Stick them in the freezer fifteen minutes before cooking. Cold filling leaks way less.

Space them out when cooking. Packed together they steam instead of crisping.

Flavor Variations & Suggestions

Buffalo chicken version: shredded rotisserie chicken, buffalo sauce mixed into filling. Blue cheese dressing for dipping. My husband requests these constantly.

Breakfast ones: scrambled eggs in there, sausage crumbles instead of bacon. Made these for Christmas morning last year, everyone freaked out.

Extra cheese: add mozzarella. Gets that cheese pull thing when you bite them.

Vegetarian: skip bacon, throw in corn and diced red peppers. Still decent but missing something.

Sweet and spicy: honey drizzle after they’re done or sweet chili sauce for dipping.

Make-Ahead Options

Roll them tonight, cook them tomorrow. Plate, plastic wrap, fridge overnight. Pull them out when guests arrive.

Better move: freeze them raw. Roll everything, single layer on a cookie sheet, freeze couple hours. Then dump in a freezer bag. Last two months easy. Cook straight from frozen, no thawing. Add four extra minutes. Air fryer like twelve minutes total, oven like twenty-three.

Frozen ones burst less for some reason. I do this even when I’m not meal prepping ahead.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

Nasoya wrappers don’t tear as easy. Keep the stack covered while working or the top ones dry and crack in minutes.

Room temp cream cheese isn’t a maybe. It’s mandatory. Cold cream cheese won’t cooperate and you get lumps. Hour on the counter at least.

Bacon in the microwave between paper towels. Six minutes. Way easier than pan. Let it cool completely or it makes the filling warm and weird.

Fresh jalapeños taste brighter. Pickled work too but squeeze every drop of liquid out first with paper towels or your filling gets watery and leaks everywhere.

Seam side down always when cooking. Physics keeps them closed.

Serving Suggestions

Ranch is what I serve because I’m basic and don’t care. My friend makes chipotle ranch which is also good. Sriracha mayo if you’re into that. Sweet chili sauce works. Jalapeño jelly if you’re trying to be fancy. Put out three different ones and everyone picks what they want.

Parties I pile them on my big white platter with cilantro thrown on top and lime wedges around the edge. Looks like I tried. Sometimes add tortilla chips and store-bought guac to fill space.

Game day: these, wings from Costco, bag of tortilla chips, jar of queso. Done.

Three to four per person for appetizers. Five if they’re your meal. They’re surprisingly filling.

I’ve eaten six with a bagged salad kit and called it Tuesday dinner. You do you.

How to Store Your Mini Jalapeño Popper Egg Rolls

Counter max two hours then refrigerate. Food safety whatever.

Cooked ones last three days in fridge in a container with a lid. Get soft and sad sitting there.

Reheat air fryer 375°F for seven-ish minutes. Oven works too. Never microwave, turns them into wet rubber that tastes like regret.

Can freeze cooked ones for a month but why would you when freezing raw works better.

Raw ones freeze perfectly. Covered that already above but basically freeze hard on a tray then bag them. Two months. Cook from frozen.

Allergy Information

Contains dairy (both cheeses), gluten (wrappers are wheat), eggs (also in wrappers), pork (bacon obviously).

Dairy free needs dairy-free cream cheese and shredded cheese alternatives. Never tried so can’t help you there.

Gluten free needs special wrappers from Asian grocery stores. Different texture supposedly. Haven’t used them.

No pork: turkey bacon exists. Or add extra cheese and skip meat entirely though that’s sad.

Vegetarian: no bacon, add roasted red peppers or corn.

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

Can I use pre-shredded cheese from a bag?

That’s literally all I ever use. Yeah it has that powder coating so technically doesn’t melt quite as smooth but I’ve never noticed and it saves me ten minutes. Block cheese is for people with time.

My egg rolls burst open while cooking. What am I doing wrong?

Overstuffed them, didn’t seal edges enough (wet thoroughly, press hard), or oil’s too hot if frying (stay at 360°F max). Try freezing first for fifteen minutes if this keeps happening.

What if I don’t have an air fryer?

Oven 400°F, twenty minutes, flip halfway, lots of oil spray. Or get a pot and fry them in oil like people did before air fryers existed.

Can I use wonton wrappers instead of egg roll wrappers?

Yeah makes tiny versions. One tablespoon filling per wrapper. Cook less time, like six minutes air fryer. Good for parties where people are walking around drinking.

💬 Tried this recipe? Leave a comment and rating below! Air fryer, oven, or fried? What sauce? Too hot or not hot enough?