Every year for the Super Bowl Mr. E and I have a snack fest.  It doesn’t matter if we are having a party or if it’s just the two of us.  We make a bunch of snacky type food, plop down in front of the TV, pick a team and stuff our faces! Ha ha 🙂

This year we were CRAVING bacon.  I think we were both reminiscing about the years past when we had Bacon Fest.  (Yes – Bacon Fest – which is a wonderful party we threw a few years in a row where every food item, even the dessert, incorporated bacon!)  One of our favorites from those days was the Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos Wrapped in Bacon.  So for the Super Bowl this year I decided to turn that into a dip – BEST IDEA EVER! LOL.

I started by roasting some of the biggest jalapenos I’ve ever seen and some banana peppers.

While those were roasting, I cooked a half a package of bacon and, once cooled, crumbled it into small pieces.  I add this and the chopped peppers into a bowl with the cream cheese mixture.

Then I poured all of this into a shallow baking dish.  When it was hot and bubbly, I pulled it out and served with tortilla chips.  “Yummy” is an understatement!   I really don’t know what this dip wouldn’t be good on. 🙂 It has great pepper flavor with a little bit of heat from the jalapenos.  The great thing about this recipe is if you wanted it hotter you could just add more jalapenos or even throw in a roasted serrano.

Hot Bacon Jalapeno Cheese Dip

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

2 medium jalapeno peppers

2 medium banana peppers

½ package of bacon, cooked and crumbled

¼ cup sour cream

¼ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon paprika

 

Roasting the Peppers:

Preheat the oven to 425°.  Place the top rack in the upper half of the oven.  For my oven this is the second slot from the highest.   Place a metal rack (like one you may cool cookies on) in a baking dish and place the whole peppers (washed and dried) on the rack and put them in the oven.  Keep an eye on them; flipping them over so that all sides get browned and the peppers soften.  In my oven this takes 10 to 20 minutes.  Once they are browned and have softened, remove from oven and place in a paper bag to cool.  I’ve found this helps with peeling them later.

 

Once cool, peel, seed and chop the peppers.  Set aside

 

Making the Dip:

Preheat oven to 350°.  Using a mixer, blend the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the sour cream and mix well.  It is important to get the lumps out  or else sometimes they won’t melt right when heated and the consistency will be off.  Then add the cumin and paprika and mix well.  Add in the chopped chilies and crumbled bacon and stir by hand.  Scoop into a shallow baking dish and bake about 20 minutes or until hot and melted.  Serve immediately with chips and enjoy!

 

**As a side note – this would heat up perfectly in a small slow cooker and then stay warm the entire time.  AND if you have those slow cooker plastic liners that you can find at the grocery store; then clean up would be super easy!