When you want the delicious crunchy bite of heat and gooey cheese, make a fast batch with our Frozen Jalapeño Poppers in Air Fryer ready in just eight minutes. They are easy and come out perfect every time.
Once you start cooking in your new appliance that never leave the counter, you will start asking, “how long do you cook frozen jalapeño poppers in the air fryer?” A lot of food manufacturers are starting to put the cook times on the boxes of all the frozen foods we all love. Why not? They are remarkable for a quick snack, game day treat or an easy dinner in a pinch.
🍽️ Why This Works
Store-Bought Ingredients | Your last-minute guests will be thrilled with this delightful appetizer, and never realize that it came from a box unless you want to tell them. The air fryer cooks the TGI Fridays frozen jalapeño beautifully. You’ll even find a dipping sauce right in the box if you don’t want to make your own.
Fast, Savory Snack | When you want something savory fast and have hours until mealtime, these cook in literally eight minutes, max. You can have that snack you’re craving with just a few minutes in the kitchen.
Crispy Exterior without Added Fat | The beauty of the air fryer is that you can make all kinds of “fried” foods without a deep fryer or added grease. Unlike baking in a regular oven, the air fryer actually crisps up the exterior of the food without deep frying.
🌶️ Ingredients
Frozen Jalapeño Poppers – TGI Fridays makes an excellent package of frozen poppers, perfect for cooking up fast in the air fryer. Cream cheese wrapped with jalapeños all rolled up in bread crumbs ready for air-frying. The raspberry habanero dip works perfectly if you want to use it.
Avocado Dipping Sauce: This is optional. We made our own Avocado Dipping Sauce by combining one avocado, ½ cup of sour cream, 12-14 cilantro leaves, and a splash of lime juice. Adjust the flavor as you like by adding more avocado. Substitute Greek yogurt or mayonnaise.
⏲️ Equipment and Tools
Air Fryer. This handy kitchen tool has gained popularity rapidly in the last few years or so, and with good reason. It allows you to cook frozen foods such as french fries, onion rings, and frozen Jalapeño poppers perfectly and works great for other recipes too!
We reached for our 4 qt Ninja basket which held eight with enough room for good air circulation. We have also used our Instant Vortex Plus 7 in 1 oven style and is a workhorse when I need to cook a big batch. If you have an oven style like that and want to use both trays, always remember to swap them often as that top rack heats up and cooks faster and hotter than the lower one.
Air Fryer Liners. We are so passionate about using the liners that we have a whole big post on them. Our go-to ones are the parchment paper options or the silicone ones you see in the photos below. Either one are going to to make clean up a snap.
🔥 How Long to Cook Frozen Jalapeño Poppers in Air Fryer Instructions
Step One: Preheat your air fryer to 375ºF and add the frozen jalapeño poppers.
Note: There is no need to defrost these first. Add them straight from the freezer to the air fryer.
Step Two: Cook for six minutes. Shake and cook for an additional two minutes. While the poppers are cooking, make or warm up your dipping sauce.
Step Three: Enjoy!
Make sure to snag your {FREEBIE} Air Fryer Cooking Times Printable, Deep Fryer to Air Fryer Conversion Printable and Oven to Air Fryer Conversion Printable.
Homemade Air Fryer Jalapeño Popper Recipe
Making your own poppers are so easy to do.
Start off and wear gloves so when you are removing the seeds and membranes with the jalapeños.
Make a delicious homemade version by combining cream cheese, sharp cheddar cheese, garlic powder, panko breadcrumbs as seen in Spend with Pennies recipe. She didn’t wrap in slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick but I think I would level up and do it!
Alternatively, use The NY Times version of their cream cheese mixture where they add lime juice, garlic cloves, cilantro and scallions.
❗ Expert Tips
Don’t Crowd: As with most air fry recipes, be careful to not crowd the basket or they will steam and not crisp up. If you have a larger air fryer, you can add more at once. Otherwise, plan to work in batches and stagger your hungry people in the kitchen.
Feed a Crowd: The lovely thing about an air fryer is that you can keep serving hot appetizers all night long. If you will have lots of guests for your next game day gathering, just plan to throw a new appetizer in the air fryer every little bit. That way you only make what you need and everyone gets hot apps! When the first app is gone, make a new one.
Always Test Your Air Fryer First: When trying any air fryer recipe, test out the recipe by cooking at the lowest recommended temperature and time to see how quick and hot your brand cooks. The oven style tends to cook faster, so always take that into account. Most of us have to make minor adjustments with ALL new air fryer recipes as the machines are calibrated differently. Grab this air fryer cheat sheet for a handy starting point.
Watch the Time: In the last two minutes, the poppers crisp up fast. Check every 15 seconds or so to make sure you don’t overcook them. If overcooked they will all lose their filling.
Spray the basket. Give your air fryer basket a spritz with olive oil spray or cooking spray to keep from burning food onto the basket. Don’t use too much, because it will smoke. Alternatively, you can line the basket with parchment paper on the bottom. However, since the air fryer works by moving air around I don’t *love* the parchment paper method for this.
Be careful! The inside filling will get very hot in the air fryer. Bite with caution or let the jalapeño poppers cool for a couple of minutes.
All your burning questions: Can You Put Parchment Paper in Air Fryer? Can You Put Foil in the Air Fryer?
Leftover Storage
I recommend that you make exactly what you expect your guests will eat because they are best while hot straight from the machine. However, if you do happen to have a few leftovers, you can throw them in an airtight container in the fridge and reheat them the next day for a few seconds in the microwave or even in the air fryer.
Meal Prep
Stock up on the frozen Jalapeño Poppers when you see a good sale on these goodies so you always have them on hand for snack emergencies!
Substitutions
Use any brand of frozen Jalapeño Poppers your family enjoys. Costco and FarmRich are other brands you might like.
Try a different dip! Wasabi, Ranch, or even blue cheese could be delicious. Store-bought dips and dressings work perfectly for this kind of thing.
Serving Suggestions
Make it an appetizer night with these other fast air fryer recipes.
Easy Frozen Foods to Cook in the Air Fryer
Not only are these peppers a snap to make, just stand in the freezer department of the grocery store and most of the boxed items can be used in your fryer.
Recipe FAQ
It will take about eight minutes total at 375º.
If your air fryer has presets for the temperature, you will have to adjust the cooking time accordingly. Shake the jalapeño poppers at five minutes and start checking them for doneness at six minutes.
Alternatively, if your machine can cook at 360 degrees, add on a couple extra minutes but always keep checking.
If you cook them for about eight minutes at 375º and shake halfway through, it should work perfectly. Another way to tell is that once the cheese is hot enough it will start to ooze out a little on a couple of them. Don’t wait until they have all exploded!
Related Recipes
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Frozen Jalapeño Poppers in Air Fryer
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 Jalapeño Poppers Frozen
Instructions
- Place 6-7 frozen jalapeño poppers in the air fryer and heat up to 375 degrees.
- Cook for six minutes. Shake or turn and cook for additional two minutes.
- Serve hot with dipping sauce included or make your own.
Notes
Nutrition
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