• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Savor + Savvy logo

  • Recipe Index
    • Air Fryer
    • Instant Pot
    • Slow Cooker
    • Breakfast
    • Condiments
    • Dessert
    • Freezer Cooking & Make Ahead Meals
    • Main Dishes
    • Side Dishes
    • Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes
  • Tips
    • Substitutions
    • Air Fryer How-To
  • Printables
  • Shop
    • Our Printables
    • Things We Love
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • Printables
  • Shop
×
Home » Recipes » Air Fryer

Frozen Jalapeño Poppers in Air Fryer

Published: Feb 8, 2022 · Modified: Mar 8, 2023 by Ginny · This post may contain affiliate links.

Pin7
Share
Yum
Tweet
7 Shares
Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

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.

dipping a breaded air fryer jalapeño popper into a homemade avocado dipping sauce and colorful peppers on the plate.
Frozen Jalapeño Poppers in Air Fryer for a Fun and Fast Appetizer
Contents hide
1 🍽️ Why This Works
2 🌶️ Ingredients
3 ⏲️ Equipment and Tools
4 🔥 How Long to Cook Frozen Jalapeño Poppers in Air Fryer Instructions
5 Homemade Air Fryer Jalapeño Popper Recipe
6 ❗ Expert Tips
7 Leftover Storage
8 Meal Prep
9 Substitutions
10 Serving Suggestions
11 Easy Frozen Foods to Cook in the Air Fryer
12 Recipe FAQ
13 Frozen Jalapeño Poppers in Air Fryer

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.

savor and savvy printable

Check out our MEGA Budget Binder →

🍽️ 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

ingredient photo showing a box of TGIFridays Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapeño Poppers.
Air Fryer Frozen Jalapeño Poppers

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.

black bowl with an avocado dip and a plate with jalapeño poppers stacked.
Don’t Forget a Fun Dipping Sauce!

Serving Suggestions

Make it an appetizer night with these other fast air fryer recipes.

Air Fryer Frozen Curly Fries

Air Fryer Ravioli

Mini Corn Dogs

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.

Frozen Chicken Patties

Frozen Bagel Bites

Frozen Dino Nuggets

Frozen Hot Pockets

Frozen Garlic Bread

Frozen Pierogies

Frozen Waffle Fries

Recipe FAQ

How long to cook Jalapeño Poppers in air fryer?

It will take about eight minutes total at 375º.

My air fryer doesn’t have 375ºF as an option. How long will they take at 390ºF?

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.

How can I tell when my frozen jalepeño poppers are ready?

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

  • hot pockets on a bed of lettuce with one cut in half.
    Hot Pocket Air Fryer
  • hot and steaming air fryer steak tips on a cutting board with colorful peppers in the background.
    Air Fryer Steak Tips with Creamy Horseradish Sauce
  • stack of air fried pierogies on a cutting board with sour cream, kielbasa and Brussel sprouts in the background.
    Air Fryer Frozen Pierogies
  • two salmon fillets on a plate with veggies and the air fryer in the background.
    Air Fryer Salmon

Tried this recipe? Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. You can also stay in touch with me through social media by following me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!

dipping a breaded air fryer jalapeño popper into a homemade avocado dipping sauce and colorful peppers on the plate.

Frozen Jalapeño Poppers in Air Fryer

Whipping up a batch of Air Fryer Jalapeño Poppers in just eight minutes is so quick and easy. Make this a "go-to" for college game days, appetizers when friends come over or family movie nights.
5 from 2 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Appetizer, Snack
Cuisine: American
Cook Time: 8 minutes minutes
Total Time: 8 minutes minutes
Servings: 3
Calories: 230kcal
Author: Ginny

Equipment

  • Air Fryer

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

Avocado Dipping Sauce: We made our own Avocado Dipping Sauce by combining 1 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. 
Don’t Crowd: As with most air fryer recipes, be careful to not crowd the basket or they will steam and not crisp up. 
Always Test Your Air Fryer First: When trying any air fryer recipe, test out the recipe by cooking at the lowest temperature and lowest time to see how quick and hot your brand cooks. The oven style tend 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. 
Watch the Time: The last 2 minutes the poppers crisp up fast. Check ever 15 seconds or so to make sure you don’t overcook them. 
Storage: I recommend that you make exactly what you need for the Air Fryer Jalapeño Poppers 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 a baggy in the fridge.  
Reheating: Reheat them the next day for a few seconds in the microwave or even in the air fryer. They won’t yield the same results as serving fresh. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 230kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 15mg | Sodium: 420mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g
Tried this recipe?Mention @savorandsavvy or tag #savorandsavvy!
Ginny
Ginny

Hi!

Ginny Collins is a passionate foodie and recipe creator of Savor and Savvy and Kitchenlaughter. Indoors she focuses on easy, quick recipes for busy families and kitchen basics. Outdoors, she focuses on backyard grilling and smoking to bring family and friends together. She is a lifelong learner who is always taking cooking classes on her travels overseas and stateside. Her work has been featured on MSN, Parade, Fox News, Yahoo, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and many local news outlets. She lives in Florida where you will find her outside on the water in her kayak, riding her bike on trails, and planning her next overseas adventure.

savorandsavvy.com/about-me/
Frozen Jalapeño Poppers in Air FryerFrozen Jalapeño Poppers in Air Fryer
« Big Game Day Printables FREEBIE Charades, Predictions, Bingo for Super Bowl
Air Fryer Apple Roses »

About Ginny

Hi!

Ginny Collins is a passionate foodie and recipe creator of Savor and Savvy and Kitchenlaughter. Indoors she focuses on easy, quick recipes for busy families and kitchen basics. Outdoors, she focuses on backyard grilling and smoking to bring family and friends together. She is a lifelong learner who is always taking cooking classes on her travels overseas and stateside. Her work has been featured on MSN, Parade, Fox News, Yahoo, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and many local news outlets. She lives in Florida where you will find her outside on the water in her kayak, riding her bike on trails, and planning her next overseas adventure.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bindi U says

    December 10, 2023 at 4:45 pm

    5 stars
    So tasty! I even made the avocado dipping sauce

    Reply
5 from 2 votes (1 rating without comment)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Family Photo Hi! I'm Ginny and for over 30 years, I've been creating simple and easy recipes without sacrificing on taste for our family on the go. I can't wait to show you how to do the same for your family. Read More...

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Search

join our facebook community for printables.

As Featured In

graphic showing all of the publications that feature Savor and Savvy.

Popular Posts

bowl of teriyaki chicken over a bed of white rice, two chopsticks and sprinkled with sesame seeds

Honey Teriyaki Chicken Recipe

This oven baked eggs recipe is an easy fix for rushed morning breakfasts! These eggs are baked in muffin pans and are ready in just 15 minutes.

How to Bake Eggs in Oven in Muffin Tin {15 Minutes Meal Prep}

How to Clean Stove Drip Pans Naturally

top down view of a desk with three printable pages on top.

Dot Grid Paper Printable for Bullet Journaling + Planners: U.S. Letter, 8×10, A4, A5, A6 and Pocket, Personal Sizes

Adorable pet care binder cover sheet with paw prints and a grey heat

Adorable Pet Care Binder FREE 12 Pages of Printable Worksheets

After cooking, the livers will be golden brown as shown on this air fryer tray

Air Fryer Chicken Livers

Medical binder printables on pink background next to decorative heart and stethoscope.

Medical Binder Printables (FREE Worksheets Included)

This easy cilantro lime rice recipe will feed your chipotle cravings, without having to leave home! This easy side dish is the perfect addition to a homemade burrito bowl or any other simple meal requiring an extra kick of flavor.

Cilantro Lime Rice Recipe

Footer

^ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Accessibility Policy

Contact

  • Contact

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Rate This Recipe

Your vote:




A rating is required
A name is required
An email is required

Recipe Ratings without Comment

Something went wrong. Please try again.