INGREDIENTS
- 8 jalapeños
- 4oz cream cheese
- 4oz sharp cheddar cheese
- 4 oz smoked (or fully cooked) sockeye salmon, chopped into small pieces
- 1 tbsp parsley
- 1 tube of crescent dough
- 1 egg
- Salt and pepper
- Garlic and onion powder
Ghouls, goblins and garlic salmon - oh my! Halloween is the time of year where the only thing scarier than our DIY costumes is determining the menu for your upcoming Halloweekend party.
From deciding what your tasty versus healthy ratio will be, to determining if the menu needs to have kid-friendly options, it can easily feel like a party planning committee is suddenly needed just to get through the week!
Luckily for you, Chef Nicole has created a frightfully easy and fun salmon-based Halloween appetizer perfect for this Halloween weekend’s gatherings: Mummy Sockeye Salmon Jalapeño Poppers!
Whether you’re smoking your wild Alaskan salmon fillets or cooking them on the grill, all you really need for this recipe is some crescent dough, cream cheese and jalapeños from your favorite local supplier.
What is a Jalapeno Popper?
Inspired by the Mexican dish chile relleno, jalapeño poppers really started to gain popularity here in the US sometime in the 70’s or 80s - all thanks to the idea of stuffing a jalapeño with something delicious!
While chile relleno is a pepper stuffed with filling and fully deep fried in egg batter, the jalapeño poppers we see most prominently today are open-faced jalapeño halves stuffed with a cream cheese mixture of some sort.
How to make Jalapeno Poppers?
In today’s modern jalapeño poppers recipe, many keep it simple by halving a jalapeño, filling it with cream cheese and wrapping it in bacon. Some recipes might add spices or shredded cheese to the cream cheese mixture in order to add to its flavor.
With these mummified jalapeño poppers, Chef Nicole stuffs jalapeño halves with a smear of flavorful, protein-packed salmon cream cheese. The mixture combines smoked salmon, cream cheese, sharp cheddar cheese and parsley for a creamy and flavorful filling.
Next, using crescent dough (or puff pastry), Chef Nicole achieves a spirited Halloween look like no other. She thinly stretches the dough strips around the poppers, being careful to allow the pink salmon cream cheese and green jalapeño to show through. The result? A perfectly mummified look!
Smoked versus grilled salmon: Which is better for Poppers?
For this recipe, Chef Nicole highly recommends using smoked salmon in your jalapeño poppers. As salmon fishermen, we enjoy preparing our salmon in a number of ways. But with jalapeño poppers, we feel that the smoky and salty flavor of smoked salmon pairs best with the cream cheese and jalapeño!
Captain Steve’s go-to method of smoking salmon in his personal smokehouse includes a basic brine of brown sugar and salt, which you can find here.
For those interested in smoking their salmon but do not own a smoker, we’ve got you covered! Chef Nicole suggests turning your regular grill into a smoker by adding some wood chips to a self made foil bowl:
“First, soak the chips in water for 30 minutes. Get the chips hot on the grill over the flames and move it to the side of the grill when the chips start smoking. Then add your salmon to the grill and smoke. Keep the grill at 225F for about an hour until complete.”
While smoked salmon is our personal favorite way to prepare the salmon for these jalapeno poppers, it’s important to note that any fully cooked salmon will work for this recipe! Baked, grilled, or pan seared salmon chopped into smaller, bite sized pieces still offer a fantastic flavor when mixed with cream cheese and smeared onto the jalapeño halves.
Ready to prepare your poppers for this Halloweekend? Dive in and let us know how your Sockeye Salmon Jalapeño poppers turn out!
Makes: 16 poppers
Total Time: 45 minutes
EQUIPMENT
- 1 Spatula
- 1 cookie tray
- parchment paper
- Mixer
- Box grater
- Knife and cutting board
- Measuring spoons
INSTRUCTIONS
1) Season your smoked (or cooked) sockeye salmon with garlic and onion powder and chop into smaller, bite-sized pieces.
2) Whip the cream cheese and grated cheddar cheese together, when combined add salmon and parsley and mix in well.
3) Cut the 8 jalapeños in half, clean the ribs and seeds out.
4) Salt and pepper each half of the jalapeño.
5) Stuff the salmon mix into the jalapeños.
6) Cut the crescent dough into thin strips and wrap around the jalapeños.
7) Whip an egg and then “egg wash” the top of each crescent-roll jalapeño.
8) Place on a parchment lined cookie tray and bake at 400 for 14 minutes, until dough strips are golden brown.
Serve your smoked jalapeño poppers at your next spooky gathering for all to enjoy!
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