Jalapeño Popper Pizza

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This Jalapeño Popper Pizza is made with store-bought pizza dough, a cream cheese base, lots of cheese, and topped with spicy jalapeños. If you love jalapeño poppers, you’ll fall in love with this pizza because it has all the same flavors. This makes a fun appetizer or easy dinner!

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JALAPEÑO popper pizza

Calling all jalapeño fans out there..this Jalapeño Pizza is easier to make than the actual poppers and tastes even better because in a pizza form! It’s such a simple and easy pizza to make yet it has SO MUCH flavor, your taste buds will explode. 

Instead of a traditional pizza sauce, we make a garlic and onion seasoned cream cheese  and spread it on a top store-bought or homemade pizza dough crust (your choice), then top it with a combination of cheeses and fresh jalapeños. You get to decide on how much heat you want to add by adding more or less jalapeños. The seeds in the jalapeños are SPICY so leave them or remove them. 

Other spicy recipes to try are these Spicy Tuna Bites, Spicy Artichoke Dip, and Spicy Garlic Shrimp.

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key ingredients

• Pizza dough: You can use store-bought or if you want to make your own pizza dough, this is my easy Homemade Pizza Dough recipe. If you’re looking for a store-bought dough, Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods has the best pizza dough! You can also use premade pizza crust that’s already baked, you just want to be sure you reduce the baking time.
• Jalapeños: The star ingredient! Fresh jalapeños are always best as opposed to using canned jalapeños. Remove the seeds for mild heat, leave the seeds for medium to hot heat.
• Cheeses: I used both mozzarella and Monterey Jack cheese for the best flavors. It’s always best to shred and grate your cheese yourself to make the extra melty and gooey. 
• Cream cheese: Full-fat or reduced-fat can be used. This makes the base of the pizza base creamy, delicious, and adds a bit of richness. It’s best that your cream cheese is at room temperature so it spreads on the pizza easily. 
• Spices: Salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.
• Toppings: Chives, crushed red pepper, sliced green onions, black pepper, chopped bell peppers, bacon crumbles or fresh chopped parsley make great options.

how to make JALAPEÑO Popper pizza

Prepare pizza pan: Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Cover a pizza pan or dish with parchment paper and work the pizza with your hands to form a pizza dough about 10 inches in diameter. Transfer to prepared pizza pan.

Make cream cheese mixture: In a small bowl mix together softened cream cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper until combined.

Assemble pizza: Spread the cream cheese over pizza dough evenly. Leave about 3/4-1 inch of a border. Add mozzarella cheese slices, then sprinkle shredded jack cheese, top with jalapeño slices.

Bake: Place in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes of until golden brown. Top with chives or toppings of choice. Let cool for a few minutes, then slice and enjoy!

tips & variations

• Low-carb pizza: Swap the pizza dough crust for a cauliflower pizza crust.
• Softened cream cheese: Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature before making the base so it can spread on top of the crust easily. 
• Garlic flavor: If you want to you add garlic flavor, add a head of roasted garlic or chopped garlic clove to the cream cheese mixture. Find out how to easily make roasted garlic here.
• Extra crispy crust: Bake it for a few minutes longer, but be careful not to burn it. 
• Cheese: Different cheeses that work well with this recipe is sharp cheddar cheese, havarti cheese, pepper jack, and white cheddar cheese. 

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leftovers & storage

To-Store: Pizza is always delicious the next day! Place cooled pizza in a ziplock bag or airtight container. Store for up to 3 days. Eat leftovers cold or reheat in the oven at 350 degrees F for a few minutes until warmed. 

I don’t recommend microwaving leftovers because it can make the pizza chewy and soggy.

To-Freeze: If you want to make this pizza and freeze it for another time, you can! You can either freeze a whole baked pizza or freeze it unbaked. To freeze a baked pizza, cool completely then wrap it in plastic wrap and then in foil.

To freeze an unbaked pizza: Be sure to place parchment paper on the bottom of a pizza dish and flash freeze it for at least 30 minutes or until hardened. Once it’s frozen, wrap tightly with plastic wrap, then in foil. 

Thaw pizza before baking and reheating. Store in the freezer for 3 months.

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This recipe was last updated June 25, 2024 to include additional photos and information. Originally posted May 19, 2015 by Kathryn Donangelo.