My girlfriend and I have been on a serious jalapeno popper binge for the last few weeks. We love the spicy, creamy, and awesome flavors that come along with fresh jalapenos. Add some cheese, cream cheese, and a bit of spice in there – and you’ve got yourself a real keto hit.
We go out a lot in the mornings and bring breakfast with ourselves to eat on-the-go. The strange stares and weird looks we get from people while we’re eating bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers for breakfast are priceless, but we had an even better idea. Why not combine one of our favorite dishes into an egg muffin we can easily eat and not look so odd?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m used to getting some strange stares from people since I’ve been on a ketogenic diet for over 6 years now. Eating butter off of the bread plate in a restaurant, dousing my foods with cheese and chomping away while a waterfall of melted gooeyness is falling to the plate, and always asking for a bowl full of butter with my meal. Though it doesn’t always bother me, I find that it does help to blend in with others.
Anyway, the taste of these little egg cups are just fantastic. If you’re a fan of jalapeno poppers, then do yourself a favor and give these a try. They’re the right amount of heat, the right amount of cheese to balance it out, and then bacon to really take it up a notch. All nested within a fantastic egg muffin to easily take with you anywhere!
Yields 12 Jalapeno Popper Egg Cups
The Preparation
- 4 ounces cheddar cheese
- 4 medium jalapeno pepper, deseeded and diced
- 12 ounces bacon
- 8 large egg
- 3 ounces cream cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- salt and pepper, to taste
The Execution
1. Get all ingredients ready. Measure out all cheese and grate as needed. Prep the jalapenos by seeding and chopping them. Save 1 jalapeno that you can cut into rings as a garnish for the top. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Par-cook bacon so it’s semi crisp but still pliable. Save bacon grease in the pan.
3. Using a hand mixer, mix together eggs, cream cheese, chopped and seeded jalapeno peppers, leftover bacon grease, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Grease wells of muffin tin, then place par-cooked bacon around the edges.
5. Pour egg mixture into the wells of the muffin tin. Make sure you only go about half-way to 2/3 way up as they rise quite a lot. Oh! This is the reason you only see 4 muffins in the following pictures – I overfilled the first batch of 12 and they turned into Frankenstein muffins.
6. Add cheddar cheese on the top of the muffin, then a jalapeno. Cook at 375F for 20-25 minutes.
7. Once cooked, remove from the oven to let cool. They will slowly deflate and give you a great treat.
8. Serve and enjoy!
This makes a total of 12 servings of Jalapeno Popper Egg Cups. Each serving comes out to be 242 calories, 21.5g fats, 1.4g net carbs, and 10.2g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 4 ounce cheddar cheese | 458 | 37.8 | 3.5 | 0 | 3.5 | 25.9 |
| 4 medium jalapeno pepper | 17 | 0.2 | 3.9 | 1.7 | 2.2 | 0.6 |
| 12 ounce bacon | 1813 | 158.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 90.7 |
| 8 large egg | 629 | 41.8 | 3.2 | 0 | 3.2 | 55.3 |
| 3 ounce cream cheese | 291 | 28.9 | 3.5 | 0 | 3.5 | 5.2 |
| 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder | 5 | 0 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 1 | 0.3 |
| 1/2 teaspoon onion powder | 4 | 0 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.1 |
| — salt and pepper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 3218 | 267.5 | 16.1 | 2 | 14.1 | 178.1 |
| Per Serving (/12) | 268 | 22.3 | 1.3 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 14.8 |

Jalapeno Popper Egg Cups
Ingredients
- 4 ounce cheddar cheese
- 4 medium jalapeno pepper deseeded and diced
- 12 ounce bacon
- 8 large egg
- 3 ounce cream cheese
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F. Get all of the ingredients ready. Measure out and grate the cheddar. Prep the jalapeños by deseeding and dicing them, saving one to cut into rings as a garnish.
- Partially cook the bacon so that it's semi-crisp but still pliable. Save the bacon grease in the pan.
- Using a hand mixer, blend the eggs, cream cheese, chopped and seeded jalapeño peppers, reserved bacon grease, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and pepper to taste.
- Grease a muffin tin and line each well with a strip of partially cooked bacon.
- Pour in the egg mixture, making sure not to fill them any more than two-thirds full, as these rise quite a bit.
- Add the cheddar cheese on the top of the muffins along with a slice of jalapeño. Bake for 20–25 minutes.
- Once cooked, remove from the oven and let cool. They will slowly deflate and turn into a delicious treat. Serve and enjoy!
















Boy, these look great! I may use Serrano chiles, though. I like the heat and taste a bit more than jalapenos.
There ya go – hope you enjoy them!
I haven’t frozen them, but they kept fine in the fridge. I was eating them every morning until they were gone.
If you prefer crispy bacon, you may want to cook it a bit longer in the pan. The bacon does get slightly chewy, with a bit of crispiness on the edges. Hope you like it!
I am just starting out on Keto but these look fantastic. I will probably switch out the Jalepeno with a regular bell pepper (I am not a heat person).
OMG! These look wonderful! I always fry my bacon in the microwave on a bacon rack. Just have to cut back on the time.
My husband and I did a job recently that involved nearly two weeks of 12-15 hour days. I made three batches of these over those two weeks and they were our saving grace in the mornings when we could barely get our eyes open to make coffee. The last two batches kept perfectly in the fridge for a week.
I made these this morning. They were absolutely delicious. Thank you for this!
It is college football day !! I am going to make these for supper tonight,,,,,,, this recipe is right up my alley for gamefood !!!
vegetarian modification w/ 6oz soyrizo instead of bacon
These are soooo yummy and make rushy mornings so much easier. Everyone in my house loves these, even those of us who aren’t doing keto (yet). Pair one of these up with a half an avocado and you have a dynamite breakfast that fuels you well past the lunch hour.
Hahaha – I love that you said “yet”. Super happy to hear that everyone loves them and thanks so much for the amazing compliment!
Just made these for the first time today. Incredibly good! Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Really glad to hear it – thanks for taking the time to let everyone know! 🙂
Great recipe, made these yesterday .
Added the bacon fat from pan and paprika to mixture ..
A post workout Keto favourite
Sounds delicious – the paprika probably gave it an awesome smoky kick!
This has become my on-the-go breakfast favorite. Love it! Thank you Craig!
Hey Craig! Thanks for the awesome recipe. My SO and I started Keto this week for the first time. Quick question regarding the macros listed…what kind of bacon did you use for this? Your breakdown is completely different than the stuff we bought. Nearly twice the calories, 3x the fat, and twice the protein! I just want to make sure we get the most out of this recipe. Thanks again!
Hi Stefan, what kind of bacon are you using? If you need to find bacon with less calories for your macros I recommend looking for thinner slices or center cut bacon.
I’m using regular thin cut bacon. Does this recipe call for thick cut bacon? That would explain the discrepancy.
I think I might have misunderstood your comment and thought yours was higher than ours, but ours is higher than yours? The recipe does not specify the type of bacon, but from the nutrition table and photographs I think that thick cut bacon was used. I will ask Craig about it and update the recipe to indicate which type he used if it is indeed the thicker cut. Sorry about any confusion!
I appreciate it! I should have known simply from the pictures, but I didn’t really think about it. Either way, it’s a great recipe. We’ve already made it twice and it’s our breakfast every morning. Alongside a nice cup of bulletproof coffee, of course 😉
These are perfect for a busy college student as myself. I just recently started a low carb lifestyle because I fell victim to the freshman 15, (plus 30). And wanted to make a change. And these are so delicious, I followed the reciepe to a T.
That’s great to hear Carolina! I’m glad you enjoyed them 🙂
I have no idea if anyone still checks these comments, but I’ll take a shot! The bacon slices seem way high in calories. I’ve put my bacon into all sorts of calorie trackers but only get between 490 and 520 total calories for 12 pieces, which is a far cry from yours. can I ask what kind of bacon you’re using, just for comparison?
I think its thick sliced bacon. (If I remember right normal bacon is about 50 calories a slice) I’m working on updating all the nutrition tables right now, I’ll do this one today so it’s more accurate.
So I went through and changed all of the nutrition to USDA database information. I think the table had uncooked bacon (without all the grease melted out of it.)
Can these be frozen and removed as needed?
The egg would reheat well. Bacon might be chewy.
Holy moly yumz! This is the first keto recipe I’ve tried that actually came out exactly as intended! Woohoo! Thanks so much!
How about using 8×8 pan, pour mixture on to greased surface followed by bacon strips cut to portion size?
These little guys are stellar. I actually cannot take them with me to work as my coworkers will eat every one without even blinking!
That’s not very nice of them, lol.
Hi – after reading the comments it probably doesn’t matter what kind of peppers/chillies are used for this recipe right? Just that I’m in New Zealand and can’t get any fresh Jalapenos so had to get a can – “La Morena” there is no sugar in the ingredients just peppers, water, vinegar, iodised salt, onion, vegetable oil and spices – I figure this will be fine? Thanks! 🙂
Yes, they should be. As long as the carb counts aren’t too high you can use pretty much any pepper you want 🙂
What is the serving size on this dish?
We have the macros for each egg cup, but it really depends on your macros. You can eat however many you want as long as you’re staying within your macros.
Love these!! Have made these several times, we love them for breakfast!
What do you use to grease the pan? Mine always stick!
We’ve used cooking spray before and not had a problem. We tend to replace our non-stick pans every 5-6 months so they don’t usually have a big issue with things sticking. I’ve also done these in a silicone cupcake mold and it’s turned out really well.
I want to see the Frankenmuffins!
My recipe is similar except that you turn the muffin pan upside down. Then you drape short pieces on top of each muffin cup, then wrap bacon around the sides. You crisp those up, and viola! You have self contained bacon cups. Then you place a jalapeno cut so that it’s even with the top of the bacon cup, pour egg half way on the outside of the jalapeno, top that with cheddar cheese or your fave cheese, fill the jalapeno with cream cheese, bake until the cheese is melted and the egg is set. Now you have a self contained meal! Yum!!
That sounds really great – the only real reason we don’t do that is to keep the bacon fat inside the egg mixture and to keep cleanup slightly easier.
If you keep the bacon fat inside the egg mixture, then the bacon probably won’t crisp up through and through. If you want to save the bacon fat, then put the upside down muffin pan in a baking sheet to collect the fat. Then add it to the egg instead of using water or milk in the egg. Clean up is no big deal. Even the way you do it, you still have cleaning up to do. But the way I do it, the bacon is truly crisped through. Plus you don’t need a hand mixer so there’s a lot less clean up right there. After you remove the crispy bacon cups, you put them in the bacon pan that you collected the grease in, and go from there as I explained. 🙂 Oh! And it’s a lot less trouble to drape the bacon on the outside than it is to line the inside of the muffin cups plus the cups are bigger on the outside. 🙂 One more thing. You can sprinkle the top with your favorite BBQ rub, or even with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar. Yum!!
Do you use the bacon grease of the 12 strips in the egg mix?
Yes, in step 3 it mentions to include the leftover bacon grease into the egg mixture 🙂