If you need some appetizers to serve for a party or gathering — or just for a fun dinner at home — Aldi sells several options. My family likes Aldi shrimp served with cocktail sauce for dipping. We’re also fans of the grocer’s Everything Franks in a Blanket. Aldi also sells some limited-edition appetizers such as arancini, spinach and artichoke dip, mini spring rolls, pretzel bites, and mac and cheese bites.
Among the appetizer selection in the Regular Buy freezer are some cheese stuffed jalapeños that looked interesting to try.
Appetitos Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapeños cost $3.49 for an 11-ounce package at the time of publication.
As mentioned above, these are a Regular Buy, so you should be able to find them at Aldi any time of year. These are in the freezer aisle in a mixed case that also contains mozzarella cheese sticks.
If you’re looking out for allergens, these contain milk and wheat.
These are not a health food, as they have a fair amount of fat and sodium along with some processed ingredients. One box contains about four 3-piece servings. One serving has 240 calories, 17 grams of total fat (22% DV), 6 grams of saturated fat (30% DV), 640 mg of sodium (28% DV), 19 grams of total carbohydrates (7% DV), 1 gram of dietary fiber (4% DV), 2 grams of total sugars, and no added sugars.
Nutrition information, ingredients, and cooking instructions. (Click to enlarge.)
The back of the box has directions for deep frying these or for baking them in a conventional oven.
To deep fry, fry at 350 degrees for 3-3 1/2 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes before serving.
To bake, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Arrange pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet. Cook for 9 1/2-10 minutes. Let stand 2 minutes before serving.
There are no directions on the box for air frying these, but if I air fried them, I might set the air fryer to 400 degrees and cook them for 5 minutes before checking on them and adding extra time as necessary.
After baking.
I opted to bake these in my oven, and they were done after about 10 minutes. The breading comes out lightly crisp, and the inside is filled with just the right amount of savory cream cheese and good-sized jalapeño pepper halves. These have a medium spice level. They’re spicy, but not terribly so.
My family thought these were okay. They’re not the greatest stuffed jalapeños we’ve had, but they’re decent. Could you find better ones or make better ones yourself? Definitely. We feel the same way about the other appetizer that’s sold alongside these jalapeños; the Aldi mozzarella sticks are okay but not great, and there are much better options out there.
The Verdict:
Appetitos Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapeños are a frozen appetizer at Aldi. These feature jalapeño halves filled with cream cheese and surrounded by a crisp breading. These aren’t terrible, although we’ve had better.
Aldi’s cheddar jalapenos was much better, but for whatever reason, they have disappeared from every brand out there.
While the former is good dipped in ranch dressing, these go well with jellies. We’ve tried berry and peach, but I bet a sweet pepper jelly would enhance things.
Mostly, I’ve just starting going to Sonic, buying their Ched ‘R’ Peppers and throwing them in the freezer when I get home.