It’s always interesting to see what will pop up among the weekly fresh meat specials at Aldi. I’ve gotten everything from pork butt to grass-fed ground beef to standing rib roasts to rack of lamb. This past week, I found bacon-wrapped jalapeño peppers and couldn’t resist.
Custom Made Meals Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers are an Aldi Find, which means they’re in stores for just a short time. Each store gets one shipment, and they’re gone after that sells out. You can’t order these online from Aldi if they’re sold out at your local store.
These cost $5.99 per pound at the time of publication. I bought a 1.08-pound package for $6.47. My package had eight single-serving jalapeños in it, which comes out to about 75 cents per serving.
My package had a use-by date of February 14th, which is just a few days after certain big game where appetizers like this are popular fare.
These don’t bear an Aldi private label house brand. The package states they are manufactured by Custom Made Meals, which is a Denver-based company that produces fresh, oven-ready appetizers and entrees for more than 15,000 grocery retail locations. Their website features products such as kebabs and spicy chicken. Their website doesn’t indicate where you can buy their products, but I did find a listing for Custom Made Meals Parmesan Chicken Breast Cutlets at Giant, and City Market (owned by Kroger) carries Custom Made Meals Potato Skins Stuffed with Bacon & Cheddar.
If you’re looking out for allergens, these contain milk.
The full ingredients list is jalapeño peppers, bacon (pork cured with water, salt, sugar, sodium phosphates, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite), and cream cheese (pasteurized cultured milk and cream, less than 2% salt, stabilizers [guar gum and/or carob bean gum]).
A one-piece serving (57 grams) has 190 calories, 15 grams of total fat (22% DV), 6 grams of saturated fat (31% DV), 420 mg of sodium (18% DV), 2 grams of total carbohydrates (1% DV), less than 1 gram of dietary fiber (3% DV), 1 gram of sugars, and 8 grams of protein.
Nutrition information, ingredients, and cooking directions. (Click to enlarge.)
The package has directions for cooking these in a conventional oven, on a grill, or in an air fryer. They should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. The package says not to microwave these.
To bake in the oven, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place jalapeños cream cheese side down on a baking sheet. Cook for 15 minutes. Flip and cook for 10-15 more minutes or until bacon is crisp.
To grill, heat grill on high. Grill for 3-5 minutes. Flip and cook 3-5 minutes more. Repeat until bacon is crisp.
To air fry, evenly space jalapeños on the basket or rack for best results. Air fry at 400 degrees for 14-18 minutes.
Ready to serve after baking.
I chose to bake these because my air fryer was already occupied. They were done after 25 minutes in the oven (I flipped them at the 15-minute mark).
These are good. Jalapeños, cream cheese, and bacon are a flavor combination that just works. However, these have an inconsistent spice level. One of our taste testers who likes spicy food thought her jalapeño was too spicy. I didn’t think mine was spicy at all, until I got to the last bite, which was quite spicy. If you can handle random levels of spiciness, you might like these.
The Verdict:
Custom Made Meals Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers feature jalapeño peppers stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped with bacon. We like these, except that their spice level is not consistent. Some of our spicy food-loving taste testers got very spicy peppers, while others had very mild peppers. Sometimes the spice level was unpredictable throughout a single pepper, with both mild and hot parts. If you don’t mind that, these are otherwise good.
