Easy Baked Jalapeno Cheese Crisps {Gluten Free, Low Carb}

Name: EASY Baked Jalapeno Cheese Crisps
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 20-25 crisps
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 5 medium jalapenos; 2-3 tbsp olive oil; 1/2 tsp onion salt or powder; 6 -8 one ounce naturally aged cheese slices. (parmesan works best, but swiss, provolone, havarti all work too. See notes for the cooking times.; pepper; tabasco or ranch sauce for dipping; parchment paper

January 22, 2016 156 Comments

Gluten Free

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Cheese crisps are a fantastic appetizer or snack! Low carb, gluten free cheese crisps with a Tex Mex, jalapeno flare. These healthier baked crisps are simple to make with minimal ingredients. Can be made mild or super spicy. You choose!

Certain things happen when you marry a foreigner. Like… you introduce them to Texmex and they become obsessed! Like…. you tell them about how cheez-its were you childhood favorite and they look at you funny. “Cheese crisps?” No no no no. I mean cheez-its! The crispy cheese cracker.

And finally, you totally forget about football. Yes, this Texas girl rarely watches it. In fact, if you came to our house on a Sunday, you’d probably see swimming, rugby, or cycling on TV.

That being said, we’re still into game day festivities! But we are also that couple who will attend or host football watching parties just to visit and eat good food. Tex Mex food, spicy food (ahem… like my Chipotle chili), and all things snacky/appetizers! Or what this chips and salsa loving husband of mine calls “nibbles.” Sorry, real Kiwi Cotter confessions here ya’ll.

But here’s my problem. I think too much about these situations. You see, I love making game day foods and appetizers, but I’m also a people pleaser. Ugh, the death of me. Should I bring a healthy appetizer? Oh but maybe someone eats low carb and grain free? Wait, I can’t eat anything with gluten (not to mention high in lactose), but I know someone will want cheesy comfort food. Or maybe paleoish and not as spicy, etc? Come on, you know you’ve been in that same situation! The trying to please everyone but totally failing situation.

So here’s what I do (nowadays). I tell my brain to chill out and just make something I knew most people would enjoy and is pretty healthy. But more importantly, AMAZINGLY delicious and gluten free. Because if they don’t eat it, we will take it home and devour the rest, ya know?

Hence these low carb baked jalapeno cheese crisps! Flipping amazing!

Simple to make. Grain free, easy to make spicy or not spicy, easy to adjust for those needing lower lactose options. Oh and only 5 ingredients, in other words cost effective! Can I get a high five?!!!

How to make extra crispy cheese crisps

The key to making these chips extra crispy is to bake your jalapenos slices first. Leave the seeds in if you want them SPICY or cut the seeds out if you want them less spicy. Coast with a little onion salt, oil, and pepper.

Once they are done baking, you simply wrap them around a natural cheese slice, place on baking tray with parchment paper, and bake again. Less than 10 minutes!

Now… the CHEESE is important here. I found the best cheeses to use are the ones that are more naturally aged. And if they are more aged they are also lower in lactose. This is because the aging process kills off that lactose sugar along with the whey. Only a little is left and it’s turned into lactic acid. Haha, I knew you wanted to know that, right? Nerd alert! For a complete list low lactose cheese –>FODMAP living.

I use sandwich sliced provolone, parmesan, and havarti in this cheese crisps recipe. All work great, and um… YUM!

How to make baked cheese crisps