Copycat Starbucks Jalapeño Chicken Pocket Recipe

Starbucks' Jalapeño Chicken Pocket is chile-seasoned lavash folded around diced chicken breast, charred poblano, jalapeño, a jalapeño cream cheese and a gouda with chili peppers, then toasted until the bread is crisp. This recipe makes six from three sheets of lavash, one charred poblano and two cups of cooked chicken in 35 minutes, and they can be frozen before baking.

What is in the Starbucks Jalapeño Chicken Pocket

It joined the permanent menu on 4 March 2025. Starbucks' menu page describes a toasted chile lavash flatbread filled with diced chicken, charred poblanos, green jalapeños, a three-chile cheese and jalapeño cream cheese, and the ingredient statement on the same page lists five components:

• a lavash wrap seasoned with chipotle and red bell pepper
• cooked diced chicken breast
• a jalapeño cream cheese spread
• a pepper blend of roasted poblano and jalapeño
• a gouda made with chipotle, habanero and jalapeño

One 84-gram pocket is 200 calories, with 7 grams of fat, 23 of carbohydrate and 11 of protein. The pockets here are larger than that, and the calorie figure in the recipe card is correspondingly higher.

This is a reconstruction from that list, not Starbucks' recipe, and MakeFoodLovely is not connected with Starbucks.

Recipe

Starbucks Jalapeño Chicken Pocket

A reconstruction of Starbucks' Jalapeño Chicken Pocket — lavash folded around diced chicken, charred poblano, jalapeño cream cheese and chili-pepper cheese, toasted crisp. Six pockets.

5.0 (1)Print

Prep

20 min

Cook

15 min

Total

35 min

Serves

6

Cuisine

American

Ingredients

• 1 large poblano pepper
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 jalapeños, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 soft lavash flatbreads (about 9 by 12 inches), cut in half crosswise
• 2 cups diced cooked chicken breast (about 10 ounces)
• 1 cup shredded pepper jack or chili-pepper gouda (4 ounces)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder

Instructions

1. Char the poblano under a hot broiler, turning every 2 to 3 minutes, until the skin is blackened all over, 8 to 10 minutes. Put it in a bowl, cover with a plate and leave it 10 minutes; then rub off the skin, pull out the stem and seeds, and dice the flesh.
2. Mix the cream cheese with half of the chopped jalapeño, the garlic and the salt.
3. Heat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Stir the olive oil and chipotle powder together.
4. Lay a lavash half on the counter with a short side towards you. Spread a heaped tablespoon of the jalapeño cream cheese down the middle third, then pile on a third of a cup of chicken, a sixth of the poblano, a little of the remaining jalapeño and 2 1/2 tablespoons of cheese.
5. Fold the two long sides over the filling so they overlap, then fold the ends under, and set it seam side down on the sheet. Repeat for the rest, then brush the tops with the chipotle oil.
6. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the lavash is crisp and browned at the edges and the cheese has melted. Rest 3 minutes before eating; the cream cheese inside stays very hot.

Nutrition

Calories:

340

Calculated from the ingredient quantities above using the USDA FoodData Central database, then divided by the number of servings. It is an estimate and will vary with the exact products you use.

Lavash, cheese and the poblano

Two things in Starbucks' list shape this copy. The heat sits in three places — the cream cheese, the pepper blend and the cheese — so the recipe puts jalapeño into the cream cheese and uses a chili cheese instead of piling peppers into one layer. And the bread is lavash, a thin soft flatbread, not pastry and not a tortilla, which is why the pocket bakes flat and crisp.

• Lavash is sold as soft rectangular sheets. A burrito-size flour tortilla folds the same way but bakes thicker and softer. The chipotle in Starbucks' bread is replaced here by brushing the pockets with chipotle oil.
• Chicken: two cups of diced cooked breast. A rotisserie chicken saves the cooking.
• Cheese: pepper jack is the common cheese with chili in it, and it melts well. Smoked gouda plus an extra chopped jalapeño is the other route.
• Poblano: charred and peeled, as in Starbucks' "charred poblanos". Charring sweetens the pepper and loosens the skin, which otherwise stays tough.

The same lavash wraps the Starbucks spicy falafel pocket, which is the vegan one of the two. For dipping, there is the fire ranch sauce.

Oven, panini press or air fryer

Method	Setting	Time	Suits
Oven	400°F	12 to 15 minutes	all six at once
Panini press	medium-high	4 to 5 minutes	two at a time, pressed flat
Air fryer	375°F	6 to 7 minutes, turned once	one or two

In every case the pocket goes in seam side down, which holds the fold shut until the melted cheese sets it. The times are for pockets at room temperature; they are done when the lavash is crisp and the centre is hot.

Making the pockets ahead

Assemble all six, wrap each in foil, and refrigerate for up to two days or freeze for up to two months. From the refrigerator they bake as written. From frozen, unwrap them and bake at 375°F for 18 to 20 minutes. Leftovers reheat in the oven or air fryer; a microwave softens the lavash.

For a similar chicken-and-pepper filling in a pita, there is the Jack in the Box chicken fajita pita.