Suzee's Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Chicken

I had always heard about stuffed peppers that used green bell peppers. I really dislike cooked green bell peppers so this dish was never on my list of yum foods. While I was in TX, I had a stuffed poblano at they cutest little mexican place, and yum! These are deliciously warm, not hot, with great flavor! We stopped at a farmers market near South Padre and I got 4 beautiful poblanos for $1.30. I smuggled them in my checked luggage (that's what Rick would say - I don't think it's against the law or anything to bring fresh peppers from TX to NY) and nestled them in my fridge. And my fridge froze them. I turned it down so nothing else would get frozen.

I found fresh poblano peppers at Fresh Direct, and I was excited!  I was only able to get 3 from Fresh Direct, and they weren't as nice, and they were on sale for $2.99 a pound. This summer they were $5.99 at the farmers markets. It must be that Americans aren't buying enough of these delicious wonders yet. When I get a garden again, I will be growing these babies.

I did the blackening process over the flame on my gas stove. The peppers popped like popcorn ;) Once I got the black all over, I put them in a bowl and covered it with plastic wrap, and let it set for 30 minutes. The skins slipped right off. You know, this was the part I was dredding, but really, it all went painlessly :) I tried cutting the peppers a few different ways. The first was core it from the top, pulling out the seeds and membranes, and then slicing down each side resulting in 2 flat slices. The next one I did the coring approach, and then just sliced up 1 side, and then the last one I followed the same approach, but separated the top of the pepper you see with the seed pod inside. I think the second approach was the one I'll use going forward.

I heated up some refried beans with some water (1 can beans to 1/2 cup or so of water to loosen them up). I sprinkled some cheese shreds in the bottom of the pepper and I spooned 2 or 3 T of the beans. Then I layered in about 2 oz of shredded chicken breast, 1 or 2 tablespoons of quinoa, and then topped it all with 2 T of shredded cheese. At this point I popped it in the fridge so it'd be ready to go when Rick came home. If I was going to finish it now, I'd bake it for 20 minutes at 350. Since it had been in the fridge for a couple hours, I baked it for 40 minutes.

Delish - I can see using these delicious peppers more whenever I can find them :)