Friday, January 29, 2010

Stuffed Poblanos

Monday night, AKA Donald Night, I had everything I needed to make this dish. We had picked up the poblanos the week before and never gotten around to using them. I have a bag of frozen chicken breasts in the freezer at all times for emergency dinners. This week that bag helped me make this and a stir fry, without any trips to the store! I honestly have not been to the store in over a week. Pretty cool...

Anyway, back to this.

First up - preheat the oven to 425. De-seed the peppers and put in a baking dish with non stick spray:These will cook until soft, about 30 minutes-ish.
While those were in the oven, I slowly cooked 3 (thawed) chicken breasts in the skillet with salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder. Once those were just about cooked, I pulled them onto the butcher block and sliced them pretty small.
I added a little oil to the same skillet and thew in some onion. After that got a little brown I added some garlic. My new favorite way to add garlic to a dish is to grate it with my microplane. I like that you get the flavor but you don't end up with a stray chunk of garlic in your mouth. P-yew!After those cook down a bit, add the chicken back in and let it cook a few minutes, till they get to know one another.
By this point, you should have peppers finished up:

Now is the fun part. You will stuff the peppers with the chicken mixture and some cheese. I chose pepper jack, for a little extra kick. Poplanos have a subtle heat, they aren't really all that spicy.
However, after seeding them, i scratched my nose, not pleasant. So still wash your hands well after you deal with these!!
After you stuff them, pop them back in the oven for about 15 minutes, just to let everything get melted together.
Like so:
I had a little extra chicken so i threw it off to the side.
Since I worked all day, I used a little help from Uncle Ben on the rice (the microwave pouch spanish rice!), and I heated up some black beans in a sauce pot, threw in about a 1/4 cup cream and squished them really good with the potato masher.
And whala - pretty simple dinner that is super yummy!
I have a photo of the finished product but it is a little blurry. Don't worry, Donald and Lee demanded I make this again. I will get another photo!

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