Stuffed Jewel Peppers

This is a tasty treat, appetizer, side dish, snack, or a quick idea that will impress even the hottest chicks.

Ingredients:

Bag of Jewel Peppers (Costco has these almost year round)

Sour Cream (Cream Cheese will also work in a pinch)

Shredded Cheese (I use shredded Colby/Jack but almost any kind will work)

Lunch Meat (doesn't matter what kind but I usually use hard salami)

I usually don't add any spices - I rely on the spice from the lunch meat / salami but if you wanted to tilt the flavor toward a specific profile you could add a couple pinches.

I don't usually measure out anything so go with your gut....

Pick out all the small peppers that will be too difficult to stuff because of the size. Dice these up.

Dice up 1/2lb of lunch meat or salami.

Add in a cup or so of shredded cheese.

Add in a cup or so of sour cream.

Mix it all up - add sour cream until it can be clumped together and will hold but not so thick you can't mix it with a table spoon.

Slit the pepper length-wise and stuff in as much of the mix as you can. Don't worry about being messy or tearing the slit in the pepper open. No one is going to care.

Cooking the peppers is pretty flexible - you should try and cook / grill these only in INDIRECT HEAT - if you don't have a smoker, you can cook them on foil. Turn one side of the gas burners on and cook on the foil on the opposite side (the side of the grill with no flames lit). I usually cook these at about 300F for about 20 - 30 minutes. I guess you could even cook these in an oven I guess. The temp and time isn't that important since everything in this recipe is already cooked and ready to eat. When you can squeeze the pepper with tongs and it gives but doesn't fall apart, it's ready to pull off. If you cook them a little too long - no big deal.

These were cooked with some chicken thighs and I threw in the left over peppers with some Maui sweet onions and some balsamic vinegar in a foil wrap to steam.