Stuffed Bell Peppers

Stuffed Bell Peppers.

I'll be the first one to admit that Stuffed Bell Peppers sounds like something my mom used to make. Chop the top off and stuff with some type of rice and hamburger mixture. This recipe updates the idea a bit and although not super manly - every once in a while - you have to cook something for the ladies that isn't just meat stuffed with more meat.

I'll spare you a pictures of prepping the mix because it's pretty boring but here's a list of ingredients.

• 3 large Bell Peppers
• 2 (previously smoked) chicken breasts
• 1 bunch (about 10) quartered radishes
• 1 bunch of cilantro
• 1 can of garbanzo beans (it's what I had in the cupboard)
• 1/2 cup of sour cream
• 1 cup of shredded cheese

Spices included some black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder and a dash of garlic salt.

You can modify the ingredients if you are trying for a specific flavor profile - for example you could use feta cheese , yogurt (instead of sour cream) and add some fresh mint and rosemary for a Greek type flavor.

I cut a triangle shaped opening out of the top of each of the peppers and diced the removed piece and added it to the mixture.

I smoked these at 250 F for about 45 minutes. Since all the ingredients are already cooked there is no internal temp goal. You just want all the cheese to melt and the flavors to mix up. Even after 45 minutes, the pepper itself was pretty crunchy and the garbanzo beans also added some crunch.

You can cook this on a gas grill by turning on the hot side flame as LOW as possible (you know where the hot spot is) and put some foil on the side as far away from the hot side as possible. Put a little olive oil on the foil so the pepper doesn't stick to the foil. If you have a temp guage on the hood of you grill, see if you can get it around 250F. For the last 10 minutes, put the peppers directly on the grate in the middle of the grill but still not direclty over the hot spot / flame on portion - so you can get some grill marks and soften up the pepper shell a bit. Put the bread direclty on the grate that you just removed the foil from (the coolest portion - furthest away from the direct flame).

I threw in a baguette with some garlic and butter for the last 10 minutes to go with the peppers.

You can see the colors came out pretty nice and the fresh cilantro diced and radishes chopped into the mix really added some nice flavors.

You can serve this split open with some bread. Look pretty nice!