Stuffed Poblano Pepper Casserole

Hi, I’m Katie, and I love stuffed poblano peppers. There, I’ve said it. In all seriousness, stuffed peppers are my second favorite Mexican dish, running a close second to chicken fajitas. Scotty doesn’t like to get stuffed Poblanos when we’re out to dinner, though, because he doesn’t always like the stuffing. The other night, I was having an intense craving for stuffed Poblano peppers and decided that it would be fun to try and turn stuffed peppers into a casserole. I’m always looking for new dishes to take to friends who are sick/have had a baby/etc., so I thought, ‘Why not? Let’s give this a try!’ I grabbed a selection of things I thought would be good in a pepper and that Scotty might like, and I went to work. The end result was delicious, so I’m sharing the recipe with you!

NOTE: Before starting on the assembly of the casserole, you have to cook your chicken then chop it up. You also have to cook the rice and make sure you’ve chopped your garlic, onion and cilantro. I’m noting this because these steps take some time, and I didn’t want you to think you could throw this together in a couple of minutes; it takes about 20-30 to get everything cooked, chopped, cleaned, etc.

Ingredients

  1. 5 large Poblano peppers
  2. 2 cans of fire-roasted tomatoes, mostly drained (I think the cans are 14.5 oz?)
  3. 3 chicken breasts, cooked and then chopped up
  4. 2 bags of rice (the boil-in-bag kind), cooked – I used 1 bag of brown and 1 bag of white because that’s what I had :)
  5. 8 oz. HEB Mexican-blend shredded cheese
  6. 1/2 small white onion, chopped
  7. maybe 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (I had some for salsa and decided to throw it in and loved the flavor that it added)
  8. 1/2 lime, juice only
  9. 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  10. 1 tsp dried Oregano
  11. 1 tsp cumin (I like extra spice so I add cumin to everything, haha – you can leave this out if you want to)
  12. 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (to cut down on the tomato-y flavor from so many tomatoes)

Directions

  1. Roast your peppers. To do this, turn your oven on broil and put the rack kind of close to the top of the oven. Slit your peppers from stem to tip and place them on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Broil them for about ten minutes, turning every couple of minutes to make sure they get all wrinkly (and maybe even turn black/brown) all over. Let your peppers cool enough to handle comfortably, then peel off the skins, chop off the stems, and remove all of the seeds. Chop the peppers into small pieces and set aside.
  2. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and lower your rack to the middle of your oven.
  3. Spray an 8X8 or 9X9 casserole dish with PAM.
  4. In a large bowl, stir together ALL of the ingredients, making sure everything is mixed together evenly. Place contents of bowl into casserole dish.
  5. Bake the casserole for 20-30 minutes, until the top begins to brown and the cheese is a little bubbly. Serve immediately.

Notes

This casserole was delicious as leftovers, though it definitely got spicier after sitting in the fridge overnight. You can also make this casserole ahead of time and keep it in the fridge for up to three days before cooking it. Because I was kind of making this up as I went along, I made the casserole mid-afternoon, covered it with foil, put it in the fridge, then stuck it in the oven when ready for dinner. Since I pulled it straight from the fridge when it was time to put it in the oven, I let it sit in the oven while the oven heated up so I wouldn’t break my glass dish.