Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Another summer flashback! Why do I have so many posts in drafts that were done but never posted? This one is from Monday June 17...

We were out in Queens last weekend (for Cuban WorldEats!) and on our walk back to the train, decided to stop at a grocery store. I figured there would be some things out in Corona that might be cheaper than what we could find in Manhattan, and while there, I spontaneously picked up two poblano peppers. I liked the taste of poblanos, but I had no idea what to do with them. I also didn't know how much they usually cost, but I was pretty sure they had to be cheaper at Bravo than my usual stores. A recent trip to Fairway confirmed my hunch (double the price!) and I was happy I picked up the poblanos while we were out in Queens.

The short and squat stuffed poblano pepper

I was looking for a simple recipe for the poblano peppers and after reading quite a few, the one that stuck with me was one for stuffed poblano peppers on the blog, a couple cooks. I especially liked that it didn't require the skins to be taken off the peppers (and they were indeed soft enough that they didn't need to be). I'm not going to recite the entire recipe here, since I followed the baking option in the recipe almost exactly. (You can find the original recipe here.) I just made less rice since we only had 2 peppers and the recipe was for 4. The salsa I used was a tasty garlic chipotle salsa from Trader Joe's, which added some other flavors.

Ingredients

I forgot to take photos of the poblanos whole (honestly, I also forgot to wash them until after I cut them in my absentminded state), and I forgot to put the salsa in the "group picture" but most of the ingredients are covered in the photos.

Green onions, more ingredients, the bowl ready to mix, poblanos ready to be stuffed

- 2 poblano peppers ($0.79)

- 2/3 cup brown rice ($0.15)

- 1.5 cups salsa ($1.25)

- Can of black beans ($0.89)

- Can of corn ($1.59)

- 3 green onions ($0.20)

- 1 tsp cumin ($0.05)

- 1 tsp chili powder ($0.05)

- 1/2 tsp cayenne ($0.03)

- Salt and pepper ($0.05)

- Shredded Mexican cheese ($0.50)

- Chopped cilantro ($0.10)

The total was about $5.50 for our 2 stuffed poblanos. Not too bad, but not as low as I was hoping. Probably could be cheaper except I could not find an inexpensive can of corn nearby. When did canned corn get so expensive?

Process

Basically all the items get mixed together, stuffed in the peppers and baked. We don't really use our broiler (need to figure out if it works up here) and the baking option was super simple, so we did that.

Poblanos with filling, the mixed filling, poblanos in the oven

As you can see, the pepper halves were not very "bowl shaped" so they could barely keep the filling inside the peppers. They also were not very large. As a result, we had plenty of filling left over after I filled the peppers and stuck them in the oven. Not a problem - rice salad while we waited for the peppers to bake and watched Shark Tank!

Review

This recipe was delicious and really simple. It was probably the quickest prep I did all week, and I love baking because things cook without me having to constantly watch them.

The long and skinny stuffed poblano... the baked cheese crisps from the pan were a nice bonus!

I really liked this recipe. The flavor of the poblanos themselves really came through, even though they weren't that big or fleshy. The filling was tasty - the brown rice was a little nutty, the corn and green onions added a nice crunch, the garlic chipotle salsa was smoky - and the baked cheese was a nice crispy and melty layer on top . We also loved the little cheese "crisps" that we got from all the extra cheese that fell into the baking pan.  I've always liked poblanos but had never made them before, and I think I'll try this again. I just need to get better shaped poblanos!