Stuffed Cubanelle Peppers with Spicy Chicken and Brown Rice

This stuffed cubanelle peppers recipe is a loving homage to one of my favorite dishes. It has it all: beautiful presentation, lovely flavor, healthful ingredients, and a low-effort, convenient preparation. It is a great dish for freezing and finishing later, serving to guests, bringing to a potluck, or just serving for dinner.

Why I ❤️ it • Recipe • Ingredients • Preparation

Why I ❤️ it

Although I love  Dominican niños envueltos (Dominican cabbage rolls), the fact is that they are a lot of work, so I decided to make a recipe inspired by those, but with some changes to make them easier and faster to make, but still with lots of flavors and beautiful presentation. If you ever wondered what to do with aji cubanela, and love stuffed pepper recipes, then you found your answer.

Another plus of this recipe is that it is made with brown rice, which is an excellent option for anyone looking to serve something more nutritious. The result is tender cubanelle peppers, stuffed with juicy meat and flavorful brown rice.  Eat well, eat tastily. This beautiful dish will be a success at the dinner table.

Utensils and tools

• Lasagna baking dish
• Mixing bowl
• Large skillet
• Aluminum foil

Ingredients

To make the tomato sauce

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups tomato, peeled and seeded
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• ¼ teaspoon oregano (dry, ground)
• 1 teaspoon salt, (or to taste)
• ¼ teaspoon pepper (freshly-cracked, or ground), (or to taste)

To make the stuffing

• 1 cup brown rice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large red onion, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 pound ground chicken, [0.45 kg] or ground turkey
• 1½ teaspoon salt, (or more, to taste)
• ½ teaspoon black pepper (freshly-cracked, or ground)
• 1 teaspoon chili flakes or chili powder
• ½ cup of chicken stock

To assemble the stuffed peppers

• 8 cubanelle peppers
• A bunch of basil leaves to garnish

Preparation

Before starting, please make sure you have all the ingredients and utensils ready.

Step 1

To make the tomato sauce, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over low heat.

Add the tomatoes and garlic.Cover and simmer until the tomatoes are cooked through, mash them with a potato masher. Add oregano, salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Step 2

Make the filling by soaking the rice in enough water to cover it, plus an inch. Let it rest for an hour.

In a skillet, heat the oil over very low heat, add the onion and garlic, cook and stir until they start to release their aroma. Stir in the chicken, salt, pepper, and chili powder. Increase heat to medium and simmer covered for five minutes.

Step 3

To cook the rice, remove all rice from the water. Add the rice to the skillet and stir. Add 1 cup of the water in which the rice was soaked and a cup of the tomato sauce you prepared previously (set the rest aside), and chicken stock.

Simmer until almost all the liquid evaporates. Cover tightly, lower heat to the minimum, and simmer for five minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Mix in the chopped basil.

Step 4

Preheat oven to 400 ºF [200 ºC].

Step 5

To clean the cubanelle peppers, cut a slit in the cubanelle peppers and scoop out the seeds and white parts with a small spoon.

Stuff the peppers with the chicken mixture.

Step 6

Pour the remaining tomato sauce on a baking pan big enough to accommodate the peppers, or divide between two smaller pans (which is what I did).

Place the peppers in the tomato sauce. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 25 minutes.

Step 7

Remove from the oven, garnish with the basil leaves and serve.

Variations

If you want to try a different stuffed cubanelle peppers version, use ground beef instead of ground chicken, and if you want something a bit richer, you can use Italian sausage stuffing in its place.

Top tips

If you want to top these stuffed cubanelle peppers with some mozzarella cheese, go right ahead before going into the oven, it goes great in this dish too.

Use Anaheim peppers (medium heat) or bell peppers if you can't find cubanelle peppers.

Serving suggestions

This aji relleno recipe produces a main dish that already contains several of the elements of a complete meal. The only thing I would add would be a salad, or, better yet, some avocado slices.

Nutritional information

Calories: 553kcal - Carbohydrates: 23g - Protein: 36g - Fat: 35g - Saturated Fat: 14g - Cholesterol: 116mg - Sodium: 1642mg - Potassium: 765mg - Fiber: 2g - Sugar: 13g - Vitamin A: 1030IU - Vitamin C: 9.1mg - Calcium: 587mg - Iron: 2.2mg

FAQs

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