Mexican Chipotle Beef Stuffed Peppers
Morita chiles are red, fully mature Chipotles. This gives them a unique, medium – hot smokey flavor which is popular in many Southwestern dishes. These can be added to sauces (including Mole) to add smokey flavor and maintain the red color of the sauces. These peppers are about 2-4 inches in length, 1 inch in width, and have a deep brick reddish brown color. The word Chipotle translated to smoked chile. Consider the Chipotle a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the hottest). Scoville heat units 7,000-25,000.
Suggested Use:
Use Morita in enchilada sauces, chili, stews, barbecue ribs, and corn bread. Their smoky quality combines well with poultry, meats and fall squash.
Serves: 4-6
INGREDIENTS
3 bell peppers, halved and deveined
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp garlic, minced
½ cup corn kernels, canned or frozen
1 lb ground beef*
1 tbsp cumin
½ tsp chipotle powder**
1 tsp oregano
½ tsp chili powder
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1 plum tomato, diced
½ cup cooked brown rice***
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped, plus more for garnish
6 tbsp Mexican shredded cheese
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Place bell peppers cut side down in large baking dish and bake in oven for 10 minutes.
While peppers are baking, heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat.
Add garlic and corn. Saute for about 1 minute until garlic is fragrant.
Add ground beef and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add cumin, chipotle powder, oregano, chili powder and sea salt. Mix in and cook for about 5 minutes until beef is fully cooked and browned.
Remove skillet from heat. Mix in rice, diced tomatoes and chopped cilantro.
Remove peppers from oven and turn them over, cut side up.
Spoon chipotle beef mixture into each pepper, sprinkle with shredded cheese and bake in oven for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and garnish with cilantro.
Eat up!
NOTES
*Ground turkey or other ground meat can be substituted
**To make chipotle chile powder: grind a dried chipotle chile in a coffee or spice grinder till a fine powder.
***White rice or quinoa can be substituted
From catstocooking.com