I don't like bell peppers. I reeeaaaallllyyyyy want to like them. I want to like them sautéed with onions on my Italian sausage sandwiches. I want to like them roasted or marinated and served with an antipasto. I really want to like them raw as a part of a vegetable tray. But alas, I just... don't.
I do, however, enjoy banana peppers. Most people know them as those vibrant yellow-green, vinegary rings from a jar. They're one of my favorite hoagie toppings. Well, my mom recently brought home a boatload of fresh whole banana peppers, and my dad suggested that we stuff them. As usual, I skimmed through about 5 different recipes, united them all in my head, and decided to wing it.
Banana peppers have a milder taste than bell peppers, and their flavor doesn't overpower the dish. The filling was really the star, and the pepper was merely the vehicle. 🏎
You'll need:
4 banana peppers
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Kosher salt
water
Ingredients for the filling
1 chicken breast, pulsed in a food processor until it looks like ground chicken (sorry... I didn't measure again🙁)
1 "sliver" of butter
1 cup of Minute white rice
1 clove of garlic (or more!)
1 small onion
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
Parmesan Cheese (I used Grana Padano)
1 egg, beaten
breadcrumbs
seasonings of your choice (I used red pepper flake)
Yes, you're looking at Minute rice. Honestly, I didn't know what a miracle that box of rice was until today. It's probably not amazing to eat on its own, but inside a stuffing mixture, why not? I also hollowed out 4 banana peppers and set them aside.
I used a "glug" of extra virgin olive oil and a small sliver of butter to caramelize one small onion. Meanwhile, I boiled the peppers in salted water for 5 minutes.
I added one minced clove of garlic, a tablespoon of tomato paste, and let it go for about 2 minutes. In went the ground chicken, one beaten egg, some Grana Padano parm, a sprinkle of Gluten-Free breadcrumbs, lots of salt, and a little bit of red pepper flake. I had to stir the mixture quickly and evenly as it cooked so that I didn't make scrambled eggs. 😁
Then I added more salt, more cheese, one cup of rice (that was literally finished in a minute after the water boiled), and stir stir stirred!!
After a taste test from mom, she suggested adding another tablespoon of tomato paste and some water to moisten the mixture. When we agreed that the taste and texture was perfect, I scored it into 4 sections.
I added the stuffing and used my fork to push it all the way to the bottom of the pepper. I laid them horizontally in a baking dish and packed grated low-moisture mozzarella cheese into their openings. Lastly, I drizzled the peppers with olive oil and finished with kosher salt. We covered the peppers with aluminum foil so that the cheese wouldn't burn and baked them for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees in the toaster oven.
At the 20 minute mark, I took the aluminum foil off and let the dish go another 20-25 minutes until the peppers were soft to the touch and a little browned. I was also looking for the cheese to be a bit caramelized and crusty.
They came out beautiful 😍 As I mentioned, the pepper was mild in flavor, and I could have eaten the inside mixture all by itself!
I am a huge advocate for creating dishes without recipes! Trust your gut.
