This recipe came from my mother. It was a beloved childhood toy! delicious, cheesy, and crabby! If you’d like, you can freeze the mixture, then thaw it out and use it as needed.
| Prep Time: | 40 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 40 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 stuffed peppers |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
- 1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
- 1 cup water
- 4 large Anaheim chile peppers
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 cup diced onion
- 3 tablespoons chopped garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 5 tablespoons hot chili powder
- 4 cups chicken broth
- ½ (1 ounce) square bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 8 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Place the chicken, taco seasoning mix, and water into a resealable plastic zipper bag, seal, and massage the bag with your fingers to mix. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to marinate.
- Cut the stem and top 1/2 inch from the top of each pepper, and carefully remove the seeds without cutting holes or breaking skin of the peppers. Bring a large pot of water to boil, and immerse the peppers in the boiling water for 3 minutes; cool immediately in a bowl of cold water. Drain the peppers and set aside.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir the onion until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, oregano, cumin, and cinnamon; cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the flour and chili powder, and cook for about 1 minute. Whisk in the chicken broth, and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low, and stir in the chocolate until it melts and blends into the sauce. Allow the sauce to gently simmer, stirring occasionally.
- Drain the marinated chicken breasts, and place into a skillet over medium heat. Cook until the chicken is no longer pink inside, about 10 minutes; remove chicken to a bowl, and set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, shred the chicken meat, and lightly mix in a bowl with Monterey Jack cheese, cream cheese, and cilantro. Stuff each pepper with 1/4 of the chicken mixture, and place on a baking sheet.
- Preheat the oven’s broiler and set the oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source.
- Broil the stuffed peppers until blistered and hot, about 4 1/2 minutes per side. Serve with sauce.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 786 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 33 g |
| Cholesterol | 206 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 6 g |
| Protein | 57 g |
| Saturated Fat | 26 g |
| Sodium | 2466 mg |
| Sugars | 11 g |
| Fat | 48 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Great it’s awesome will make it again and again thank you for you hard work
Made this for my family with no changes at all. I have already been asked to make it again! It does make a lot of sauce. Was able to save the extra and made enchiladas a few days later. Definitely a keeper! Thank you.
Phenomenal! I liked this so much better than I even thought I would. I’ll never be able to use canned enchilada sauce again. 🙂 I used Better Than Bouillon rather than chicken stock, and used corn starch instead of flour and the sauce was perfect. Everything about this was just wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing your creation.
This is totally worth the time and all of the dirty dishes. Let the sauce reduce for a while, it becomes like velvet. The only change I made was to use 6 big poblanos instead of the Anaheim. Seriously, this is a 6 or 7 star recipe. Just go make it already!
Excellent! I had reservations when I saw packaged taco seasoning as one of the ingredients, but boy was I wrong. It was delish! A little labor intensive, but well worth it and will probably become easier the next time. I reduced the garlic only because it seemed like too much, but this recipe is a keeper.
This is a wonderful recipe. DON’T CHANGE A THING!!
I made this for dinner last night for my husband and I. I did not have plain cream cheese so used the weight watcher’s chive I had on hand. It was amazing! I did end up with more sauce than chicken and peppers but will use it for something else. I’ll definitely make this again. Thanks for sharing!
very interesting with a touch of Mex
Peppers were very spicy. Would use Monterey Jack instead of pepper jack next time.
I have made this 3 times and it is by far one of our favorite recipes. It is SO good! A few pointers: 1) I use shredded cooked chicken and just add the taco seasoning (without the water) straight to the chicken/cream cheese mixture. 2) I recommend microwaving the cream cheese 30-45 seconds to soften it before mixing it with the chicken and cheese. 3) The sauce definitely makes the recipe, but it makes a TON. I halve the recipe and usually still have a little left over. I never have bittersweet chocolate on hand and so use a combination of semi-sweet chocolate chips and cocoa powder instead. 4) My anaheim peppers are usually long and skinny, making them very difficult to stuff. I usually cut them in half long ways and just fill them open-face style. Rather than pre-cooking the pepper beforehand, I cover the dish in foil and cook for 20-25 minutes. This heats the chicken mixture all the way through and also cooks the peppers. You can finish it under the broiler if you want to crisp it up a little.
I have made this several times, and I’m making it tonight. I would make it more often, but there is nowhere locally that has a very good pepper selection. Tonights version is going to be with poblano peppers.
Wowza. Excellent. Used roasted chx I already had- added some taco seasoning. used 1/2 amount of chili powder & about 1/2 chx broth & that seemed to be perfect for us. Kids even loved it. Tastes like fancy restaurant stuff & wasn’t hard to make.
This is absolutely amazing!! So good and not that hard. Don’t let the amount of pans stop you from trying this recipe.
Great recipe and easy preparation. Take the additional time to roast and peel the peppers, it will make the peppers much more palatable.
Amazing just the way it is!!! Tasted like it was made in an upscale Mexican restaurant! Loved it!
Fantastic! The sauce tastes like mole sauce which is one of my favs! I couldn’t find Annaheim peppers so I used Poblanos instead. The only other change was that I baked the chicken (covered and baked @ 400 for about 25 to 30 min.) in the taco marinade to save some time while I was preparing the reminder of the dish.
These were so delicious. Served to the adults at my sons 11th b-day party. We had left over stuffing (peppers in ID must be little) so I used the stuffing the next day to make chicken enchiladas with flour tortillas. They were the best. Am definitely making again-both ways. YUMMMMMMY!!
Amazing, but you need way less chicken broth. I made this twice… once following directions and once adding less broth. Tastes best with anaheim peppers, but can make with bell peppers
Seriously. We ROLLED AROUND in this sauce. So delicious. We followed the recipe exactly…well, except for not having anaheim peppers…we just used regular bell peppers of varying colors, but honestly, so delicious and perfect for a cold December night. I might have used less chicken broth than intended, but it resulted in a beautiful, rich, deep sauce that would be delicious on dang near anything. This is DEFINITELY a keeper in the Kean household from this day forward…
Wow! Great flavors! I loved the mole sauce. I used white cheddar cheese because it is what I had on hand. Not sure how anyone can stuff that much stuffing into an anaheim pepper, so I split them open to stuff them. The peppers needed to be roasted and not just boiled though. They were not tender enough. I roasted mine a bit before splitting them open, which gave them a nice brown skin!
Kids loved the chicken and peppers. Enchilada sauce was time consuming and not necessary. Easy directions to follow.