The base for this cheesy chicken filling is made from supple yet robust smokey/earth poblanos, which do have a slight kick. It is thickened and given additional texture and flavor by the beans and tomatoes. While the pepper jack is melty and spicy, the sharp cheddar gives a wonderful tang. The corn chips on top offer crunch and an additional burst of sweet and salty flavor.
| Active Time: | 20 mins |
| Bake Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 35 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
Ingredients
- 4 poblano pepper, halved and seeded
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 1 ½ cups finely chopped yellow onion
- 5 medium cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chiles (such as RO*TEL)
- 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 4 ounces cream cheese, cut into cubes
- 3 cups shredded cooked chicken
- 1 ½ cups shredded pepper jack cheese, divided
- 1 ½ cups shredded sharp white Cheddar cheese, divided
- ¼ cup corn chips (such as Fritos®, crushed
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- lime wedges for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Position a rack in the center position of the oven and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Place halved peppers, cut-side down, on the prepared baking sheet (leave stems on) and drizzle evenly with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Season inside and outside of peppers with 1/2 teaspoon salt.
- Bake in the preheated oven until peppers are almost tender and starting to brown, about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 4 minutes. Add beans and stir until heated through, about 1 minute.
- Remove onion mixture from heat. Add cream cheese and stir until melted, about 2 minutes. Stir in chicken, 1/2 cup each pepper jack and white Cheddar, and season with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt.
- Spoon about 1/2 to 2/3 cup chicken mixture into each pepper half (depending on size of the pepper). Mix together corn chips and remaining 1 cup each pepper jack and white Cheddar in a small bowl. Top peppers evenly with cheese-chip mixture (it’s okay if cheese spills onto the baking sheet).
- Bake until the cheese has melted and peppers are tender, about 8 minutes. Without removing peppers, turn oven to broil and broil until cheese is starting to brown in spots, about 3 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Place 2 stuffed peppers and any cheese that has melted onto the baking sheet, onto each of 4 serving plates and garnish with cilantro. Serve with lime wedges.
Reviews
I used organic tortilla strips, but doubled the recipe to feed my family , and fire roasted diced tomatoes can I had to add my homemade salsa (2 oz), because couldn’t find the other kind. Used a mix of mild cheddar and Monterey jack kind. Ended up with too much mix to fill our roughly sixteen halves of poblano peppers. Will use the rest as chip dip. Was good, but don’t think the salt at the end part needs added, because cheese is salted. In fact, next time will omit the salt because my husband’s on a low sodium diet. I used adobo con pimento to season the chicken, which was boneless thighs, and cut it instead with kitchen shears (just seemed faster than shredding it). My family and I enjoyed it, though.
Great! I used tortilla chips because Fritos were super expensive! Making it again and using Chorizo.
VERY GOOD! Did not change a thing except I cut the recipe in half.
I made it as written, except 8oz of cream cheese. Cream cheese doesn’t come in 4oz packages. It was REALLY good. I might add a cup of Buffalo wing sauce, and dip the bites in ranch.
I made this, just as written, last night for dinner. It was WONDERFUL!! There are just two of us so I split the ingredients in half and it was still too much. We each had one (large) stuffed Poblano and I’ll see how the extra pepper halves and chicken mixture works after being baked another night. ONLY concern is the waste of Rotel and canned black beans when halving the recipe. BUT …… the flavor is wonderful. Don’t change ANYTHING until you try it as written. Next time I will use Hungarian paprika to add a bit more kick.