Roasted Elk Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I gave you the teaser for this post here and am just now getting around to sharing the other photos and instructions. I’m getting hungry just thinking about them actually!

We’ll roast our peppers first. I chose poblano peppers for this dish- you could use green or red bell peppers too, but they wouldn’t be as yummy. Poblanos are a very mild pepper; they have an amazing flavor and thick walls which makes them an ideal stuffing pepper. When poblanos have been dried, they become an ancho chili- which is one of my favorite chilis/spices to use.  I’ve also been known to make reduction sauces from them. It is the sweetest of all dried chilis and is commonly used in tamales.

Now back to our poblanos, don’t they look yummy?

To roast them you use your tongs and hold them over the open flame of your gas stove. If you don’t have a gas stove you can put them in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 350 and accomplish the same thing. We want them to look all charred when we’re done with them. As you finish roasting each pepper, place them in a plastic bag until they’re cool enough to handle. This is called sweating. When cool, you’ll remove the skin. I realize that removing the skin is messy.  So plan on getting your hands dirty.

For the stuffing, we need to start with a diced onion and a couple tablespoons of olive oil. I always use yellow onions in my recipes unless specified otherwise. I will occasionally use white, but I find the texture to be softer and I don’t enjoy the flavor as much. But if you have white onions on hand, by all means, they’ll be fine.

We wanna saute them quickly on a higher heat, because we want them brown around the edges. That makes them sweeter, and we’re about to juxtapose that sweet next to some hot. And I love sweet next to hot!

Once those get done we’ll throw in our ground elk. You could easily substitute ground beef, ground pork, or ground turkey. Be sure to turn the heat down.

Then thrown in about a cup of sliced, roasted red bell peppers. You could roast those by hand too, or you could just buy them in the store, which is what I usually do. I’m a cheater. You could actually have used fresh red bell pepper; you’d have just put them in when you cooked the onion. And that would have been just lovely! But y’all that are regular readers to this blog know that it’s not very often I have super fresh stuff in my icebox. And you don’t have to shop at Wal-mart for you groceries. I gotta tell you their produce is more often than not, not really that great. Is it spring yet? Time to plant a garden yet?

Toss ’em into your now, browned meat.

Mix ’em in and then since throw in some ancho chili, some cumin, a dash of red pepper and some salt.

And then, you’ll want to throw in 4 ounces of cream cheese. And since I’m such an awesome blogger, I failed to take photos of that portion for you. I know, how dare I forget, right? You can turn the heat off too.

Let’s get these pretty peppers ready to stuff!

First we’re gonna want to cut a slit at the top of the pepper:

Then cut one vertical to the first one:

And then pull out the seeds:

Now your pretty pepper is ready to stuff.

Add some grated Cheddar and Monterrey Jack cheese (note- I cheated and used the pre-grated kind; grating it fresh would be even better!)

Place the four stuffed peppers into a casserole dish because we’re putting them in the oven at 350 to melt this cheese.

They’re ready to go into the oven.

While they get all happy and the cheese gets gooey, we’ll whip up the sauce. I made a sour cream sauce- it’s easy. Butter, flour, chicken broth and sour cream.  And of course you gotta throw in some Cumin.

I think the peppers are happy now.

Oh. My. You. Look. Yummy.

I also made rice to serve with these. Typically, I don’t like Spanish or Mexican rice, but the Pioneer Woman shared her recipe with us, and I thought it sounded good. My usual gripe with Mexican rice is that it’s very dry and bland. But this one, was not! I think next time I make it I’ll throw in some corn and maybe black beans too! You should try it!

Here’s the finished product.

Be sure to garnish with cilantro. Fresh would be best, but if you don’t have fresh, dried will do in a pinch.

Here’s what you need to make the peppers:

Preheat oven to 350.

4 Whole Roasted Poblano peppers
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 med yellow onion (diced)
1/2 cup of roasted or fresh red bell pepper
1 lb ground elk, beef, pork, turkey
1 tablespoon ancho chili powder (or more to taste)
2 teaspoons cilantro (more if you like that tangy, lime-y flavor)
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups of grated cheese

Sauce-

2-3 tablespoons butter
2-3 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup sour cream

Melt butter. Add flour. Stir until mixture thickens- it’s going to be roux-like in consistency. Add the chicken broth stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Stir in the sour cream.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we did!

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