Spicy Grilled Stuffed Peppers

My normal Saturday afternoon dinner is starting 2 hours later today and it allowed me to try something new for lunch. Two weeks ago I picked up the Tex Mex Grill & Backyard Barbacoa Cookbook that Stephen recommended in a blog entry on this site. This is the first item I've tried from it and it was a home run. The first thing I made was a Tex-Mex seasoning blend which I spiced up by adding some Chipotle Chili Powder in to replace some of the regular chili powder. It also used coriander, cumin, salt, pepper, garlic powder & thyme. This seasoning blend was used to season the stuffing which also used ground beef, breakfast sausage, rice ( I used a seasoned S.W. rice that had complimentary seasonings), white wine, egg, garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper & fresh chopped parsley. The stuffing was refrigerated for an hour to help the flavors blend and then the peppers were stuffed and grilled.

The peppers were grilled on both sides and they turned out wonderful. The peppers were tender, but still had a bit of crispiness left to them that was perfect. My mouth is still tingling from the wonderful spicy flavor of the stuffing.















If this first recipe is any indication, I have a lot of fun cooks ahead of me.

Jim

I'm definately not a veggie fan but I'll take two please!!!

Wow!!! That looks great! How long did it take you to prep it before grilling? Dang, another item on my "to do" list.

Yet another amazing cookout, Jim! You sure got me hungry, big time! Some of the seasonings you used remind me of a pastrami rub. Did you notice any pastramiesque flavor there? How in the world were you able to grill both sides without the stuffing spilling out? Excellent job!

Thanks gents, I appreciate it. I was back off to the Kitchen after posting these pictures to honor my wife's birthday dinner request. So I wasn't able to reply for a bit.

SCBBQBill wrote:

I'm definately not a veggie fan but I'll take two please!!!

I'm with you Bill. I am NOT a stuffed pepper fan, despite the fact my mom is known for her great stuffed peppers. This was the FIRST stuffed pepper I would enjoy being served. I am eager to make these again real soon.

Dyal_SC wrote:

Wow!!! That looks great! How long did it take you to prep it before grilling? Dang, another item on my "to do" list.

Since this was my first time, I had to make the Tex-Mex grill seasoning which took less than 10 minutes. This spice mixture is important as it influences the flavor of the stuffing immensely. I went spicy with what I did. Luckily it makes enough to use for several batches or you can use a commercial spice blend. The rest of the prep took another 15 minutes at which point you have the stuffing mixed. The stuffing goes in the fridge for an hour. When it comes out you fry up a small amount to test the seasoning. You then cut the peppers in half and stuff them which is another 10 minutes or so.

So including the trip to the fridge you are looking at about 90 minutes before you are grilling.

beercuer wrote:

Yet another amazing cookout, Jim! You sure got me hungry, big time! Some of the seasonings you used remind me of a pastrami rub. Did you notice any pastramiesque flavor there? How in the world were you able to grill both sides without the stuffing spilling out? Excellent job!

I've brined my own pastrami before and I agree it shares some of the same ingredients, but the predominant flavors didn't really remind me of pastrami. It was very Southwestern with cumin & chili powder being in the forefront. GMTA on the ingredients spilling out. I was a bit surprised when I saw you flipped these things. I ASSumed the author knew more than I did, and it would work. One of the ingredients is egg and there is also wine in there too. The 80 percent ground beef was "sticky" as was the breakfast sausage. The mix was actually very very tacky. This was a warning sign to really really really oil the grill grates really really well. It didn't stick to the grill grate with all of the oiling and I used a spatula over and another under the pepper to flip them both halfway through and when taking them off the grill. Fortunately all went well. I did breath a sigh of relief when they were safely landed on the serving platter. I even got grill marks on the stuffing which gave me a quiet chuckle.

Jim

Great job on those peppers Jim. I personally can't stand green peppers, but I'd gladly give yours a try

Thanks and here I thought I was an odd duck for not liking green peppers and specifically green stuffed peppers. These are definitely the exception to my rule.

Jim

I love stuffed peppers but I have to use red peppers because of heartburn.
May have to try this one out.

You can tell I am not a big pepper fan, I didn't know there was much of a difference between red & green bell peppers. Red peppers would certainly be more colorful too.

Jim

I bought that book this past Friday... I agree I think I will have some fun with those recipes. I like stuffed peppers and those look quite tasty!

QJuju wrote:

I bought that book this past Friday... I agree I think I will have some fun with those recipes. I like stuffed peppers and those look quite tasty!

Please be sure to let us know what you make from there and how you like it. Sadly I may have to hold off for a while because I have about 1 month of open lid direct grilling weather left. Plus it is Icelandic lamb season from now until mid November. So I will probably do a couple things with lamb and a couple more paellas and what ever else I need to have the lid up to make. But I plan to revisit that book ASAP.

Jim

Now there's something that I've never done. I've grilled stuffed peppers, but I have never flipped them on the grill, OPEN side down. Great idea! I'll have to do that next time.

Fine job Jim! Your peppers look delicious.

Thanks Bob:
Flipping the peppers is what initially attracted/scared me about this recipe. Also where I'm not a huge pepper fan the tasty filling looked liked it would tone down the amount of pepper I tasted.

Flipping it was a bit tricky to keep the filling in. I used two spatulas. First one to lift a pepper about 6" up off the grill. Then I put a second spatula which was upside down on top making a sandwich out of them. Keeping the pepper pinned, but not crushing it, I flipped both spatulas over simultaneously and then lowered the spatulas back to the grill and slid the pepper off the lower spatula. I also oiled the grill grates extra well to keep the somewhat soft filling from sticking. Et voila!: A stuffed pepper with grill marks which was new to me too.

Jim

p-nut wrote:

I love stuffed peppers but I have to use red peppers because of heartburn.
May have to try this one out.

P-nut - I've found that removing all of the membranes and seeds cuts down a lot on the heartburn.

Jim - great job on the peppers - I'll have to try this one out!

Thanks CanadaBBQGuy.

I'm curious do you have the book this was from? The reason I ask is to see if you've tried something else in it you really liked. I hope it is not bad form to talk about it here, but Steven did recommend this book on his blog. TIA.

Jim