Spanish Style Stuffed Peppers with Southwest Grilled Chicken, Recipe Spanish Style Stuffed Peppers with Southwest Grilled Chicken

Spanish Style Stuffed Peppers with Southwest Grilled Chicken

Posted the 28/11/2008 06:43:00 By Simply Scrumptious (Visit website)

I was going through my cookbooks with Hurley last week and one cookbook that stood out in particular was Rachael Ray's "Just In Time". She had a lot of recipes that immediately inspired me to cook! One of the recipes that I came across was her Spanish style stuffed peppers. One of the things I noticed was that she didn't have any spanish style rice. Instead she cooked up some chicken, almonds, piquillo peppers, and golden raisins into the mixture. I decided to go a different route and use a Spanish rice recipe that was passed down to me from my family. It's called Arroz Con Salchica which is translated into English as "Rice with Sausage". It's not the traditional sausage that you're thinking of, it's really chopped pieces of Vienna sausages. I know what you're thinking, "A German sausage in a Puerto Rican rice dish?" Trust me on this one. It gives the rice so much flavor that it compliments the entire dish! I wanted to round out the dish by making a southwestern grilled chicken. It was a perfect pairing where all of the flavors combined made the meal so delicious!

Spanish Style Stuffed Peppers
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cup extra long grain white rice
1 can Vienna Sausages sliced about 1/2 inch thick
3/4 cup frozen corn
3 tbsp goya sofrito
1 tbsp goya pimientos peppers
can goya spanish style tomato sauce
2 packets goya sazon seasoning
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 green bell peppers

When making rice, it's important to use a large sized pot so that the rice can have room to expand. On medium-low heat, add two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, sofrito, sazón seasoning, cayenne pepper, and tomato sauce. Stir in to combine all of the ingredients, then add the Vienna sausages and frozen corn. Let it cook for 5-10 minutes before adding the rice.

While the Vienna sausages and corn are cooking up a bit, using a small bowl, rinse the rice through some warm water. I do it twice to help get rid of the starch. Add the rice into the pot and make sure the water is about a 1/2 inch above the rice and turn the heat up to medium high. Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat to medium, and let the rice completely dry out until of the liquid is absorbed! Do not cover the rice during this process.

Once the liquid is absorbed, Stir the rice twice with a large spoon, bringing the rice mixture from bottom to the top. Then cover the top of the pot with aluminum foil and put the pot cover over it and put the heat on low and cook for 20 minutes . This will help the rice expand a lot more effectively and in the end the rice will be soft and fluffy.

After 20 minutes pass by, be sure to watch out for the steam when removing the cover from the pot. Stir the rice again and then cook for another 5-10 minutes. I always cook to 8 minutes and then turn off the heat. Let the rice sit for awhile,

You can go ahead and prepare the green bell peppers for stuffing!

Be sure to pre-heat your oven at 375 degrees.

Cut the top off each bell pepper, remove the stem and reserve the top as a lid. Remove the seeds and core of the peppers. You can easily do this by using a paring knife to cut out the core and then use a spoon to scoop out any seeds. Fill each pepper with the rice until the peppers are slightly overflowing. This way it will help the lid to stay on and not fall off while roasting in the oven. Using the remaining tomato sauce, pour it into an 8 inch baking dish or pan. Place the stuff peppers upright in the baking pan uncovered and bake for 25 minutes.

While the stuffed peppers are baking, you can quickly prepare the chicken by following these simple steps.

Southwestern Grilled Chicken
1 package of chicken breasts sliced thin
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp emeril southwest seasoning
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp paprika powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper

Place the chicken breasts into a bowl and then pour the olive oil over them.
Add the southwest seasoning, cayenne pepper, paprika powder, chili powder,garlic powder and black pepper.Using tongs, mix the chicken up in the olive oil seasoned mixture, make sure they are well coated with the seasonings. Feel free to add more seasoning according to your taste!
Heat up a grilling pan over medium-high heat and wait until the pan is hot. Once the pan is hot enough, place the chicken on the grilling pan. Grill each sides until the juices run clear. Be sure not to over cook the chicken. You want the chicken have nice char marks but yet be juicy and tender on the inside.
Remove the chickens from the grill and set aside for serving along with the stuffed peppers.

Enjoy!