How to cook peppers stuffed with chicken and rice at home? A step-by-step recipe with a photo of a delicious and healthy dish. Calorie content and video recipe.
The season of peppers has arrived, with which you can cook a wide variety of dishes. One of the most popular summer dishes with it in many countries of the world is stuffed peppers. This is a delicious dish that you can satisfyingly feed not only a family for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but also put on a festive table. The filling for this unusually healthy vegetable is used in a variety of ways. Peppers are prepared, stuffing it with meat, mushrooms, rice, bulgur, couscous, carrots, cabbage … All the options are delicious, nutritious and beautiful. The main thing is to know some of the subtleties of cooking, which I will share below in the recipe.
The classic recipe for stuffed peppers is considered to be stuffed with meat and rice. But today I propose to cook peppers stuffed with chicken and rice. Such a dish turns out to be not only tasty and satisfying, but also, in contrast to the classic variation, low-calorie. Therefore, it is suitable for people who adhere to proper nutrition and those who want to lose weight. The chicken filling itself turns out to be tender and is soaked in vegetable juice during stewing. Although the methods of heat treatment of stuffed peppers are different. They are baked in the oven, boiled, stewed in sour cream, tomato sauce … Any variant is tasty, satisfying and suitable for a festive table.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 135 kcal kcal.
- Servings - 10
- Cooking time - 1 hour 45 minutes
Ingredients:
- Sweet peppers - 10 pcs.
- Chicken, fillet or any of its parts - 500 g
- Rice - 100 g
- Parsley - a bunch
- Onions - 1 pc.
- Spices and herbs (any) - to taste
- Salt - 1 tsp or to taste
- Tomato sauce or pasta - 100 g
- Ground black pepper - 0.5 tsp or to taste
Step by step preparation of stuffed peppers with chicken and rice, recipe with photo:
1. Peel the onions, rinse with cold running water and pass through a meat grinder. Since I had little time, I did just that. But if you have free time and are not afraid of extra calories, then cut the peeled head into small cubes and fry in a pan in butter until golden brown. Cool it down and add to the minced meat. Optionally, you can put a couple of cloves of garlic, passed through a press, into the filling.
2. Wash the chicken, remove the internal fat, peel off the films and remove the meat from the bones. The most dietary dish will turn out with chicken fillet, more high-calorie with thighs and drumsticks. Also, if you wish, you can use or not - chicken skin. But keep in mind that it is fatty and it is cholesterol, so the dish will be more high-calorie.
Pass the chicken meat through a meat grinder. You can also grind the products with a blender or chop finely. In the latter version, the meat in the filling will be better felt.
3. Wash the parsley greens, dry with a paper towel, chop finely and add to the minced meat. If desired, for flavor, you can also add fresh basil leaves, dill, cilantro, etc.
4. Thoroughly wash the rice under 5-7 water to drain the clear liquid. This is necessary in order to wash out all the starch, then the rice will not be sticky. It is convenient to do this in a sieve installed in a deep container. Then put the rice in a deep saucepan, salt and fill with clean drinking cold water in a 1: 2 ratio, where there should be more water. Place the container on the stove and boil. Heat to minimum, cover and cook until half cooked for 7-10 minutes, depending on the type of cereal. You do not need to cook the rice until it is ready.he will still languish with rice. It is necessary that it only absorbs all the liquid.
5. Cool the boiled rice a little to room temperature and place in a bowl with minced meat.
6. Season the minced meat with salt, black pepper, any spices and herbs. I added ground paprika and hops-suneli.
7. Stir the minced meat well. It is convenient to do this with your hands, passing it between your fingers.
8. Set the minced meat aside or put it in the refrigerator, but for now tackle the peppers. Wash them, dry them with a towel, cut off the stem with the top. You can save it if you want. This beautiful element can further act as a lid. Carefully cut the seed box out of the middle of the pepper, being careful not to damage the walls of the vegetable. Rinse the hollow center lightly, dry with a paper towel and salt.
Any variety of sweet pepper is suitable for a dish, the food will still be tasty and nutritious. But, of course, the most delicious pepper is Bulgarian. If you are preparing a treat for a festive table, take peppers of different colors: green, yellow, red. They look beautiful on the table. The shape of the peppers is also not important, they can be oblong or round. It is important that the peppers are the same size, then they will cook at the same time and evenly. Otherwise, the small ones will be ready-made, and the large fruits will be half-baked. Also choose peppers with dense walls so that the filling does not fall out in the finished dish. And in winter, prepare such a dish from frozen or canned peppers. Frozen fruits do not need to be defrosted beforehand.
9. Fill the peppers with the minced meat. If you bake them on a baking sheet, then close the top with a top lid. You can also close them with lids, if you are using round peppers, then put them in the pan vertically.
10. Pour a thin layer of vegetable oil into the pan, heat well and put the peppers.
11. Fry the peppers in a preheated frying pan so that they are slightly browned on all sides and the skin is baked.
12. Place the peppers in a thick-bottomed saucepan, ideally in a cast-iron pot. it retains heat well and cooks the dish evenly.
Dissolve tomato paste in drinking water, salt and pour in peppers. You can add some more sour cream if you wish.
13. Bring the contents of the saucepan to a boil, cover, reduce the temperature and simmer for 1 hour over low heat. You can also cook food in the oven at 180 degrees for 1 hour. But the exact cooking time depends on the size of the pepper and the characteristics of the oven. The most important secret in this dish is that the peppers must be stewed well so that the filling harmoniously combines with the vegetable shell.
Serve the prepared stuffed peppers with chicken and rice to the table warm with sour cream and herbs. It is delicious and packed with vitamins. It can be eaten on its own without garnishes, just with black bread, which is delicious to dip in a wonderful tomato sauce.
