Grill Roasted Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Peppers

March 8, 2019 · by Jerry · in Embers

There it was, just sitting there, deboned and ready to be consumed in it’s purest form. Now if your initial thoughts just spun like a roulette wheel, finally teetering on a glass bowl filled with leftover rotisserie chicken, you’re not only the winner winner chicken dinner, my friend, but based on the amount of those birds that are sold, you are also in the majority. And possible in a rut, too. So one’s mind starts thinking, you know. Thinking about ways to spruce it up, use it a little different, make good use out of these leftovers. And well, being of the grilling sort, my intentions naturally lean towards the wispy, smoke ribbons of a hardwood fire. The result of this reflection was a mash-up of sorts, a meeting of a couple of other ideas, a combo that as I thought about it more and more, intrigue set in. The mash-up took form as Grill Roasted Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Peppers, so that’s what I’m calling it. That bowl of leftover chicken will not only be transformed, but it will also be reborn, mingling amongst the sauteed onion and garlic while bathing in flavor-packed hot sauce, only to be nestled in the confines of roasted peppers and kept warm with a cheese topping and finished with a zigzag of ranch pizzazz. Leftovers indeed!

The gathering of ingredients began with shredded mozzarella, chopped onion, minced fresh garlic and of course, the traditional Frank’s Red Hot Sauce.

Along the way, I also grabbed that leftover rotisserie chicken, now chopped, some green onions, parsley, salt and pepper, and those cleaned peppers.

It was a simple start, as this recipe is, by tossing the chopped onions into a preheated cast iron pan with a tablespoon of butter, giving them a quick sauté.

When tender and cooked through, the minced garlic can be added, making your backyard the best smelling place in the neighborhood right now.

Give it a few minutes of privacy to get all mixed together, and then add in the chopped chicken along with theparsely and Franks Red Hot sauce.

Stir the mixture up while warming it through. Get a good blended mixture going so all the peppers are consistent in flavor.

Stuff those peppers. I sprinkled some salt and pepper on the cleaned peppers, then shoved the buffalo chicken mixture into all those natural nooks and crannies that form in the pepper shells. Stuff it, stuff it real good!

Hey, you’re not done yet. Get the shredded mozzarella and divide it out to layer and kinda sorta put a seal on the buffalo chicken mixture, keeping all that juiciness where it belongs – in that pepper shell.

Once the peppers are put on the grill, it’s also time to toss a hunk of applewood on the lit coals. Close the lid and let ’em smoke. Let ’em roast. Let ’em be, yeah, let ’em be. For about twenty minutes or so, anyway, depending on how hot your fire is. But if you must tinker, go ahead and rotate and turn the peppers to ensure even melting and cooking through. Now close that lid!

Once heated through, and you may hear the juices inside the peppers simmering just a bit, pull ’em off and stage ’em up for a try at some finishing artwork.

Now here, I suppose you could drizzle your favorite ranch or blue cheese dressing over these beauties, but to get a little stronger flavor while offering a healthier option, ?, I took about a cup of plain, nonfat Greek yogurt and added in some of that powdered Hidden Valley Ranch dip mix. Then scoop it into a Ziploc bag with the tip cut off enough to allow a pressurized zigzag of sorts across these pepper tops, with some chopped green onions scattered after that. There, all pretty now! Then grab hold of one, curl your elbow up towards the blue, cloudless skies, raise it to your mouth, and enjoy a bite of the familiar buffalo chicken and ranch flavor, but in a smoked, grill roasted sweet pepper container. Go ahead, look around and give yourself a satisfactory head nod, because this easy mashup is plain ol’ good eatin’.