Fresh green bell peppers become their own serving vessel when stuffed with chicken, rice, mushrooms, and a creamy sauce to create a weeknight dinner that puts the all the essential nutrients in one easy-to-make and totally delicious dinner.
5teaspoonsdried mushrooms (such as oyster or porcini), ground into a powder
½teaspoonkosher salt, divided
½teaspoonfreshly ground black pepper
2cupscooked chicken, shredded
2cupscooked white rice
1 ¼cupsshredded cheese (such as Monterey jack or cheddar)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375° F.
Par-cook the peppers. Remove the stems from the peppers and carefully remove the seeds and ribs from the inside. Lightly salt (about ¼ teaspoon) the inside of the stemmed and seeded peppers and place in a microwave safe bowl with ½ cup or so of water, cover and cook for 5 minutes until starting to soften.
Sauté the aromatics and mushrooms. In a large skillet or dutch oven, sauté the onions and celery with 1 tablespoon olive oil and a pinch of kosher salt over medium heat until they begin to soften, about 4-5 minutes. Add the cremini mushrooms and cook for another 5-7 minutes until the mushrooms soften then transfer to a bowl.
Make the creamy sauce. In the same dutch oven or skillet, melt the butter over medium heat, scraping bits from bottom of pan if there are any. Whisk in the flour and cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly so flour taste cooks out and the mixture becomes lightly browned. Add the chicken stock and the milk to the butter and flour mixture, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Add the thyme, crushing it between your fingers, the ground mushroom powder and season to with the salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce to medium heat and cook until the sauce thickens and reduces by one third.
Finish the filling. Add the mushroom mixture back to the pan along with the cooked chicken and rice. Simmer until warmed. Add more milk if the sauce is too thick.
Bake. Place peppers in a 9x13-inch baking dish, skin side down, and fill pepper cavities with chicken mixture and top each pepper with a small handful of shredded cheese. Add extra filling around the peppers, if needed. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes or until bubbling and the cheese is melted. Rest for 5 minutes and serve.