Stuffed Bell Peppers - Video Recipe

My colorful and easy-to-make recipe uses Bell Peppers stuffed with a couple sauteed veggies, some uncooked rice, and ground meat.

I guess you can call this a Meatloaf wrapped in Bell Pepper. Roasted, Bell Peppers are tender, tasty, and almost sweet. This is a light meal if you use ground turkey or chicken.

When you bake the covered Stuffed Bell Peppers for an hour and a half, they steam uncooked rice until tender. The rice plumps up and absorbs surrounding flavors for a delicious entree.

I like to bake a few at a time to freeze for later. Serve one of them with a favorite side and you have a satisfying meal. Or just eat one on its own as there is plenty of protein, veggies, and carbs, all in one bite!

I often find Bell Peppers on sale at regular grocery stores, and especially at my local Latin market.

Red, yellow and orange Bell Peppers usually cost more for some reason. I usually make this recipe with cheaper green bell peppers, but this time I went for it to introduce color into my video recipe.

Raphs Grocery Store

Superior Grocers

To stuff a Bell Pepper I slice around the stem and pull off the top. Most of the seeds will come out. If needed slice out any that hold on to the interior. I also cut away the white part of the inside "ribs." It doesn't have to be perfect, just remove most of the seeds and top stem.

You can use any color on sale. Red, orange or yellow Bell Peppers are a little sweeter than green ones. But anytime you roast or saute a bell pepper it will sweeten up, even green ones.

The most expensive items are mushrooms and ground meat. But even these come on sale from time to time. Ground meat, I can freeze and defrost when mushroom shows up at my local 99c only Stores.

I even find small amounts of ground meat (let's say for one or two Stuffed Bell Peppers) at my local Dollar Tree. You can use low-fat ground turkey or chicken.

Click on any photo to see larger. 

Mushroom are almost always at my local 99c only Stores. They come in 4 or 5-ounce packages. You could just pick out a couple of whole mushrooms from your fave grocery store. Add more or less or just leave them out. The sauteed onion and garlic with rice are enough stuffing.

Rice is cheap at any store, you can use white, brown or any type you can find on sale. If you have leftover cooked rice then use that.

I add an egg or two and a little milk to dampen the stuffing, so the raw rice will steam tender. The main thing when baking Stuffed Bell Peppers are to cover them well, so the rice will cook through without drying out.

You will have a few crunchy rice kernels on top of Stuffed Bell Peppers, but that's okay, it's just a little extra texture. But you can be sure the interior will have cooked and flavorful rice. If you have leftover cooked rice it's okay to use it, too.

My latest video recipe is a favorite of mine and I make it when bell peppers and ground meat comes on sale. It's an easy and cheap way to extend more and more expensive ground protein. So make a batch of my Stuffed Bell Peppers, and go ahead a freeze them for later, too.

Stuffed Bell Peppers - Video

Play it here, video runs 3 minutes, 17 seconds.

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Ingredients (1 or 2 per serving)

• 1 pound ground beef, pork, turkey or chicken.
• 4 to 5 bell peppers - medium to large any color. Green Bell Peppers are cheapest.
• Mushrooms sliced - a small package of about 5 ounces. Okay to use any type mushrooms you like. 
• 1/2 cup rice - okay to use 1 cup cooked rice.
• 1/2 onion - chopped
• 1 large egg - or 2 small eggs.
• Worcestershire Sauce 1 teaspoon - optional. Okay to use Soy Sauce. 
•  Garlic 1 teaspoon - chopped, from the jar, fresh or even dried.
• 1/4 cup milk - cream or favorite broth.
•  Black Pepper to taste - Worcestershire and Soy Sauce have enough salt for me.

Directions
Slice onion and mushrooms. I use garlic from a jar, so it's ready to cook, okay to use fresh garlic.

Add a little oil to a frying pan and saute chopped onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Next, add the sliced mushrooms and saute another 5 minutes, stirring. Finally, add garlic and saute for just a minute.

In a large bowl add the raw ground meat. Add sauteed veggies, uncooked rice, one or two eggs, and milk or broth.

Season with black pepper, I find Worcestershire Sauce and Soy Sauce are salty enough. Mix all the ingredients together. This is the stuffing for Bell Peppers.

 I used four to five large Bell Peppers. Depending on the size, I find that is enough with one pound of ground meat. Mainly you want to make sure all the Bell Peppers will fit in a covered baking dish. You can use a pan, just make sure to wrap or cover the peppers with foil.

 While you are sauteing veggies you can prepare the Bell Peppers.

To stuff a Bell Pepper, I slice around the stem and pull off the top. Most of the seeds will come out. If needed slice out any that hold on to the interior. I also cut away the white part of the inside "ribs." It doesn't have to be perfect, just remove most of the seeds and top stem.

Fill up Bell Peppers with the sauteed veggies and ground meat. If you have any leftover stuffing you can wrap it in foil and freeze for later, or just wrap it in foil and bake it with Bell Peppers, kinda like a Meatloaf.

Cover the Stuffed Bell Peppers and bake for 1 1/2 hours (90 minutes) at 350 degrees.

That's it, just remove from oven when done. I let them sit covered for 5 minutes or so to cool down a little.

Trump Orange Chicken

I throw my whisk into the political arena with a recipe that is both delicious and revolting: Trump Orange Chicken. If it's not obvious to you, the delish part is Orange Chicken, while the 2016 Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, is the latter.

Now that the buffoon has buffaloed the conservative populace, and belittled the other Republican presidential has-beens off the political stage, it's down to Big Cheddar Cheese-tinted Trump. So in anticipation of the future tweeting Troll-in-Chief's Inauguration Day, I've come up with a tasty entree to serve for his first White House meal: Trump Orange Chicken.

Since much Trump-branded product is made in foreign countries like China, I thought an Asian inspired entree appropriate. For the future Bully Of The Free World orange is the new white, especially when he has the coloring of a slice of American cheese.

The main ingredients are cheap to get these days. First, chicken is perfect for a tough-talking Cheeto-in-Chief, as it symbolizes his cowardice: getting 5 draft deferments to stay out of the Vietnam War during its apex, even after being a decorated cadet from the New York Military Academy.

This is the same guy who said, reacting to criticism from Senator John McCain (a tortured Vietnam War prisoner,) "He's not a war hero...I like people that weren't captured, okay?"

Boy, I can't wait to see him salute the troops off, as he sends them to win the war on terrorism. Here's his cowardly statement that you can see for yourself.

Video runs 1 minute, 4 seconds.

When I get skinless and boneless chicken from my local Latin grocery store, I don't stop to wonder if it was packaged by Mexican rapists and drug dealers, as xenophobe Trump would have it. And I didn't climb over or dig under a wall to get my budget poultry. If you have an ethnic market in the neighborhood, do visit it sometime, and don't be frightened away by Trump's race baiting. Welcoming a mosaic of world cultures makes America truly great.

Fresh squeezed orange juice is the basis of my Orange Sauce recipe. But you can use any favorite grocery store frozen juice. After Trump's tan is freshly applied, I wonder if he perspires in orange? A disgusting thought, but not as deplorable as Trump's comments about women.

Click on any photo to see larger.

POTUS wannabe Trump once ran his own meat market, the Miss Universe pageant, and had the chutzpah to use it as a reference of his international diplomatic prowess to deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin - God, what a putz. And just as disgraceful is watching the RNC, conservative websites, and Fox (fake) News kingmakers applying lipstick on a chauvinist pig.

Having run a beauty pageant makes the possible Fake-Tan-In-Chief a great judge of a woman's worth - like the time he referred to fellow Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina in a Rolling Stone magazine interview: "Look at that face," he said. "Would anyone vote for that?" And adding "Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?" Yep, that's the Donald at his slimy best. Elect this childish potty mouth and we'll soon learn how he rates all the female world leaders he will have to negotiate with.

Video runs 54 seconds.

This is a fried chicken recipe so a lot of cooking oil is needed. But you'll drain the fried chicken, so it's not too bad. But for something really oily, look no further than the business dealing of a mogul born with a gold plated pacifier stuffed between his puckered lips. Nothing like starting out in life with a Daddy Warbucks to fill in life's potholes and financially clean up your early failures.

For every Trump self-aggrandizing business success, there's a trail of stiffed contractors, tax dodges and bankruptcies, like the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City. Hey, you win a few and lose a few, can't knock the guy for trying...except when the United States economy is on the chopping block with Trump wielding the butcher's knife.

My Trump Orange Chicken fillets are cut into bite sizes and crunchy coated. But what brings them over the top is a homemade sticky sweet Orange Sauce.

The Republican party is lapping up the sickly-sweet orange poison Kool-Aide Hued Trump ladles out. Like his coifed comb-over in a political windstorm, Trump adjusts his views in any direction. Future Egomaniac-in-Chief  Donald Trump is a con artist and only entered the presidential race to publicize the Trump brand. And the Republican Party has fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

One year he supports abortion, now he wants to punish women who get one; he supported the Iraq war at first, now is against it; once he suggested a ban on assault rifles before becoming another lapdog of the NRA.

And one of his biggest flip flops? Straight from the jackass's, I mean horse's, mouth here's Trump's praise of Democrats, and his support of  Hillary Clinton as a diplomat. Just check out the interview video:

Adding President of the United States to his resume will line the Trump brand's pockets with speaking fees, Fox New commentator status, and create a gusher of Trump media hogwash. Ugh, now we have Donald Trump's toxic progeny, and cheated upon ex-wifes, all over social media.

However much you may disagree (or tire) with my ranting, you can't deny the Filibustering Chef's latest entree, Trump Orange Chicken, is a ballot box stuffing success, both in flavor and appearance.

This recipe is for both political parties, and even independents can join in. So make the right choice this election year and serve my latest bipartisan recipe. Your dining guests will surely give you a landslide of compliments!

Orange is the new white.

Ingredients

• 4 pieces of chicken - boneless and skinless. I used 2 thighs and legs. Okay to use a whole chicken breast.
• Salt and pepper to taste - optional. Soy sauce has plenty of salt for me.
• Oil for frying - about 1/2 deep in a frying pan.

Frying Batter

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup water - start with 1/4 cup of water. Stir, then add a tablespoon at a time, to reach a pancake batter consistency. Total amount of water is about 1/2 cup.

Orange Sauce

• 3/4 cup orange juice - freshly squeezed or bottled.
• 1/2 teaspoon orange zest - optional
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon honey - or favorite sweetener
• 1 teaspoon vinegar - I used apple cider.
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch - to thicken sauce. Use one tablespoon cornstarch for a thinner sauce.
• 1 teaspoon ginger - optional.  Fresh chopped or from jar.

Directions for Orange Sauce
Orange zest is pungent. Use a grater to remove some orange peel. It can be grated or just peeled. Try not to include the white bitter pith, just below the bright orange peel. This is optional.

Over medium heat, add all orange sauce ingredients to a pot. Add orange zest. Mix well.

Click on any photo to see larger.

Finally, mix in cornstarch. Make sure to stir and dissolve cornstarch.

Bring the sauce up to a low simmer. Reduce sauce to low heat. The sauce will thicken as you cook up the chicken pieces. The sauce should only take 3-5 minutes to thicken. Add a little water if the sauce gets too thick, like jam.

Okay to turn off sauce heat, then reheat when ready to mix with finished fried chicken.

Directions for chicken batter and frying
Prepare chicken if necessary. I used skinless and boneless dark meat. All I had to do was slice chicken pieces into bite sizes.

Mix dry ingredients in a wide bowl. Slowly stir in water and mix with dry ingredients until a pancake-like batter is formed.

Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a wide frying pan. Use medium heat. Get the oil hot, to about 300 degrees. I don't use a thermometer, as my gas stove temp settings are close enough.

When oil is hot, time to fry the chicken. First set out the chicken pieces and dip them in the batter. Add coated chicken pieces to hot oil.
 

Mainly, you want the coated chicken to bubble when in contact with hot oil. Be careful when adding the first piece of wet coated chicken to hot oil.

When chicken is added to the pan, it's best not to move chicken pieces around - just let them cook for 3-5 minutes each side. When you see browning along the edges of chicken then it's fine to check for a golden color.

Check thickest chicken piece for doneness. Just remove a piece and slice into it. There should be no red or pink juices. Dark meat takes longer than white meat to cook through. Cooking time will vary depending on how hot the oil is and how thick you slice the chicken pieces.

Place fried chicken on a wire rack or paper towels to drain off some oil.

Reheat Orange Sauce if necessary. Place cooked chicken in a bowl and pour in the Orange Sauce to coat chicken. Lightly mix. Okay to just pour on Orange Sauce over chicken when you serve it, too.

You can serve Trump Orange Chicken over white or brown rice, or with a favorite side dish.