Spicy Chicken Stuffed Peppers is a fun sweet and spicy mix of sauté chicken, pineapple, and onion with a touch of habanero hot pepper. A fun dish with a fiery fruity combination.
Habanero hot peppers are not for everyone, most of the time you need to be brave to eat them, after all, they are pretty high on the Scoville scale. The good news here is you can use the pepper in moderation accompany by some sweet factor (in this case pineapple) which helps to balance the heat from the hot pepper. I use a homemade dehydrated habanero powder, but freshly chopped habanero works wonders too. For this Spicy Chicken Stuffed Peppers recipe, you can use any style of hot pepper and the format you prefer whether it’s powder, sauce or fresh. The dosage is all up to you, make sure to do it little by little to prevent a killing spicy dish.
Habanero Peppers
I particularly love habanero because it’s got this extra fruity flavour most peppers don’t have. The challenging part with habanero is: it’s a quite powerful one, the kind of pepper that you cut with latex gloves on. If you want to make a sauce with it and reduce the spice factor but keep its fruity flavour. Boil the hot peppers 2 or 3 times to take out some of the heat away, this while changing the water between each boil. Also, a great way to use your favourite hot peppers is to make a nice hot sauce with them. So this way you get to dilute the heat and get the extra flavour to the sauce. Check this hot sauce recipe of mine here: chicken wings recipe glazed with my homemade strawberry habanero hot sauce.
The Red Pepper
Stuffing peppers is a great way to add some colour and give your family or friends a different dish format. This dish is light but powerful without much fat and filled with vitamins. The bell pepper is al dente, to get a nice hold and a fresh bite to it.
Health Benefits
As for the hot peppers, called capsaicin. They are filled with the capsaicinoids compound, the element that gives the heat. Capsaicinoids have been studied quite a bit in the last decade and are related to better heart health by lowering the “bad cholesterol”, helping with blood clots, lowering blood pressure and also helping to clear blocked arteries. So, if you want your heart to stay in great shape, go get yourself a degustation of hot peppers, then figure out which is your “one” and grow it or buy a bunch. It’s for the sake of your heart after all…
To Serve With
This spicy dish would be great with lovely sweet coconut rice or plain rice.
Spicy Chicken Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
- 4 red peppers
- 2 chicken breasts (cut into small cubes)
- 1/2 pineapple (cut into mini cubes)
- 1/2 tsp habanero (fresh (finely chopped) or powder)
- 1 garlic clove (finely chopped)
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Cut the top of the red pepper and take out all the seeds and white membrane.
- Bring to medium-high heat a wok or skillet, then add the frying oil.
- Once hot, add the onion and garlic.
- Once soften, add the chicken pieces and cook through.
- When the chicken is almost cooked, add the pineapple, salt, pepper, habanero powder, let cook an extra minute.
- Fill up the bell pepper with the chicken mix.
- Spray or brush with a bit of oil and a touch of salt and pepper.
- Cook in the oven 180°C (350F) for 10 minutes.
6 Comments
The idea of pineapple with hot pepper intrigues me! While I would go easy on the pepper, I think this would be delicious–and so pretty, too!
Thanks Cathy!
This looks absolutely delish!
Thanks!
Speaking of slicing peppers with gloves on… A good friend of mine was having me teach her how to cook for a while (when we started, she couldn’t even boil water). I didn’t even think about it and asked her to chop a jalapeño. Not nearly as spicy as a Habñero but still. Then she touched her nose. She didn’t know. Totally my fault. But suddenly she was freaking out and couldn’t figure out what was happening. It was a quick lesson. For both of us. haha..
These peppers look great! I love when food is served in food 😉
Lovely recipe! I echo your thoughts on the character of a habanero – the fruity taste is spectacular, but you either have to develop a passion for heat, or figure out a way around it. I was unfamiliar with your trick about boiling in changes of water! I bet this is amazing, and I can just imagine all the flavours (especially the pineapple) working so nicely together. Good stuff.