These cheesy shrimp stuffed poblano peppers are wrapped in bacon and roasted till the bacon is crispy and the cheese is soft and melted. They make a fabulous starter or even a good main course, served with sides.
Pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before but my meals each week are often
predicated on whatever catches my eye in the market or grocery store. (These
days mostly just the grocery store since I am limiting my forays into the
public to once a week.)
These shiny green poblano peppers jumped out at me and I suddenly remembered a
recipe I made years and years ago around this time, from a post on my friend
Christine’s blog, where she used cornbread dressing to
stuff poblanos. Girl after my own Texas heart.
When she first posted it, I had never come across poblano peppers in Dubai but then, suddenly, my supermarket had some! You’ve never seen anyone so excited over a vegetable since, honestly, I don’t know when. I know, I'm sad, but here we are.
Meanwhile, I'm back in Texas where poblanos abound. I didn’t have any
cornbread stuffing on hand but I did have queso fresco or farmer’s cheese,
shrimp and bacon and who can resist those? If you are looking for a
non-traditional Thanksgiving dish, try these stuffed peppers. We loved them!
Cheesy Shrimp Stuffed Poblano Peppers
For this dish I used jalapeño bacon but any smoked bacon would be just as
lovely. We happen to be chili pepper freaks in our house so our motto is the
more heat the better. It’s also hard to tell from the photos but my poblano
peppers were about 6-7 in or 15-18cm long. The cheese is a fresh, soft, dry
curd cheese highly prized for many recipes in Mexico and South America. If you
can’t get a similar cheese, perhaps try a fresh goat cheese instead. The
flavor will be different but still delicious. We are looking for something
that will melt without melting out of the pepper. In a pinch you could use
grated cheddar mixed through with well-drained cottage cheese or ricotta so it
doesn’t completely melt and drip out of the peppers because no one wants
that.
Ingredients
4 fresh poblano peppers (480g total)
10 1/2 oz or 300g raw, peeled, cleaned shrimp
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter
5 oz or 142g queso fresco
8 slices smoked bacon
Optional to serve: your favorite salsa
Method
Heat your broiler to high, move your oven rack up to the top position and put
the peppers on a big sheet of aluminum foil on a large baking pan.
Roast the peppers for several minutes on each side, making sure to keep a
close eye on them so they just pop and char a little but don’t completely
burn.
When they are nice and scorched on all sides, remove the pan from the oven and
wrap the foil loosely around the peppers, closing the steam in by crimping the
sides. Set aside for 10 minutes.
Open the foil and gentle remove the outer peelings. Cut a slit up the middle
of each pepper. Save the foil for use later.
Sauté the garlic in the butter for a few minutes, being careful not to let it color or, God forbid, burn. Add in the shrimp and cook till they release their water, then cook a few more minutes, until the pan is almost, but not quite, dry again. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.
Slice the cheese into slim sticks and fill the bottom of the pepper with a
little of them, tucking cheese right up under the seeded core at the stem end.
Add in one quarter of the shrimp with garlic.
Top with more cheese.
As best you can, try to gently pull up the sides of the pepper to close the
slit. Stick a toothpick in, if that helps. Use two slices of bacon to wrap
around and around the pepper to hold it closed.
Repeat until all four peppers are stuffed and bacon-wrapped.
Return the peppers to the foil and put it back on the baking pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until the bacon is cooked and golden.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about five minutes.
Serve with your favorite salsa for a generous first course or with a side salad and veggies as a main course.
Enjoy!
This month my Fish Friday Foodie friends are sharing recipes to serve for Thanksgiving. Many thanks to our founder and host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out the recipes below.
- Cheesy Shrimp Stuffed Poblano Peppers from Food Lust People Love
- Crab Stuffed Deviled Eggs from Palatable Pastime
- Cracked Crab with Lemongrass, Black Pepper, and Basil from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Shrimp Mini Quiche Appetizers from Karen's Kitchen Stories
- Shrimp Turkey Centerpiece from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
- Crispy Brussels Sprouts Salad with Seared Scallops from A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Pumpkin and Shrimp Bisque from Making Miracles
- Thai Noodles With Shrimps from Sneha's Recipe
Pin these Cheesy Shrimp Stuffed Poblano Peppers!
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