Stuffed peppers with buffalo sauce-infused pulled chicken is the ultimate comfort food. Made with leftover rotisserie chicken and topped with melted cheese and your favorite hot sauce, this easy dinner is bursting with flavor.
Hey everyone! Today I’m getting stuck in to one of my all-time favorite comfort foods: Stuffed peppers. But today we’re going to give it a little bit of a kick with some spice.
Don’t get me wrong, I love cooking as much as the next person, but it’s always good to have an arsenal of go-to, no-fail quick recipes at your disposal. Of all of my quickfire recipes, this is by far my favorite.
I’m a slave to melted cheese and hot sauce, so if a recipe manages to combine the two then I am fully on board! It meets two of my perennial cravings at once, and does so in healthy (ish) moderation.
What’s particularly great about this recipe in particular is that you can double up the ingredients in the recipe below make the filling bulk, store it in the fridge, and just fill a pepper with it as and when you need it.
This recipe can be worked with a range of hot sauces so feel free to choose your favorite! Frank’s is often the safest bet, but if I ever have any in the fridge then I tend to use my own homemade sriracha, which tends to be a touch sweeter and easier to mix into the chicken.
Buffalo chicken stuffed peppers are bell peppers that have been stuffed with shredded chicken drizzled with sauce. They are often served as starters. They are spicy, sweet, and yet also savory at the same time, full of flavor.
What is buffalo chicken?
Buffalo chicken is often the term given to deep-fried chicken and is named after the town they were first made in Buffalo, New York. The buffalo wings that we know today were discovered by mistake in a family-owned bar called anchor bar, owned by Frank and Teressa Bellisimo. This is the place where the snack was first served.
The Bellissimo’s received an order with more chicken wings than they had bargained for. They didn’t want to let them go to waste, so Teressa found a way to use the excess chicken wings. The process resulted in the wings being dipped in a spicy homemade sauce, which gave the wings the characteristic taste. They served the wings alongside cheese and celery. The wings soon became a staple on the menu at their bar.
Ingredients
- Bell peppers – You will need three large sweet bell peppers. You need them to be large enough to serve as a container of some sort for the chicken you will stuff in. you can use different colors depending on the look you are going for. Green peppers are a bit lower in calories.
- Chicken – 4 cups of shredded chicken breast that is pre-cooked. Rotisserie chicken often does very well as it is already flavored.
- Nutritional yeast – while this ingredient is not a must, it helps to give the dish an umami flavor. Seasoning – to keep it flavorful, you will need to have some spices such as garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and black pepper, and any other spices according to your preference. Mayonnaise – use 1 cup of paleo or avocado mayonnaise or homemade mayonnaise. You can use two tablespoons.
- Hot sauce – this is the secret to getting the right kick from your dish. You can either make your own or use a brand that you trust from the store. You can also find buffalo sauce and use that. ½ a cup should be sufficient
- Green onions – you can use these to bring a fresh twist of onion to the dish. Thinly chop up one green onion and split it to keep some of it for the garnish. You can also use any other fresh herbs for garnishing.
- Dressing – You can choose a salad dressing of your choice, such as ranch dressing.
- Cheese – you can also use cheese to make the dish a little more decadent. You can use mozzarella, or cheddar, or blue cheese. Blue cheese is often the obvious choice for buffalo chicken, but you can choose the cheese you prefer.
Expert Tips
Can I make the filling ahead?
Yes, you can make the filling ahead of time as long as you make sure that you don’t add the garnish or the dressing since you will still need to cook them.
How to store leftover stuffed peppers
To store leftover Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Peppers, place them in a shallow airtight container. Then put them in the refrigerator. They should stay fresh for about 5 to 6 days. Store them in the crisper drawer of the fridge for best results. If the peppers are raw, they will last for about 1 to 2 weeks before they begin to go bad.
How to reheat leftover stuffed peppers
To reheat leftover stuffed peppers, you can do so in the oven. Place the peppers inside a covered dish. Then heat them at 350˚F. It should take between 15 and 20 minutes for the peppers to be thoroughly heated through.
Your other option is to reheat the peppers in the microwave. This will take considerably less time. About two minutes in total. Whichever way you choose to reheat the peppers, make sure to remove any garnish that may wilt when heat is introduced. When you use the microwave, make sure to cover the peppers with a towel or a microwave cover. Watch out for drying out of the peppers.
The other option is to heat the peppers on the stovetop. For this, you will need a skillet, in which you will put the peppers and add a drop of water to keep the peppers moist. Cover the skillet with a lid to allow the steam to reheat the peppers properly. Use medium-low heat. Keep watch over the skillet and add water to heat the peppers a bit at a time.
Can I freeze the filling?
Yes, you can. When frozen, the filling will retain a lot of the nutrients. It will be essential to thaw it out properly. Before you freeze them, make sure the chicken is completely cooled down. When you freeze the filling, make sure that it is in portions that you will be using at a time, then spoon it into airtight bags before freezing.
This will help protect the filling from freezer burn. You could also freeze the filling in a freezer-safe casserole dish. It’s a great way to keep the ingredients intact and away from the moisture in the freezer.
To reheat the filling, you can let it thaw out in the fridge overnight. Then scoop it into the peppers and bake them as you typically would had they not been frozen beforehand. Bake the peppers at 350˚F until the peppers are warm.
Serving & Side Dish Ideas
No recipe is complete without a good selection of side dishes. Here are our favorite recipe ideas for what to serve with stuffed peppers.
- Green salad – you can serve these peppers with a seasonal green salad, which will provide a crispy fresh take to the dish.
- Garlic green beans – these are green beans sauteed in garlic, and they pair well with the flavors of the stuffed peppers.
- Cauliflower rice – you can also create cauliflower and fry it to make cauliflower rice with. a seasoning of your choice, and serve with the peppers. This is a great way to have a fuller meal.
Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
- 4 bell peppers halved vertically with seeds and cores removed
- 4 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
- 2 cups shredded gouda
- 1/2 large white onion chopped
- Ranch dressing for drizzling
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tbsp. butter
- ½ cup hot sauce ideally Frank’s Red Hot
- 2 tbsp. freshly chopped chives
Instructions
- Start off by preheating your oven to 400°F/200°C. Place bell peppers cut side-up on a large baking sheet. Season generously with olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Heat up a large pan or skillet over a medium heat, and melt butter or oil. Add the chopped white onion and cook for about 5 minutes until tender. Then add the garlic and cook for another minute, until fragrant.
- Add the shredded chicken and hot sauce. Toss everything together until combined, and cook until the mixture comes to a simmer. Once it hits a simmer, remove the pan from the heat.
- Remove the peppers from the oven and serve the chicken mixture equally between the halves. Top each with the shredded gouda and put back in the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes until the cheese is melted and peppers are tender and crisp.
- Serve up on plates, and drizzle each stuffed pepper with ranch and sprinkle with chives.
