Southwest Chicken Stuffed Bell Peppers

Growing up, I looked forward to opportunities to help Mom in the kitchen, and that hasn't changed. A few years ago, Mom and I tried a recipe for stuffed bell peppers. It was delicious!

Recently, I had a craving...

This time, though, I decided to cut the bell peppers in half.

We found that when the bell pepper was used whole (like a bowl), a lot of residual moisture gathered at the bottom and then leaked out when eating, making it a little messy and almost requiring a bowl instead of a plate.

So, after looking around at a few recipes, I pieced together this one, and it worked great!

Southwest Chicken Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

• 5 bell peppers, halved and seeded
• 1 can Southwest Corn with Poblano and Red Peppers, drained (alternately, you can use 1 can corn and 1 can diced chiles)
• 1 can low-sodium black beans, drained
• 3 chicken breasts, shredded (I like to put the chicken in the crockpot on low for 6 hours - it shreds really well!)
• 1 16-oz jar salsa
• Mexican cheese blend, shredded

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix canned ingredients (drained), chicken, and salsa in a medium-sized bowl.
3. Place pepper halves cut side up in a glass baking dish. Stuff each half with the chicken mixture.
4. Add about 1/4" of water to the bottom of the glass dish.
5. Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
6. Uncover the baking dish and sprinkle cheese on top of the pepper halves. Bake 10 more minutes uncovered.
7. Let peppers cool 5 minutes before serving.