Crab-Stuffed Poblano Chiles With Mango Salsa

It is an excellent recipe if you make one simple change. Don't use canned crab. In fact generally speaking canned crab is disgusting and should be avoided when possible. Use frozen, packaged or fresh, anything but canned and you will see how amazingly yummy these peppers can be:)

I was cooking for 5, so I doubled the recipe ingredients. The mango salsa was outstanding! We loved it but even with a doubled recipe, there wasn't enough of it. I used 3 mangos and one large red pepper; next time, I will be using 5 mangos and 3 red peppers. The filling for the peppers was a little bland. We couldn't taste the crab at all and it was heavy on the ricotta. However, if you mixed in the salsa, that was good. So, I would go a little lighter on the ricotta, heavier on the oregano and crab. My family had mixed reviews about using a poblano pepper; some liked it, some may have preferred a bell pepper - a matter of taste. But overall, this was a successful dinner!

Yuck! Even adding additional ingredients to the filling, it was still bland--but even worse was the texture. The ricotta cheese made the filling mushy and grainy. My husband and I both hated it, and threw out the remaining stuffed peppers.

I try to cut out calories and fat by using substitutes for texture and spices for flavor, so I used fat free cream cheese (2 tbls) instead of the ricotta cheese and 6 wedges of garlic laughing cow cheese. I also used 1 tbls of parmesan cheese. For spice, 1 tsp fresh chopped jalapeño and 2 tsp of cayenne pepper. I mixed this into 10 ounces of crab meat and put it in the frig for 3 hours. The spice and texture were perfect. I did not make the mango salsa. I also did not slice the peppers down the center, but cut the stems out and seeded them from the top. I stuffed the crab mixture inside the pepper and baked them as directed. I had left over crab so the next night we grilled portabella mushrooms marinated in EVOO and balsamic and topped them with the crab mixture. It was fabulous too!

I was disappointed with this recipe :( I wish I would have paid more attention to the reviews. It was easy, but VERY bland. A waste of ingredients. IF I make it again, I will follow others advice and add some things to it to kick it up. I added Old Bay and garlic, but it just wasn't enough. It has a pretty presentation and has potential. I was just expecting more I guess.