Trader Joe's Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Not to be confused with Trader Joe's Chiles Rellenos con Queso, which come frozen and have an egg batter coating, these stuffed chiles are also made with large poblano peppers but they come refrigerated, have no outer breading, and are stuffed not only with Monterey Jack cheese but also chicken, rice, corn, and a creamy cilantro sauce. Sonia's more familiar with that other kind of chile relleno, but she thinks this variation on the dish might hail from a different region of Mexico.

Only microwave and conventional oven instructions are given on the box, but we tried our hand at the air fryer and these stuffed peppers came out great. The package comes with two poblanos and we tossed them both into our Ninja for 12 minutes at 375°F. Google's AI Overview mentioned you could turn it up to 400° if you wanted your peppers extra crispy.

The chicken, rice, cheese, corn, and sauce medley in the middle of the pepper is excellent. There's a generous amount of white meat chicken chunks and the overall flavor is well balanced. The roasted poblano shell flaunts a nice smoky, earthy flavor that complements the inner portions of the dish.

And now it's complaint time. The texture of the pepper was the only thing we had a problem with. Parts of it were a little tough—almost leathery. In stark contrast to the soft, well-cooked chicken, the pepper itself was very difficult to cut with just a fork and it was a tad harder to chew than Sonia and I would have liked. Still, it's not a dealbreaker. We admit it might have been our chosen heating method that rendered the odd texture. Perhaps the conventional oven might have made the pepper more pleasant, or maybe we should have turned up the temp on the air fryer a tad higher.

In the end, that's our only complaint. This Mexican-inspired meal gets a thumbs up from both me and the beautiful wifey. It'll run you seven bucks for this nearly restaurant quality dish. Perfect dinner for two on a budget. We'd buy it again. Eight and a half stars from the beautiful wifey. Eight out of ten stars from me.

Bottom line: 8.25 out of 10.