The Canned Shortcut For Chorizo Cornbread Stuffing

Stuffing — you either love it or hate it. But if you're just tired of the same plain recipe, it's easy to add other ingredients that can transform it from an overrated side dish into the star of the dinner spread. There are many stuffing variations out there, but we think a great flavor-packed option is our original recipe for chorizo cornbread stuffing created by Tasting Table recipe developer Michelle McGlinn. The key to this delicious stuffing is charred poblano peppers, but you can swap them out for canned chilis so you have more time to focus on the rest of the meal.

This hack is important if you're short on time because using poblano peppers requires a lot more prep work. You have to roast and steam the peppers, let them cool, then peel and dice them before adding them to the rest of the mixture per our recipe. It's worth the extra work, but you're already making the rest of this stuffing from scratch so we won't blame you for taking one shortcut with canned chilis, which will still add layers of flavor and mild heat to the dish.

For this shortcut, Michelle McGlinn recommends using canned green chilis. Most brands of these chilis are diced, which means you have even less prep work to deal with. You can also find whole canned green chilis, which work well but you will need to peel and dice them before adding them to the cornbread batter. It's still less prep work than roasting them yourself. All you need to do is open the can, drain the liquids, and measure out how many peppers you want.

There's no exact science to converting whole poblano peppers to canned ones because the sizes vary. Our recipe uses three poblano peppers, so we think it's safe to use one 4.5-ounce can of chilis — or you can double it up if you want more in your mixture. You might be lucky enough to find canned poblano peppers if you want to stay true to this chorizo cornbread recipe or you can use canned jalapeño peppers if you want more spice. No matter what canned peppers you choose, you'll add them to the breadcrumb mixture at the end right before it goes into the oven.