Japanese rice updates the tired old stuffed pepper

These stuffed peppers ditch the traditional ground beef in favor of chicken, then replace flavorless white rice with more-robust japonica, a colorful Japanese variety.

Here’s the thing about baked stuffed peppers … Plenty of people hate them. And when you consider the classic approach to this dish, it’s hard to argue. Tasteless ground beef mixed with white rice and some sort of tomato product? Not particularly exciting.

So we decided to create a version with plenty more appeal. We started by ditching the ground beef in favor of chicken, then replaced the flavorless white rice with the more robust japonica, a colorful Japanese variety. Now add shiitake mushrooms, fresh herbs and goat cheese, and you’ve got a stuffed pepper worth getting excited about.

Japonica, Shiitake and Chicken Stuffed Peppers

6 large red bell peppers

1 cup japonica rice

2 cups low-sodium chicken broth