Italian Chicken Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

The inspiration for this recipe came from a restaurant I love and have visited several times during my trips to NYC, Carmine's. They have several locations in NYC as well as Atlantic City and a newly opened location in Vegas. They specialize in family style Italian dining.

During one of my visits, I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an autographed copy of their cookbook.

It's from this cookbook that the Italian Chicken Sausage Stuffed Mushroom recipe was adapted. I have had the pleasure of enjoying Carmine's Sausage -Stuffed Mushrooms while dining there, and let me tell you...perfection. I was eager to find a way to enjoy these at home and was glad the recipe for the original was in this book.

The secret to the flavor explosion in these stuffed mushrooms is the Mild Whole Sweet Piquante Peppers (Peppadew peppers). Just a small amount of these peppers imparts amazing flavor for very little calories!

If you can't find these peppers, any vinegar-ed sweet pepper will do.

Since the original recipe calls for "Carmine's bread crumbs" (which are seasoned and flavored bread crumbs) in the filling, I decided to substitute cracker crumbs for them in my version. You can use any type of cracker you like here. Saltines, buttery crackers, and garlic flavored crackers all work well.

You can choose to use fresh HOT Italian Chicken Sausage or the MILD version, depending on how spicy you like things. If you can't find Italian Chicken Sausage, you can substitute fresh turkey sausage instead.

These stuffed mushrooms can be made ahead of time, up until the baking, and stored in the fridge until you are ready to bake and serve them. I'd say that makes them pretty perfect for the Big Game!

• Italian Chicken Stuffed Mushrooms
• Servings - 15 Serving Size - 1 stuffed mushroom Points Plus per Serving - 1 Point+
• Calories - 46, Total Fat - 1.7g, Carb. - 4.6g, Protein - 3.7g, Fiber - 0.1g
• Ingredients:
• 15 raw, med-large button mushrooms
• 2 links (approx. 3oz. each) of raw, Italian chicken sausage, removed from casings (hot or mild)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup finely crushed crackers (I used saltines in the nutrition calculations)
• about 1/2 cup fat free, low sodium chicken broth
• 2 TBS grated Parmesan cheese
• 3-4 mild whole sweet piqcante peppers (peppadew), finely chopped

Directions:

Clean the mushrooms and remove the stems. Finely chop the stems. ( I used my mini food processor). Set aside.

In a 10" cast iron skillet or in a 8x8" baking dish, lay the mushroom caps with stem side up. Set aside.

In a large non-stick skillet, brown the chicken sausage over med-high heat, breaking it up as it browns. ( this will take about 4-5 minutes)

Add to the skillet, the green peppers, chopped mushroom stems, and the garlic. Cook for another 8 -10 minutes or until the peppers are soft and the liquid from the mushroom stems has evaporated.

Add in the cracker crumbs and enough chicken stock to moisten. (you may or may not use all the stock) Turn off heat and add in the Parmesan cheese and the piqcante peppers. Stir. Allow to cool to lukewarm.

Stuff mushroom caps with about 1 - 1 1/2 TBS of sausage mixture. At this point, you can either refrigerate the mushrooms and filling and bake later OR preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Bake the mushrooms for 15-20 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender. Serve warm from oven.

Adapted from Carmine's Family-Style Cookbook

These mushrooms are definitely a flavor explosion when you use the HOT sausage and the piqcante peppers. Wow. While they are not exactly like the original, they are a tasty substitution. They are a pretty good deal calorie wise too!