Easy Stuffed Peppers Recipe

First off, set your oven to 350. Unless you’re making this dish ahead of time, you could just make the peppers the day ahead and bake them off the next day. I have a little bit of prep to do. We need some garlic for this recipe. How much garlic? It’s up to you. I think my recipe calls for three, which means you always want to have at least six. That’s the rule when you write recipes—you understand that people are going to double the garlic. They’ll see garlic and just like, “Just mince a whole head.” I’m down with that; that’s fine.

So I’m going to smash these to release the oils and get the skin off, give them a quick mince. Once your garlic’s minced up, just set that aside and we have a little bit of onion to deal with. I want half of a large—or kind of one whole. I’d call this a small onion. Remove the skin; I’m going to give this a nice dice.

Stuffed peppers are like your secret weapon if you’re making dinner for the family. When my mom would make these for us, she would make stuffed peppers and tomatoes. You can bake them in separate dishes, but it’s the same filling on the inside. I’m going to give you some of her special add-ins—they’re delicious, but maybe they’re not for everybody. This is like my recipe that I think everyone would like, kind of love and use as a basic canvas to add their favorites into.

Now you want to have six bell peppers for this, and they should be roughly the same size. You don’t want like a giant one and a tiny one. Make sure you wash it, take the sticker off first, and cut it across the top here. Remove the ribs and take the core out. Any extra seeds should be removed as well. Keep the top—I like to use them as a wedge because sometimes they’re a little slanted and you just want to have something to have them be nice and level. A lot of times you can just kind of rip the center out; it’s so easy to clean. You’ll repeat the process for the remaining bell peppers. Just try and get a nice even cut across the top—so simple, no fancy knife work or anything involved. All this spongy stuff—just take that out. You want to have all delicious filling inside.

These peppers are prepped. We’re going to pop these into a large casserole dish and just stand them up so they’re ready for the end. We’re going to set this aside, and now it’s time to work on our delicious and hearty filling. This dish uses a cup and a half of cooked rice, so it’s a great recipe if you have leftover rice in the fridge. But if you don’t, just make sure you cook some ahead of time so it’s ready to use.

Once the filling is done and peppers are prepped, grab a big skillet. We’re going to place this over medium-high heat along with two tablespoons of olive oil. This oil is dancing in a pan—that’s how I know it’s ready. I’m gonna grab my onions, and they have to cook for about eight to ten minutes. This is a lot of flavor, so we really need to get those sugars caramelized and ring that flavor bell. Move those onions around and now you’re going to stir frequently over medium heat, just reduce a little bit, let them brown gently—not burn—but take on some flavor.

Here I want to talk about some things you can add. At my house we added in raisins and slivered almonds. The raisins are like a nice little bit of just a hint of sweetness, and they plump up with all the juices you add. Then the almonds give you a nice—it’s like a little bit of something extra. They’re not super crunchy because they absorb a lot of the liquid too, but that’s what we love. You can also play with the spices. Today we’re using Italian seasoning, but you can take this in so many different directions. Peppers stuffed with a combination of meat and rice and some herbs is universal; you’ll find variations of it in many different cultures. Changing the spice profile is a way to kind of make the dish your own and also maybe closer to what you enjoyed as a kid. My mom’s from Mexico—we added some cumin to this as well, a little bit of chili in here too.

These onions smell really good. I’m gonna grab the garlic now—this is my version of three cloves of garlic; it’s like a quarter cup, but that’s what works. Stir the garlic in. I’m adding in an optional little drizzle of oil. About two minutes is all you need; just stir frequently because your garlic will burn, and this pan has gotten hot over the course of all that onion cooking.

For the meat here, I’m using beef today, but you could use ground turkey so easily. Just make sure it’s not ground turkey breast—that stuff is not good. You want to have the dark meat mixed in there; that has all the fat content. If you just have low-fat ground chicken or turkey, it’s going to be very rubbery when it cooks unless you cook it in butter. We’ve used ground lamb on this too, if that’s more of your liking. A lot of options.

This smells amazing. I’m just gonna take this off heat for half a second. One and a quarter pounds of ground beef here we go—although it could really be your favorite ground meat. Let’s add that in and we’re going to break up that ground meat. We’re gonna brown it really well and work in the onions and garlic.

When we made this, my mom would not just make stuffed peppers; she would make a combination of stuffed peppers and stuffed tomatoes. You could have them topped with ooey-gooey cheese or with toasted breadcrumbs—both are delicious. If you wanted to make a version of this but have it be vegetarian, my suggestion would be to use minced-up mushrooms. Get a big batch of mushrooms; I would cook this in a pot because the mushrooms start like this and they end up like that, and that’ll give you that nice hearty flavor with the texture you want, but it’ll be vegetarian.

Your meat’s gonna take about 10 minutes to brown. One thing I want to say is this is such a great make-ahead recipe. If you know that you’re going to be busy tomorrow and you want to get a delicious, beautiful dinner on the table, you prep these peppers up, leave them in the fridge, and then you just bake them off right before you’re ready to serve. It’ll be delicious, and it’s a nice way to mix things up because we all get these ruts in the week where you’re serving like butter noodles and chicken for the kids, and you have whatever—you want to have a little difference here, adding in some veggies, a different way to use meat. It’s nice.

Between stirs while your meat’s browning, go ahead and give a quarter cup of fresh parsley a nice chop. This will add some beautiful color, and I love the flavor of parsley—it is not a garnish.

Once your meat’s nicely browned, it’s time to add in a 14½-ounce can of diced tomatoes and eight ounces of tomato sauce. Depending on the vibe, you could use regular tomato sauce or an al pastor-style spicy tomato sauce. I like a little spice; my kids are not yet the biggest fans. It’s time for a tablespoon of Italian seasoning all over the top and a teaspoon of salt. Sprinkle that in, and of course you’re going to give this a taste as soon as everything’s done mixing together so you can add a little bit more salt if desired.

Right now you’re just warming things through. The last thing I’m going to add in is the rice. I like using a long-grain rice for this because it holds its shape a bit better. You never want to add in mushy, overcooked rice. If anything, it could be a little bit parboiled—so it might be just a little bit firmer than you’d like in the center because it’ll continue cooking in these juices once it’s in the oven. I just made some fresh rice; it’s supposed to have been made ahead of time, but I didn’t do that, and it’s okay. A cup and a half of cooked rice can go right in here, and now we’re gonna mix it up. Fold that in—be gentle with the rice. That looks great.

Take that off heat, and now we’re going to add in one cup of shredded mozzarella. You could use other cheeses you enjoy too—I think pepper jack would be really great in this. Let’s spray and call that in. I’m going to fold that in along with the half teaspoon of black pepper I forgot to add earlier. If you want some more spice, I would add in like a half teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Fold that gooey cheese in—oh, it starts getting that cheese pull right away, and it makes it so much more appetizing.

We are ready to fill our peppers, so grab them, get a trivet, and let’s get to work. Spoon the filling into your peppers—just fill them all the way up. Those cheese pulls are crazy. Last little bit of filling goes in, and look at that—one pan, almost no dishes to do. It’s like a Christmas miracle.

Top this off with the remaining mozzarella (or a little bit more if you want it extra cheesy like I do). That’s half a cup, or more if you want, I should say. If you have some toasted bread crumbs with Parmesan and herbs mixed in, sprinkle that on top too—it’s gonna be good.

These guys are ready to go into the oven (or into the fridge if you’re meal-prepping this). If it’s into the oven, 20 minutes at 350, or until the peppers are tender. You don’t want them crisp—they should really soften up a bit—but if you cook them too much they get mushy, so just watch out.

As soon as that cheese is melty and turning golden brown, pull them out of the oven, sprinkle a little parsley on top, and just like that they’re ready to enjoy. This smells so good. That is delicious—hearty, full of flavor, it’s gonna stick to your ribs, and hello—one pan for the whole thing, almost no cleanup. That’s a win. I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.