This Easy Stuffed Peppers recipe is a quick, easy, delicious, and versatile dinner option. They’re made with tender roasted peppers filled with ground beef, rice, tomato sauce, and seasoning, then topped with gooey melted cheese.
Think of this recipe as a starting point for you to create all sorts of Stuffed Peppers variations. To get your wheels turning, we also have a Southwest Stuffed Pepper Recipe and a stuffed pepper soup.
Easy Stuffed Peppers Recipe
This stuffed peppers recipe is a retro classic that never disappoints. The bell peppers are first parbaked to ensure that they will be fork-tender. They are then filled with a simple mixture of ground beef, cooked white rice, tomato sauce, and simple Italian seasoning.
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Just before returning to the oven, we top it with shredded cheese and bake until it’s gooey, golden brown, and totally irresistible. Feel free to swap the ground beef with ground turkey, substitute a different kind of cheese, use brown rice, or season however you’d like.
Key Ingredients
- Ground Beef – to keep these peppers less greasy, use lean ground beef. 80/20 works great. To make things even healthier, you could also substitute ground turkey
- Bell Peppers – green peppers are what I typically use because they gives a nice contrasting color. However, you could use red pepper or any other color of bell pepper that you want.
- Garlic Powder – this adds a nice sweet garlic flavor. If you want to substitute fresh garlic, you can use about 2 teaspoons of minced garlic instead.
- Italian Seasoning – you could also use dried oregano, dried basil, or other dried herbs.
- Rice – I’ll usually use cooked long grain white rice for this recipe. But especially since you are adding cooked rice, feel free to use brown rice or wild rice if you prefer.
- Tomato Sauce – use your favorite kind of tomato sauce, pasta sauce, marinara sauce or even pizza sauce. You’re only adding a bit to moisten and flavor the filling.
- Shredded Cheese – mozzarella cheese is what I usually use, but cheddar, Monterey Jack, or pepper jack work great, too.
How to Make Stuffed Peppers
- Parbake the peppers. Place the peppers cut side up in a 9″ by 13″ baking dish. Add about 1/2 cup water to the bottom of the dish, cover with foil and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.
- Cook the meat mixture. While the peppers are cooking, prepare the filling by heating the olive oil in the bottom of a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the ground beef, chopped onion, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Cook while stirring occasionally until the meat is cooked through and the onion has softened.
- Mix the filling. Remove from the heat and stir in the cooked rice and tomato sauce. Fold in half of the shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Add filling to the peppers. Once the peppers are tender, remove from the oven and drain off any excess water. Spoon filling into each pepper, filling to the top. Sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese over the top of each pepper.
- Bake. Return to the oven and bake again for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and golden.
- Serve. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving. Enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions
You don’t absolutely have to pre-cook the peppers. But, if you choose not to, they will be very crisp since they will only have baked for about 10 minutes.
At 350 degrees F, your bell peppers should take between 15-20 minutes to soften. It helped to add about ½ cup of water to the bottom of your baking dish and cover with aluminum foil so they can gently steam as they cook.
Yup! You can par-cook the peppers, make the filling, and even fill the peppers the day before. Just cover and store in the fridge overnight. The next day, remove it from the fridge while you preheat the oven. Top with cheese, bake as directed, and enjoy!
You can also make certain components ahead of time, such as cooking the rice, pre-cooking the peppers or making the meat mixture.
Storing and Reheating Instructions
- Refrigerator: store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Freezer: both baked and unbaked stuffed peppers can be frozen for up 2 months. Make sure to cover well with plastic and aluminum foil. To thaw, transfer to the fridge overnight or pull to room temperature for about 1 hour.
- To reheat: pull the baking dish from the fridge while you preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 15 minutes or until warmed through.
Easy Stuffed Peppers Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 large bell peppers, sliced in half with stems and seeds removed
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1½ pounds ground beef
- 1 medium onion, chopped (white or yellow)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- 1½ cups white rice, cooked
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Place the peppers cut side up in a 9" by 13" baking dish. Add about 1/2 cup water to the bottom of the dish, cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes.
- While the peppers are cooking, prepare the filling by heating the olive oil in the bottom of a large pan over medium heat. Add the ground beef, chopped onion, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Cook while stirring occasionally until the meat is cooked through and the onion has softened.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the cooked rice and tomato sauce. Fold in half of the shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Once the peppers are tender, remove from the oven and drain off any excess water. Spoon filling into each pepper, filling to the top. Sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese over the top of each pepper.
- Return to the oven and bake again for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and golden.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving. Enjoy!
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Stuffed Bell Peppers are a classic dinner option that’s as versatile as it is delicious. These are filled with a mixture of ground beef, rice, tomato sauce and seasoning then topped with melted cheese.
