Stuffed Bell Peppers
These stuffed bell peppers are comfort food at its finest — tender peppers filled with seasoned ground beef, rice, and tomatoes, all baked until bubbling and delicious. They're hearty enough to be a full meal on their own, and folks always come back for seconds. This is the kind of dish that makes your kitchen smell like home.
Cooking tutorial
Ingredients
- 6 large bell peppers (any color you like)
- 1 1/2 lbs ground beef (80/20 is good)
- 1 cup long-grain white rice, uncooked
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped fine
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, with juice
- 1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
- 1 1/2 cups beef broth
- 2 tsp seasoned salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
Instructions
- 1
Preheat your oven to 375°F. Cut the tops off the bell peppers and pull out all the seeds and white membranes inside, then rinse them out good and set them in a 9x13 baking dish standing upright.
- 2
Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and brown the ground beef, breaking it up with your spoon as it cooks, about 6 to 8 minutes until no pink remains.
- 3
Add the chopped onion and garlic to the beef and cook another 3 to 4 minutes until the onion gets soft and see-through.
- 4
Stir in the uncooked rice, diced tomatoes with their juice, half the tomato sauce (save the rest), beef broth, seasoned salt, black pepper, paprika, and oregano. Bring it all to a boil, then turn the heat down to low, cover, and let it simmer for 15 minutes until the rice is mostly tender.
- 5
Take the skillet off the heat and stir in 1 cup of the shredded cheese until it melts into the filling.
- 6
Spoon the beef and rice mixture into each pepper, packing it down gently and mounding it up on top. Pour the remaining tomato sauce over the tops of the peppers.
- 7
Cover the baking dish tight with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes.
- 8
Take off the foil, sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese on top of each pepper, dot with the butter pieces, and bake uncovered another 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
- 9
Let the peppers rest for 5 minutes before serving so they don't burn anybody's mouth.
Pro Tips
- ★If your peppers won't stand up straight in the pan, slice just a tiny bit off the bottom to make them flat — just don't cut through to the inside.
- ★Leftover stuffed peppers freeze real well — wrap them individually in foil and they'll keep for up to 3 months.