Stuffed Bell Peppers have been a huge favorite of mine since my aunt first made them for me many many years ago. At the time it seemed like such an elaborate, fancy recipe, but who knew they were really this simple to make! It’s a classic comfort food recipe that’s hearty, filling, easy to customize, and can feed a large family. Plus the flavors in this version are incredibly delicious! So much so that we’re still talking about it over a month later! ;)
What’s in Stuffed Bell Peppers?
There are several versions of stuffed bell peppers out there and most usually include ground beef, rice, tomatoes, and cheese. I got a little creative with this recipe as I wanted it to be simple to make, but still have tons of flavor! Here’s what you’ll need:
- Bell Peppers: I used different colors of bell peppers because I love how colorful and vibrant they look, but if you’re working with a tight budget you can certainly just use all green bell peppers instead.
- Italian Sausage: Italian sausage instead of ground beef for an extra boost of flavor. But you can use ground beef, ground turkey or even Italian turkey sausage if you like.
- Onion and garlic: These two ingredients produce a great combination of aromatics to help flavor the sausage and rice.
- Seasoning: A simple mix of Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and garlic powder is all you’ll need. If you want an extra kick, you can also add a pinch of red pepper flakes too!
- Marinara sauce: Instead of adding a can of tomatoes or tomato sauce, I used marinara sauce. It’s tomatoes with extra herbs & spices all in one…aka more flavor!
- Long grain white rice: The rice helps bulk up the filling for the bell peppers. In this recipe the rice is cooked in the same skillet as the meat filling. It gives the rice a ton of flavor and let’s be honest…who wants to clean more dishes by cooking a separate pot of rice? Not me!
- Chicken broth: Broth is used to help cook the rice and it provides even more flavor of course!
- Shredded Mozzarella: And mozzarella cheese sprinkled on top for a gooey, tasty finish!
Should I cook the bell peppers first?
I definitely suggest par-cooking the bell peppers first, just a little bit before stuffing them. Not only does this help to soften the bell peppers, but it also cuts down on your cook time. As the bell peppers are cooking you can make the filling, shaving off about 20 minutes from your total cook time.
Budget Saving Tips!
Here are a few tips to help you stretch your money when making Stuffed Bell Peppers:
- Use the green bell peppers! Although it makes for a colorful final dish when you use red, yellow or orange bell peppers, these colors often cost a little bit more. You can just buy all green bell peppers instead and save some coins.
- Cut a 4th bell pepper in half and stretch the filling out to make 8 servings instead of 6. Trust me..we stuffed these bell peppers quite a bit, but you could totally stretch the filling if you wanted to.
- If you want to just use 1/2 a pound of sausage, that works too! Just add an additional 1/2 cup of rice and 3/4 cup of broth to what is listed in the recipe below, to increase the filling and make up the difference.
- Feel free to use ground beef instead if it’s cheaper than the Italian sausage at your local store. You may need to add a bit more seasoning to make up for the flavor you would get in the sausage though.
What to serve with Stuffed Bell Peppers
The filling inside each of these stuffed bell peppers are pretty hearty by themselves, but if you want to serve something with it on the side, they would also be great with a simple salad or some crusty garlic bread. If you want to double down on the veggies, you can also serve these with some roasted broccoli, roasted Brussels sprouts, or a side of simple sautéed vegetables.
Storing & Reheating
Got leftovers? No problem! These stuffed bell peppers hold up very well in the refrigerator stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days. They can be reheated in the microwave or the oven and the leftovers taste just as good the next day, making them perfect for meal prep!
Stuffed Bell Peppers
Servings 6 servingsIngredients
- 3 bell peppers ($3.97)
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil, divided ($0.08)
- 1 lb Italian sausage ($4.99)
- 1 yellow onion, diced ($0.38)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced ($0.24)
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder ($0.05)
- 1 1/4 tsp salt, divided ($0.06)
- 1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper ($0.02)
- 1 cup marinara sauce ($0.71)
- 1/2 cup uncooked long grain white rice ($0.21)
- 3/4 cup chicken broth ($0.15)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella ($1.25)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Wash and dry each bell pepper, then cut the bell peppers in half horizontally. Make sure to cut them as evenly as possible. Using a sharp paring knife carefully cut and remove the stem from the top half of each bell pepper (see picture below). It's okay if there is a small hole left where the stem was removed.
- Place each bell pepper half in a 9×13-inch casserole dish. Brush the bell peppers with 1 Tbsp oil and season with ¼ tsp of salt and ¼ tsp cracked black pepper. Bake the bell peppers in a preheated oven for 20 minutes to soften. After 20 minutes remove the bell peppers from the oven and set aside.
- While the bell peppers are baking, make the filling. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add 1 Tbsp of oil. Brown the Italian sausage.
- Once the sausage has browned, add the diced onion and minced garlic to the skillet. Continue to sauté over medium heat until the onion is translucent and the garlic is fragrant.
- Next add the uncooked rice, marinara sauce, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, 1 tsp of salt, and chicken broth to the skillet. Stir to combine.
- Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat up to medium-high, and allow the mixture to come to a full boil. Once boiling, immediately reduce the heat to medium-low and allow the mixture to simmer, without lifting the lid or stirring, for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn the heat off and let it rest, without lifting the lid, for an additional 5 minutes.
- Next remove the lid, fluff the rice, and stir the mixture again to redistribute the ingredients. Begin to fill each bell pepper with the meat filling. Stuff as much filling as you can into each, filling them all the way to the top.
- Top each bell pepper evenly with shredded mozzarella cheese. Loosely place some tented aluminum foil over the top of the casserole dish and bake for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes the bell peppers should be tender but not mushy.
- Now remove the foil and turn the heat on to broil. Broil the stuffed bell peppers for 2-3 minutes or just until the cheese gets a little brown on top. Be sure to watch the bell peppers closely at this step to prevent the cheese from over browning. Garnish with parsley, if desired, and enjoy!
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Nutrition
Also try our Chorizo Stuffed Bell Peppers!
How to Make STUFFED BELL PEPPERS – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 350°F then wash and dry 3 bell peppers. Cut the bell peppers in half horizontally, yes horizontally. Most stuffed bell pepper recipes either keep the bell peppers whole or cut them vertically, but by cutting them horizontally you end up with a flatter bottom service and it’s easier to stuff. Trust me! Make sure to cut them as evenly as possible. Using a sharp pairing knife carefully cut and remove the stem from the top half of each bell pepper. It’s okay if there is a small hole left where the stem was removed.
Place each bell pepper half in a 9×13-inch casserole dish. Brush the bell peppers with 1 Tbsp cooking oil, divided between all 6 halves, and season with ¼ tsp of salt and ¼ tsp cracked black pepper, also divided between all 6 halves. Bake the bell peppers in a preheated oven for 20 minutes to soften. After 20 minutes remove them from the oven and set aside.
While the bell peppers are baking, make the filling. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add 1 Tbsp of oil. Add 1 lb Italian sausage and cook until brown.
Once the sausage has browned, add the 1 diced yellow onion and 3 minced garlic cloves to the skillet. Continue to sauté over medium heat until the onion is translucent and the garlic is fragrant.
Next add ½ cup uncooked white rice, 1 cup of marinara sauce, 1 tsp Italian seasoning, ½ tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp of salt, and ¾ cups chicken broth to the skillet. Stir to combine. Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat up to medium-high, and allow the mixture to come to a full boil. Once boiling, immediately reduce the heat to medium-low and allow the mixture to simmer, without lifting the lid or stirring, for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn the heat off and let it rest, without lifting the lid, for an additional 5 minutes.
Next remove the lid, fluff the rice, and stir the mixture again to redistribute the ingredients. Begin to fill each bell pepper with the sausage and rice mixture. Stuff as much filling as you can into each, filling them all the way to the top.
Divide 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese on top of each bell pepper evenly. Loosely place some tented aluminum foil over the top of the casserole dish and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, remove the foil and turn the heat to broil. Broil the stuffed bell peppers for 2-3 minutes or just until the cheese gets a little brown on top. Be sure to watch the bell peppers closely at this step to prevent the cheese from getting too brown. Garnish with parsley, if desired, and enjoy!
If I don’t want to include rice in the stuffing, how much broth do you think I should include? I’m guessing less because there will be less solids to absorb.
Correct, if you eliminate the rice there will be nothing to absorb the broth, so you’d want to skip the broth all together. But if you skip the broth that will also be skipping some of the flavor, so just keep that in mind! Plus the volume of the filling will be reduced considerably. :)
So easy to follow instructions! Even a beginner can cook well!!!
Update! These are even better reheated. I made a batch of 4 (two peppers cut in half) and we had two for dinner right out of the oven and two for lunch.
Both were good but the leftovers were better – the flavors blended while in the fridge. Delicious and highly recommended for meal prep.
Another note – no chicken broth on hand so used water.
I made these the other day and they are delicious! These will be in the regular rotation!
This was absolutely delicious and a new staple meal in my household! A few tips: 1) carving out the peppers takes a bit of effort so give yourself five more minutes to do this than you think you need, 2) if you’re using a chicken bullion cube to make your stock, then you don’t need to add any additional salt to this recipe, 3) hot sausage is a good replacement for Italian sausage if you can’t find it, 4) use four bell peppers instead of 3 since I had some left over filling, 5) don’t worry about broiling at the end if you can’t. I just popped my peppers in the oven without the cheese and then took them out, added the cheese, and cooked them for 5 more minutes.
This meal is cheap, delicious, and nutritious!
Absolutely delicious! I had to share with my neighbor they were so good. I made just a couple of changes, using italian style ground turkey, as well as halfing the salt added to the filling. It turned out great with these changes and I might even take a bit more of the salt out next time for good balance of flavors for my taste. Also, I did not watch the broiling closely and scorched the mozz the first time, but because the cheese was just on top, I was able to peel the cheese off and try again, just going straight for the broil instead of repeating the covered baking step. This turned out awesome. Will absolutely make these again, thank you Marsha!
I should also specify that I used Better than Boullion for the chicken broth, which has quite a bit of salt. That likely makes less added salt necessary!
Delicious! I will definitely make again. I only had half a pound of sausage (1 hot and 1 sweet sausage). Followed the rest of the recipe exactly and it turned out perfect. Thank you!
Made these last night. Used the portion size adjustment from 6 servings to 4. Worked great!
This is a great clear the fridge recipe. I had some Marinara sauce I needed to use up, pls one Italian sausage and some assorted veggies. And little bit of cheese.
Very tasty – thanks!
Hi! How do these freeze after cooking for an easy pre cooked meal or lunch?
Hi Heather! These will probably freeze well (all of the components are freezer friendly), but I don’t have reheating instructions as we haven’t tested it. :)
Surely by cutting the peppers in half, you’re throwing away halves of pepper?
Can I use chicken?
Are you really that brain dead? Please tell us you’re joking. They are being cut in half in order to stuff – hence the photos and there being 3 peppers and 6 servings. 🤦♀️
Obviously I am brain dead. I do apologise. Thank you for pointing it out to me.
Nope, you’re using both halves of the pepper. ;)
Thank you. Could the peppers not be cut long ways? 🫠
You can definitely cut them long ways, if you prefer. :) We tested both types of cuts and found that cutting them long ways made them more difficult to stand without tipping over and they didn’t fit in the dish as nicely.
Anyway to make this vegitarian?
You could sub beans for the sausage, but you’ll need to add a lot more spices to make up for what is in the sausage!
Just cut the peppers vertically then there isn’t a hole in the bottom of half of them!
We tested cutting it both ways and we felt that cutting them in half horizontally worked a lot better because they sit flat, fit in the casserole dish better, and create a deeper “cup.” :)
This recipe was good but I think there’s a mistake in the ingredients list. Currently, it says 3 bell peppers but 6 servings. In all of the photos there’s 6 bell peppers so I’m guessing it should say 6?
Nope, it was three. :) The bell peppers are cut in half horizontally (to make a top and bottom half) so each serving is a stuffed half pepper.
Delicious and easy recipe to follow! Makes plenty of food for leftovers.
I enjoyed this recipe.