Mexican Stuffed Peppers are an easy dinner made with ground beef, rice, salsa, and cheese. Perfect for meal prepping. Try these today!
These Mexican-inspired Stuffed Peppers combine a staple comfort food with classic ingredients in Hispanic cuisine! They are quick, delicious, and perfect for a family Dinner any night of the week! For more fun twists on stuffed peppers, check out my popular Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers and Korean Beef Stuffed Peppers recipes!
Table of contents
Sabrina’s Mexican Stuffed Peppers Recipe
There are so many different ways you can cook stuffed peppers for a tasty meal! My family loves the flavors in these Mexican Stuffed Peppers as much as they love the original Italian version. The blend of Mexican food flavors in the beefy filling, like taco seasoning and salsa, go great with bell peppers. And who doesn’t love gooey, melty cheese? These are so easy to prepare and get even better served with classic taco toppings. It’s sure to be a new family favorite meal in your home!
Ingredients
- 1 Pound Lean Ground Beef: This is the base filling for the dish. You can use lean or regular ground beef.
- 1 Cup Cooked Rice: Rice helped to bulk up the filling making it perfect to feed a crowd. It takes about 20 minutes to cook rice so you can use leftover rice in this dish or make fresh rice. Use long-grain white rice, wild rice, or brown rice, whichever you prefer.
- 2 Tablespoons Taco Seasoning: This brings authentic flavors to the peppers and can be a store-bought blend or Homemade Taco Seasoning for even better flavor!
- 2 Cups Salsa: Salsa adds veggies and flavor to the dish and helps keep the peppers juicy. You can use your favorite salsa or make your own Homemade Red Salsa with fresh tomato!
- ½ Teaspoon Kosher Salt: Salt helps bring out the flavors. You can substitute with sea salt or table salt if needed, keeping in mind that table salt is finer and so there is more by volume. Use less table salt if you prefer less saltiness.
- ½ Teaspoon Coarsely Ground Black Pepper: Black pepper adds a nice subtle flavor with freshly ground black pepper having the best taste.
- 3 Bell Peppers: I used yellow bell peppers but you can use red bell pepper, green bell peppers, or a blend of all three colored bell peppers. I like the slightly sweet flavor profile of the yellow peppers with the spiced beefy filling.
- 8 Ounces Shredded Cheddar Cheese: This will be the rich crown of cheesy flavor for the meal. You can substitute it with Monterey Jack or a Mexican cheese blend.
How to Make
Time needed: 1 hour and 15 minutes
- Preheat the Oven and Brown the Beef
Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat or medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook until it develops a deep brown crust, only then should you stir. Stir with a wooden spoon occasionally until the meat is brown evenly, then drain any excess fat. You can strain and reserve the beef tallow for cooking at a later time.
- Season and Mix
To make the seasoned ground beef just stir in the taco seasoning. Add the cooked rice and half of the salsa. Mix well.
- Stuff the Peppers
Carefully fill each bell pepper half with the ground meat and rice mixture. Top evenly with the remaining salsa and half of the shredded cheese.
- Bake Covered
Place the stuffed peppers in an oven-safe baking dish like a casserole dish and cover the dish with aluminum foil to help steam and cook the peppers thoroughly. Bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes.
- Add Cheese and Melt
Remove the baking dish and take off the foil. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the peppers and return them to the oven to melt uncovered for about 5 minutes until cheese is melted. Garnish with fresh cilantro or green onion and serve when ready. Enjoy!
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 2 tablespoons taco seasoning , (one packet) or 2-3 tablespoons homemade
- 1 cup rice , cooked
- 2 cups salsa , divided
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon course ground black pepper
- 3 bell peppers , split in half through the stem, and de-seeded
- 8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese , divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Add the ground beef to a large cast iron skillet (cast iron browns meat very well) and brown until a deep brown crust appears before breaking the beef apart.
- Stir the ground beef and brown until a deep crust appears on about 50 percent of the beef, or so.
- Let brown for 1-2 minutes before stirring, then let brown for another 1-2 minutes before stirring again.
- Drain the fat, add the taco seasoning and stir.
- Add in the cooked rice and half the salsa. Stir.
- Scoop the mixture into the bell pepper halves and top with the remaining salsa and half the cheese.
- Bake for 45 minutes in a covered pan.
- Uncover, top with remaining cheese and put back in the oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese.
Notes
Nutrition
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Chef’s Note: Partially Cooking Peppers
You don’t need to partially cook the peppers before stuffing them with my recipe. I cook the stuffed peppers for about 45 minutes and they come out fork tender, but still a little bit of firmness. If you prefer to cook the peppers a bit before stuffing them, pop them in the microwave for about 5 minutes then reduce the overall baking time to 20-25 minutes.
Can This Be Made Ahead?
Yes! These are perfect to make a day in advance and keep covered in the fridge. If uncooked, bake according to directions. If already cooked, just heat up in the oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until they are fully heated through. These are also great for making in bulk, cooling, and then freezing for meal prepping or an easy weeknight meal in the future.
Nutritional Facts
How to Serve Stuffed Peppers
- Toppings: These delicious peppers taste even more amazing with your favorite taco toppings like sour cream, Guacamole, diced onions, cilantro, shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes. You can also add even more Salsa!
- Sides: These beefy peppers are pretty hearty but they would taste great with a side of veggies or salad. You can double the seasoned ground beef mixture (before adding the rice) and make Taco Salad for the side.
How to Store
- Storing: Store the peppers within two hours of baking. Transfer cooled stuffed peppers to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
- Reheating Tips: Reheat in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. For faster results, microwave in 30-second intervals covered with a damp paper towel until heated through.
- Freezing: To store these in the freezer, wrap the cooled peppers in plastic wrap or foil, then place them in a freezer-safe bag. Freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
Tex-Mex vs Mexican Stuffed Peppers
If you’ve been a reader on my site for a while, you know that I also have a recipe for Tex-Mex Stuffed Peppers. There are a couple small differences between my Tex-Mex peppers and these Mexican Peppers. First off, I add corn and black beans to my Tex-Mex Bell Peppers. Also those are baked with enchilada sauce where this recipe just uses salsa for the sauce.
Frequent Questions
Add all the ingredients as you would below, but I suggest cutting the tops off the peppers and stuffing from the top of the pepper. Cook on low for 4 hours.
Of course! You can easily substitute with equal parts of ground chicken, ground pork, or ground turkey. The flavors will be different but everything else in the recipe remains the same.
No, water is not needed, just the seasoning.
No, the sauce seen in the pictures is from the peppers cooking down; no additional sauce is necessary.
Cut the baking time in half if you microwave the peppers first.
Variations
- Vegetarian Mexican Stuffed Peppers: Follow the recipe according to the instructions, just replace the beef with a 3-cup mixture of black beans, frozen corn, and diced tomatoes and two cloves garlic, minced. If you have canned versions of these, drain and then mix 1 can of each together. You can also add extra veggies like zucchini or mushrooms, about a half cup of each. You can substitute the rice for cauliflower rice. Baking time will be about 30-35 minutes, but check to make sure that the veggie filling is heated through before serving.
- Spicy Mexican Stuffed Peppers: Add freshly diced jalapenos or a small can of chopped chipotle pepper in adobo sauce to the beef mixture to make it spicy. You can even use a spicy salsa and pepper Jack cheese. Just make sure everyone likes it spicy! Have sour cream on the side just in case anyone is surprised! Serve with Spicy Mexican Cornbread for a complete meal.
More Tasty Stuffed Peppers Recipes
Photos used in previous versions of this post.
Used frozen green bell peppers out of our garden,cooked as directed,turned out great!
I just made this tonight it was nothing short of amazing!!! Thank you
These were awesome! Made them with poblano peppers and venison. Used my homemade red & salsa verde and topped them with homemade enchilada sauce. Thanks for the idea!
You’re welcome, April.
Most Excellent!!!
This has become one of my top 5 cooking blogs. You are amazing.
Yummmm
I added some leftover refried beans and some pepper cheese!
So good! Thanks
Thanks for the 5 stars, Lori.
Looks like you have sauce In the bottom of ur pan. You don’t put any sauce on the bottom so the peppers don’t stick? I’m confused
The sauce you see is just from them cooking down. I didn’t add any sauce to the bottom of the pan and didn’t have an issue with them sticking. I hope you enjoy them!
I love Mexican food, and this recipe is incredibly wonderful. I’ll be making these on a regular basis…even through the winter. My guess is that they will freeze well. I will soon find out.
It looks like this makes 3 whole peppers. For 6 whole peppers I would double the recipe?
Yes 🙂
First time making stuffed peppers after 36 years of marriage. Husband loved it ! Just added some onion and corn to the meat/rice mixture. Thanks.
There’s a first time for everything! Glad it went so well!!
This is great! I had mini peppers that I wanted to use up, so instead of stuffing them, I simply layered them on the bottom of the casserole and then layered the meat mixture, salsa and cheese on top.
Fantastic idea!
Just made this for dinner. Great recipe! We all loved it! Thanks you
You’re welcome, Jody. Thanks for coming back to let me know how much you enjoyed it.
Very good. I added sour , fire sauce, and crushed fruits on top after cool down. Simply delicious.
Question, if you are microwaving the peppers first, how long do they have to bake in the oven?
You’ll want to cut the cooking time in half if you microwave the peppers first. Enjoy!
I made this recipe tonight and it was awesomely delicious! It was easy to make and I used fresh green peppers from the garden, which is always a plus, and used the microwave method to speed up the baking process (cause I was impatiently anxious to try them!). My granddaughter,11, refused to try them for dinner(she’s picky!), then tried a bite when no one was peeking ,loved them and ended up eating a whole stuffed pepper!!! This is definitely my kind of recipe-easy and delicious! Thank you so much!
I’d definitley call that a success!!
Wow..my family loved these stuffed peppers. It’s fast, and easy. I loved the idea of microwaveing the peppers first. It indeed speeded up the process and supper was served and all enjoyed
I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it! Thanks for he 5 stars and for coming back to let me know!
These look amazing but one question… you cook the peppers in the microwave and again in the oven? I just want to be sure of this. Thank you!
That’s my method of choice. So easy. 🙂
Thank you I will be trying them tonight
Wow! These were super easy to prepare and absolutely delicious!! I used ground chicken and brown rice cuz I need to shed a few pounds. I added 2 tablespoons of water with the taco seasoning because the chicken is a little drier than ground beef. I will be making again and again. Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to let me know!
Hi- if you cook in microwave for 4-5 mins, then you only bake them for about 20 mins in the oven or do you still bake for 45 mins?
Yes, if you microwave the peppers first you’ll only need to bake them for around 20 minutes in the one. Enjoy!
Have you (or anyone) tried cooking this and freezing and baking. I work two nights a week and so we try and meal prep as much as possible to make it easier. Thanks in advance!
I would suggest making the filing and freezing that portion. When ready to make, cut up fresh peppers and finish the recipe that way. Hope this helps with meal prepping.
Sabrina, my family loved this stuffed peppers! My son who does not care for bell peppers ate 2 halves at one sitting! I used cooked brown rice and no one is wiser?Thank you for sharing this yummy recipe!
You made my day! Anytime I can get the little ones to enjoy something I feel like I have won the lottery!
These would be SUCH a big hit in my house!
I love when everyone in the family enjoys a dish! Enjoy!!
OMG the cheesiness has me swooning! So epic!
Thanks Jenn!
These are calling my name! The best comfort food!
Loving this Mexican twist on traditional stuffed peppers! 🙂
Thanks Carrie!
These look great! I bet my husband would love them!
This is a great recipe for dinner!
Thank you! I hope you enjoy them!!
So do you add water with the taco seasoning or no?
No water is needed, just the seasoning. Enjoy!
These peppers look amazing! Going on our dinner rotation next week 🙂
Enjoy!