Mexican Stuffed Peppers

by Sabrina Snyder

Last Update:

50 Comments

5 from 8 votes
6 Servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Jump to FAQsJump to Recipe
Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.

Mexican Stuffed Peppers are an easy dinner made with delicious and familiar Mexican flavors- perfect for meal prep or enjoying freshly made!

These Mexican-inspired stuffed peppers combine a staple comfort food with classic ingredients in Hispanic cuisine! For more fun twists on stuffed peppers, check out my popular Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers and Korean Beef Stuffed Peppers recipes!

Cheesy Stuffed Pepper
Stuffed Pepper with green topping

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 Stuffed Peppers. 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!

Recipe Card

Dinner, then Dessert

Mexican Stuffed Peppers Recipe

Mexican Stuffed Peppers are an easy dinner made with delicious and familiar Mexican flavors- perfect for meal prep or enjoying freshly made!
Yield 6 Servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Cheesy Stuffed Pepper
PrintRate

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

Note: Serving size is 1 stuffed pepper half for 6 servings total.

Nutrition

Calories: 394kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 89mg | Sodium: 1129mg | Potassium: 613mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 2737IU | Vitamin C: 78mg | Calcium: 311mg | Iron: 2mg

Want to save this recipe? Create a free account to easily save your favorite recipes

Pin this recipe now to remember it later

Pin Recipe

Note from Sabrina

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.

Table of contents

Back to Table of Contents

About this Recipe

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.

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 helps 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.

Can this be made ahead of time?

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.

Pairing Suggestions

  • 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.

Frequent Questions

Can I make these stuffed peppers in the slow cooker?

Yes, 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.

Can I use a different type of meat for this recipe?

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.

Do you need to add water with the taco seasoning?

No, water is not needed, just the seasoning.

Is there a need to put sauce at the bottom of the pan?

No, the sauce seen in the pictures is from the peppers cooking down; no additional sauce is necessary.

How do I adjust the baking time if I microwave the peppers first?

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 Pepper Recipes

Cheesy stuffed peppers collage

Photos used in previous versions of this post.

Stuffed peppers in a pan
Two stuffed peppers shown in a baking dish
Cheesy stuffed peppers close up
two image collage of stuffed bell peppers

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

Categories

Leave a comment & rating

Have you checked the FAQ section above to see if your question has already been answered? View previous questions.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Maximum file size: 10 MB.
Allowed formats: JPG, JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF. Drop images here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comments

  3. 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!

    Reply

  5. 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

    Reply

    1. 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!

      Reply

  6. 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.

    Reply

  8. 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.

    Reply

  9. 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.

    Reply

  13. 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!

    Reply

  14. 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 

    Reply

  15. 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!

    Reply

        1. 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!

          Reply

      2. 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?

        Reply

        1. Yes, if you microwave the peppers first you’ll only need to bake them for around 20 minutes in the one. Enjoy!

          Reply

  16. 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!

    Reply

    1. 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.

      Reply

  17. 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!

    Reply