Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers are hearty, flavorful, and wonderfully easy. Enjoy colorful peppers stuffed with a ground beef, rice, and tomato mixture!
If you’ve already tried our classic recipe for Stuffed Peppers, then you know what an easy, delicious, and satisfying Dinner Recipe it can be. What you might not have known is that Stuffed Peppers are a wonderfully slow cooker friendly recipe. Just prep the peppers at the beginning of the day and have Stuffed Bell Peppers ready when you get home.
SLOW COOKER STUFFED PEPPERS
Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers are sure to become one of your new favorite recipes. The rice and beef mixture is a delicious comfort food that’s packaged uniquely in delicious bell peppers. Stuffed Bell Peppers are also a beautiful meal great for a special occasion because they’re so colorful. You can use red bell peppers, green bell peppers, yellow bell peppers, or all three! They make a beautiful centerpiece for any dinner and are sure to impress.
The hearty meat stuffing makes these peppers filling enough, you really don’t have to worry about adding much else to the meal. However, if you want some equally easy sides to round out the dinner try Garlic Scalloped Potatoes, Sauteed Mushrooms, or Dinner Rolls.
Stuffed Bell Peppers make great weeknight dinner ideas because you can use a variety of ingredients to fill out the peppers. While this Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers recipe calls for marinara sauce, rice, ground beef, and Italian seasoning, you can always add in different veggies, switch out the meat or try a variety of different seasonings. You can find lots of variation ideas later in the post!
MORE PEPPER RECIPES
Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers
Tex-Mex Stuffed Peppers
BBQ Beef Stuffed Peppers
Mexican Stuffed Peppers
TIPS FOR MAKING EASY SLOW COOKER STUFFED PEPPERS
- Prep time: Start by preparing the bell peppers. Cut off the pepper tops and scoop out the seeds from 6 medium bell peppers, so they’re like little bowls.
- Sear: Sear the beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Break the meat apart as you cook so it can brown all over. Drain off the excess fat then add in the olive oil, onions, and garlic. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 5-7 minutes.
- Rice mixture: Add the rice, water, marinara sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to the beef mixture. Mix the ingredients together until well combined. Pack the mixture evenly into the bell peppers, then top it off with ½ parmesan cheese.
- Cooking time: Pour the beef broth into the bottom of your slow cooker, then place the bell peppers side by side in the slow cooker. Cover the crockpot and cook for 7-8 hours. Garnish with parmesan cheese and remove with tongs to serve.
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VARIATIONS ON SLOW COOKER STUFFED PEPPERS
- Rice: You can change the Slow Cooker Stuffed Bell Peppers recipe depending on what kind of rice you want to use. Instead of white rice, you can make some Brown Rice. With brown rice, you still want to use partially cooked rice. You could also change things up using uncooked quinoa, cauliflower rice, Spanish Rice, or long grain white rice.
- Meat mixture: Instead of using a beef mixture you can use ground turkey in the meat mixture to make turkey stuffed peppers. Another way to make Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers healthier is by still using beef but using lean ground beef.
- Vegetarian version: To make Stuffed Peppers vegetarian, use vegetable broth in place of the beef broth, and leave out the beef. You could add in some black beans or pinto beans to the mixture to add some protein and keep them filling even without the meat.
- Tomato sauce mixture: You can add some extra tomato paste or diced tomatoes to the recipe to give it some more tomato flavor. Another option is using a cup enchilada sauce and a cup salsa, instead of spaghetti sauce to make Tex Mex Stuffed Peppers.
- Seasonings: You can add a lot of flavor to the rice mixture with chili powder, garlic powder, paprika, fresh cilantro, and seasoned salt.
- Toppings: There are plenty of delicious cheeses you can top the Stuffed Peppers off with beside parmesan. Try Mozzarella Cheese, cheddar cheese, Mexican blend cheese, or pepper jack cheese. For more optional toppings try adding a dollop of sour cream, fresh chives, or bacon bits.
INSTANT POT STUFFED PEPPERS
You can decrease the cooking time by making Instant Pot Stuffed Peppers.
- To make Instant Pot Stuffed Peppers, prep the ingredients and stuff the peppers the exact same way you do for Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers.
- Place the prepared stuffed peppers in the instant pot.
- Seal the lid and pressure cook for 9 minutes.
- After 9 minutes do a quick pressure release. Once the pressure has completely released you can open the lid.
- To make sure the beef is done cooking use an instant-read thermometer. If the temperature isn’t at least 160°, put the lid on again and check after about 3 minutes.
- Sprinkle cheese over the top of the Instant Pot Stuffed Peppers and remove with tongs to serve.
MORE FAVORITE SLOW COOKER DISHES
Ultimate Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes
Slow Cooker Green Bean Casserole
Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese
Slow Cooker Chicken and Gravy
HOW TO STORE SLOW COOKER STUFFED PEPPERS
- Serve: You shouldn’t leave stuffed, delicious bell peppers at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
- Store: To store Crockpot Stuffed Peppers, let them first cool to room temperature. Put Them in an airtight container or freezer bag. To make sure the filling doesn’t fall out, you can wrap the bell peppers tightly in tin foil before putting it in the container to store in the fridge. The Stuffed Peppers will stay good in the fridge for 4 days.
- Freeze: You can also freeze the peppers for up to 3 months.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef 85/15
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 yellow onion , finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 1/2 cups instant white rice , or half-cooked plain white rice
- 1 cup water
- 2 cups tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 2 cups beef broth
- 6 bell peppers , cut in half through the stem and cleaned
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese , grated or shredded
Instructions
- Add beef to a large skillet on medium-high heat, breaking it apart as it cooks.
- Drain excess fat after the beef is browned.
- Add in the olive oil, onions, and garlic, reduce heat to medium, cooking for 5-7 minutes.
- Add in the rice, water, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, kosher salt, black pepper, and Italian seasoning along with the ground beef back into the pan and mix it all together.
- Scoop the mixture into the bell peppers, packing it down slightly.
- Top with ½ the Parmesan Cheese.
- Pour beef broth into the bottom of your slow cooker and place bell peppers in the pot carefully.
- Cook on low for 7-8 hours.
- Garnish with remaining Parmesan cheese before serving.
Nutrition
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I’m confused… The pictures show 6 stuffed pepper ‘halves’-but the recipe calls for 6 bell peppers?
I hope to hear from you because I really want to make these!
Sorry for the delayed response. You’re right the pan used 3 peppers cut in half and we used another pan for the other 3! Sorry for the confusion.