Tex-Mex Stuffed Peppers made with ground beef, corn, beans, salsa and enchilada sauce is an easy weeknight meal or even a secret leftover favorite!
We LOVE Stuffed Peppers because they’re easily portioned, quick to reheat and kids actually enjoy eating them! Tell me when else you can convince your kid to eat half a bell pepper! Plus we get to use my favorite Homemade Enchilada Sauce that I make in giant batches and freeze.
Tex-Mex Stuffed Peppers
Tex-Mex Stuffed Peppers may cause you to send me an email thanking me for your favorite work lunch EVER. They’re so easy to make in bulk (I triple the recipe and bake them off at once then freeze in individual servings) and they heat perfectly. You will sit down to a filling, delicious lunch that would make all your coworkers who went to Chipotle jealous.
This recipe can also be a second round meal. Did you make Taco Tuesday at home? Maybe you have ground beef and rice? All you need to add is a some frozen corn and black beans to the mixture with just a few ingredients for a whole different meal!
Tex-Mex Stuffed Pepper Meal Prep:
To have the best work lunch ever place one or two of these cooked stuffed peppers in a glass microwavable tupperware (I LOVE these and use them for clients). Scoop as much sour cream as you’d like into a small ziploc bag, add 2 lime wedges and a couple of packets of hot sauce to the container.
When heating remove the lime, sour cream and hot sauce from the container and add a couple of tablespoons of water to the tupperware and cover with a wet paper towel before microwaving for 2-3 minutes. Snip the end off the sour cream ziploc and squeeze it over the peppers, squirt with the lime and top with hot sauce as desired.
Your coworkers will ask you to make lunch for them too. Trust me in my previous life before being a chef I ran a small catering service for coworkers for a few months when they got jealous of my lunches.
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HOW DO YOU COOK STUFFED PEPPERS?
- In the Microwave: This trick will cut down on cooking time if you don’t have to cook rice in the peppers. Clean and cut them, then cover them with a wet paper towel on a plate and cook for 4-5 minutes while preparing the stuffing. You just cut your cooking time in half.
- In the Oven: Depending on the filling, you’ll want to cook the peppers for at least 30 minutes. Keeping the bell peppers covered and including a bit of liquid in the filling or in the pan will help cook the bell peppers faster by creating steam.
- Parboiling: If you have a pot of water going drop the bell peppers in it for 3-4 minutes to cook them halfway before stuffing them. This leeches vitamins so I don’t normally do this.
- On the Stovetop: The primary thing here is to keep liquid in the pot and to keep it covered to help steam the bell peppers. Depending on the filling you could even be done in 15-20 minutes with the direct heat of a stovetop.
- In the Slow Cooker: 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.
Other Swaps you can make for these Stuffed Peppers:
- Use ground chicken, pork or turkey in place of ground beef. Just add a bit of fat to the pan to make up for less fat in the meat.
- Use other vegetables – I’ve used any extra vegetables I may have in the fridge that are nearing the end of usefulness, even including grape tomatoes. Just season them well with the taco seasoning.
- Instead of using enchilada sauce use additional salsa for a less spicy option.
- Mix up the cheese – a nice cotija, jack or pepper jack would also be delicious.
If you like these stuffed peppers you may want to check out these amazing Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers too, they’re amazing.
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 3 tablespoons taco seasoning or one packet + 1 teaspoon chili powder and 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 cup rice cooked
- 1 cup salsa
- 1 cup corn
- 1 cup black beans
- 4 bell peppers split in half and de-seeded through the stem
- 1 cup enchilada sauce
- 8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Add the ground beef to a large cast iron skillet (this browns very well) and brown until a deep brown crust appears before breaking the beef apart and cooking for 5-6 minutes.
- Add in the taco seasoning, rice, salsa, corn and black beans stirring well.
- Scoop the mixture into the bell pepper halves and top with enchilada sauce 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.
Nutrition
I’ve made this 4 or 5 times. I use ground turkey instead of beef. Since it’s just my husband and I, I freeze the leftover filling, and it’s just as good the second time around. We eat with a side of chips and salsa. Delicious, thank you.
Thank you for the feedback Diane and thank you for the five star review!
Great recipe! Have made this multiple times. So yummy.
Sabrina – every recipe I make that you post is delicious!!! You’re a excellent cook
This recipe is absolutely fantastic, the only change I made, was using Ancho Chili powder because that is all I had available at the time. Very easy recipe that takes little time to create amazing.
Is nutrition 306 calories per pepper?
I’d like to know this as well
Yes, per serving. 1/2 pepper, stuffed.
I love how you give tips of how to make your recipes better. They are so helpful!! And every recipe that I have made, has always been good! Thank you!!
I’m glad you find it helpful, Ranae.
What type of rice would you recommend?
I used basmati but because it’s cooked rice that you’re adding, you can use whatever you prefer.
this recipe looks amazing! can you premake the stuffing the night before, and fill the peppers the next night for dinner?
I wouldn’t recommend that. By the time the peppers cook through, you risk dry meat from going from cooked to chill to cooked, and mushy rice from sitting in the sauces all night.
You indicated that these could be made in a crock pot. However in the instructions you did not indicate how long they would have to be in the Crock-Pot or if there’s any way that you would prepare them differently than if you were preparing them in the oven. Just wondered what the difference would be and how you would prepare them
That’s a good question, it’s been asked before. You can check out the slow cooker instructions in the post.
So Good, I made this last night and followed the recipe as written. It was full of flavor and my entire family loved it! I had a ton of filling left over so next time I will cut it in half.
So glad you all enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to let me know.
I made these this past week with ground chicken and also had extra filling. I used the extra filling to make stuffed zucchini and it was another hit! Thanks for the recipe!!
You’re welcome, Donna! So glad you enjoyed it!
This looks really good! I would love to try this!
Thanks Erin!
I don’t usually love stuffed peppers but I bet I’d love them if they had a yummy Tex Mex flavor!
The flavor is a fun twist on a classic! Enjoy!!
So many delicious flavors all packed into a pepper. YUM!
I am not a pepper girl, but I do love the insides! My husband loves it all, so I just make extra filling for me!
Sounds like a great compromise!