Southern Stuffed Bell Peppers
Servings 14 1/2 bell pepper
Calories 348kcal
Ingredients
- 14 bell peppers various colors
- 2 lbs beef ground meat browned and drained
- 1/2 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
- 2 medium onions diced
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp cajun seasoning blend
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp ground mustard
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 4 cups cooked rice (1 ¼ cups uncooked)
- 1 ½ cups beef broth, divided
- Italian bread crumbs for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°
- After rinsing, cut bell peppers lengthwise and remove seeds and as much of the rib as possible.
- Set pepper halves in a roaster on a roasting rack with a small amount of water. Cover with foil and place in preheated oven for approximately 15 minutes or until slightly tender.
- Remove steamed peppers, pouring out any liquid that has accumulated in the cavity of the pepper and set aside to cool for handling.
- In a large dutch oven, brown ground meat then strain.
- In the same dutch oven, heat olive oil then add diced onions and celery and cook until soft. If onions start to stick, add a splash of beef broth.
- Once veggies are tender, return the browned meat to dutch oven and add all seasonings with the exception of the beef broth.
- Stir in 1 cup of beef broth and reserve the rest to use as needed.
- Cook meat mixture for 10 minutes to allow flavors to blend.
- Adding one cup of cooked rice at a time, stir until well incorporated until you reach desired rice to meat ratio.
- Add a little beef broth if needed and heat rice/meat mixture on low for 5 minutes.
- Carefully spoon mixture into pepper cavities and place peppers in a roasting pan.
- Bake stuffed peppers in preheated oven, uncovered for 10 minutes.
- Remove peppers from the oven, sprinkle tops with bread crumbs then return to the oven under the broiler setting for 3-5 minutes. Every oven can be different, watch this step carefully.