An Easy Stuffed Peppers Recipe. Soft flavorful Stuffed Bell Peppers with the most delicious beef rice filling, cooked in a cream sauce.
Parboil rice: Rinse 3/4 cups rice under cold water. In a medium saucepot combine rice and 3/4 cup chicken broth or water, cover with a lid and cook over low heat until all water is evaporated (~10-15 min). Once all liquid is evaporated, fluff up with a fork and allow to cool.
Grind meat: If you grind your own meat, do this while the rice is cooking.
Rinse 4 to 6 medium peppers, scrubbing well around the stem with a brush. With a knife, cut off the top, then remove the membrane and any seeds from inside the pepper. Discard everything but the pepper and the trimmed off top.
Dice the reserved pepper tops for the filling. Set aside.
Tip: when picking peppers always note that green peppers will be more bitter and red peppers will be sweeter. I stay away from green peppers.
Peel & dice 1/2 cups onion. Peel & grate 1/2 cup carrots. Dice 1/2 cup tomatoes. Chop 1/4 cup scallions & 1/4 cup parsley. Peel & press 3 garlic.
Add oil to the pan and set it over high heat. Once the oil is hot, add diced onions and brown them. Add carrots, stir the mixture and cook it for 5 more minutes, stirring often. Add tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic and the hot sauce (optional), sautee and allow to cook for about 10 minutes allowing the moisture to evaporate. Let the mixture cool.
Once both the rice & the vegetable mixture is cool, add them to a large bowl and stir everything together to combine (mixer comes in really handy here).
Add 1/2 lb ground beef and 1/2 lb groud chicken & stir to distribute the meat evenly throughout. Add 1/4 cup scallions, 1/4 cup parsley, 1 tsp ground black pepper & 1 Tbsp kosher salt and stir everything once again. To check the mixture for salt, take a teaspoon of mixture and fry it in a hot pan for a minute or two until cooked. Taste it, add more seasoning according to your taste.
Fill peppers with the prepared mixture, making the peppers full but not packing the filling tightly. The rice will further expand during cooking.
Put the filled peppers into a baking dish that is at least as tall as your peppers. Ideally you would want to have a Dutch oven or a baking dish that is at least 2-3 inches taller than the peppers. Mine was a 12 inch round cake pan, not perfect but did fine. If using a shallow pan like mine, make sure to put it onto a rimmed baking pan when in the oven.
Combine 1 1/2 cups chicken broth, then add 1/2[/adjustable] cup heavy cream. Taste the mixture and make sure it’s seasoned to taste. Depending on your baking dish and the size of your peppers you will need more or less. Try to keep the 3:1 ratio of broth to cream. The liquid should come 3/4 up the height of the pepper. This mixture is the secret to flavorful pepper, instead of unseasoned, flavorless rubber pepper.
Pour the broth-cream mixture around the peppers, then add the bay leaves.
Cover with aluminum foil (or lid) and seal against edges. If using a shallow cooking pan place it onto a jelly roll pan first to catch any dripping. Place in the preheated to 425F oven and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to 350F and cook for another 30-50 minutes or until the peppers are soft and the rice is cooked through all the way in the middle.
When the peppers are cooked, remove them to a serving dish and pour a spoon or two of the cooking liquid on top, then top with some grated cheese or a dollop of sour cream.
Note 1:
Using leaner than indicated meat will produce tougher filling.
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