Lesya The stuffed pepper recipe is one of those dishes that works for any gathering, whether it’s a laid-back family dinner or a big party. This delicious dish always brings a fantastic mix of flavors and looks so pretty. There is no doubt that everyone, from your family to your friends, is going to love it. It’s just one of those dishes where every bite melts in your mouth, and you can’t help but enjoy every moment of this experience.
For best results, choose red, yellow, and orange fresh peppers; for an even more visually appealing presentation, use peppers of various colors. The bright red and yellow peppers not only look great but are also juicy and sweet, pairing perfectly well with the savory filling of ground meat and rice. While green peppers are an option, too, if you prefer, they don’t seem to have the same sweet notes that add such a lovely flavor to the dish.
We added a video for you that illustrates the cooking process, please check it out too!
How to make stuffed peppers:
- Begin by prepping the peppers: Slice off the tops and carefully remove seeds, ensuring the peppers are ready to be stuffed.
- Rinse the rice and soak it for about 5 minutes to eliminate excess starch. This step is crucial for those who prefer to avoid starchy foods. In this recipe, we use only a tiny amount of rice. You can substitute rice with vegetables like mushrooms or zucchini if you choose to omit rice. However, it’s worth noting that rice plays a significant role in the traditional Ukrainian recipe for stuffed peppers, adding a unique flavor and texture.
- Put rice in cold water in a pot, bring it to a boil for roughly 5 minutes until it’s just beginning to soften, then drain the rice. Here’s a handy tip: by cooking the rice beforehand, we achieve a well-balanced rice-to-meat combination. If you add raw rice, you don’t know how it will expand inside the peppers.
- While the rice is cooking, put the ground meat ( we used chicken) in a bowl, season it with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and mash it well with a fork to ensure it’s nicely blended.
- Heat a skillet and cook the seasoned meat for about 10 minutes until it’s cooked. This is also an important step — we like to play it safe and ensure the meat is fully cooked before stuffing our peppers. Also, when you fry it with spices, the spices will open their flavors, which will help achieve a more delicious taste.
- To add extra flavor to the filling, chop up an onion and fry it until it turns golden brown. Now, it is time to combine everything — the cooked chicken, the fried onions, and the partially cooked rice.
- Using a spoon, carefully stuff each pepper with the flavorful mixture. Arrange the stuffed peppers carefully in a casserole dish or a large pot; it is better to stand them upright so the filling doesn’t fall out.
- Then, add some water to the bottom of the pot and top the peppers with sauce. If you’re curious about what kind of sauce to use, check out the one that we recommend for this recipe. For this sauce, we use sour cream and ketchup in equal proportions and grated mushrooms. Once everything is ready, cover the dish and let it simmer for about 40 minutes or until the peppers become fork-tender. Enjoy!
Savoury Stuffed Peppers for Every Occasion
Equipment
- 1 large pot or casserole dish
- 1 small pot
- 1 strainer
- 1 Skillet
- 1 Chef's knife
- 2 bowls
- 1 Cutting board
Ingredients
- 6 sweet peppers
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 3 tbsp white rice
- 1 white onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 20 g butter
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil for frying
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp dry parsley
- 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- salt to taste
- bay leaves (optional)
Instructions
- Rinse the rice and soak it for about 5 minutes to eliminate any excess starch.
- In a small pot, bring the rice to a boil for roughly 5 minutes, until it's just beginning to soften. Once the rice is cooked, drain it and put aside.
- Wash all peppers and slice off the tops. Carefully remove the seeds from inside, ensuring the peppers are ready to be stuffed.
- Chop finely onion and garlic. Add a table spoon of vegetable oil to the preheated skillet and fry the chopped onions and garlic until golden brown. Set aside.
- Put the ground chicken in a bowl, season it with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then mash it well with a fork to ensure it's nicely blended.
- Heat a skillet, add a table spoon of vegetable oil, reduce the heat to medium, and cook the seasoned meat for about 10 minutes until it's cooked through. Add ground coriander while cooking.
- Mix the cooked meat with the drained rice and fried onion and garlic. Now your filling is ready.
- Stuff the peppers with this filling.
- Melt butter in a large pot or casserole dish. Stand stuffed peppers upright. Add 1 cup of boiled hot water and top your peppers with sauce.
- Cook over medium heat for about 40 minutes or until the peppers are fork-tender.
- Serve hot or warm. Enjoy!
How to prepare the sauce for cooking stuffed peppers?
To make the sauce for cooking stuffed peppers, use sour cream, ketchup, tomato paste, and mushrooms. Our peppers for this recipe are sweet, so you don’t need to bring in another sweet ingredient, such as carrots. On the contrary, the taste will improve if you add sour cream and tomato paste, which is also sweet-sour to the combination of flavors.
Ingredients:
3 tbsp sour cream
3 tbsp ketchup or tomato paste
3 brown mushrooms
Instructions:
Grate mushrooms, put them in a bowl, and add sour cream, tomato paste, or ketchup. Mix well, and season with finely chopped fresh cilantro or parsley. You can add black pepper to the mixture.
What type of meat tastes better in this recipe?
For this recipe, we like to use ground chicken or turkey. You can experiment with ground beef. However, beef lacks the softness of the chicken and has a more pungent taste. If you like pork, ground pork will be another option. You can use any meat; just keep in mind that the key to success is juiciness of the stuffing.
How to make a vegetarian version of this recipe?
This recipe can easily be converted into a vegetarian version of stuffed peppers if you replace meat with mushrooms. Grate them or chop them up finely, then saute for about 5 minutes and combine with rice and other vegetables and spices as described in our recipe. You can add fried zucchini or eggplants to the stuffing, too; they will equally complement the taste of the dish.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, this recipe for stuffed sweet peppers is a delicious meal that’s perfect for any season. You can easily substitute meat with mushrooms if you prefer vegetarian dishes. We give several tips that should improve the taste and the quality of this dish. Also, we invite our readers to check out our video on YouTube that illustrates the cooking process in all details. Thank you for visiting our recipes! Please share your thoughts with other readers and us. Happy cooking!
