Stuffed pepper casserole tastes like the stuffed peppers you grew up with, and you never have to hollow out and fill a single pepper. Every spoonful has ground beef, rice, tomato and pieces of red, yellow and green pepper, with browned cheddar-jack over the top.

I make the whole thing in one deep skillet, from browning the beef to browning the cheese, so there’s one pan to wash when dinner’s done.

close up shot of Stuffed Pepper Casserole in a skillet with a piece taken out with a wooden spoon

Read Before You Start

Use an oven-safe skillet with a tight-fitting lid for this stuffed pepper casserole.

While developing this recipe, I tried cooking the rice on the stovetop in the same 12-inch skillet the rest of the casserole was made in. After 25 minutes, far too much of it was still undercooked.

A skillet that wide doesn’t heat evenly over a burner. In the oven with the lid on, the heat is even across the whole pan and the rice cooks through.

Use The Peppers You Have

The peppers and onion carry most of the flavor in stuffed peppers, and that doesn’t change once they’re diced into a casserole.

I use one red, one yellow and one green pepper, because I love how pretty the three colors look together in the skillet. But any color or combination of colors will work as long as you end up with about three cups of diced peppers. Green peppers are usually the cheapest.

Dice the peppers and onion to about ½ inch. Smaller pieces get lost in the dish, and at ½ inch you can still see the pepper in every spoonful.

It’s a fair bit of chopping, so have the peppers, onion and garlic ready before the beef goes in, since they go into the skillet as soon as the beef is browned.

Recipe Test Notes: Keep The Stuffed Pepper Flavor

I use all ground beef in my stuffed pepper casserole. In March 2024, I had an independent recipe tester, Karen C, cook two versions of my stuffed pepper casserole: a version made with all beef and a version made with sausage and beef.

She found that the addition of sausage took the flavor closer to the taste of sausage and peppers, while the all-beef version tasted more like the stuffed peppers I wanted.

That comparison also helped me improve the filling in this final recipe. The recipe now has more peppers and onion, with tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce and Italian seasoning adding flavor to the beef and rice. I also use an entire 15-ounce can of crushed tomatoes. Along with the three tablespoons of tomato paste, it gives the rice plenty of tomato flavor as it cooks.

Brown The Beef And Drain It Only If It’s 80/20

Whether you drain the beef depends on how lean it is.

With lean beef, 90/10 or 93/7, I don’t drain the skillet at all, because the peppers and onion cook in that small amount of fat and they need it.

If you’re using 80/20, drain off all but about a tablespoon of fat before the peppers go in. Left in the skillet, that much grease ends up pooled in the pan and on the plate.

Bring It To A Boil, Then Finish The Rice In The Oven

Once the peppers are softened and the onion is translucent, stir in the tomato paste and Worcestershire, then the crushed tomatoes and broth.

Crushed tomatoes go straight in from the can, so there’s nothing to drain. Start with 1½ cups of broth and set the last ¼ cup aside. You’ll know at the 20-minute check whether the rice needs it.

The rice goes into the skillet uncooked. Measure it before rinsing, then rinse and drain it. It will cook in the broth and tomatoes as the casserole bakes.

I use long grain white rice, such as Mahatma, and rinsing takes off the extra starch so it cooks up light and fluffy. Brown rice, instant rice and cauliflower rice have not been tested in this version, so I would stick with long grain white rice for the amounts and timing given here.

When the liquid is boiling, stir in the rice so every grain is under the liquid, turn off the burner, put the lid on and move the skillet to the oven.

Check The Rice At 20 Minutes

At 20 minutes, take the lid off, give everything a stir and taste a spoonful of rice. It’s done when the rice is tender all the way through and most of the liquid has soaked in. Mine needed about five more minutes with the lid back on, and I didn’t need the extra broth.

Rice brands don’t all cook the same, though, and that’s what the ¼ cup is for.

Rice still firm, liquid still in the pan: put the lid back on and give it five to eight more minutes.
Rice still firm, pan looking dry: stir in the ¼ cup of broth first, then put the lid back on for five to eight minutes.

Broil The Cheese Until It Browns

Once the rice is tender, take the skillet out, turn the oven to broil and leave the lid off from here on.

I shred a whole 8-ounce block of cheddar-jack, which comes to about 2½ cups, and scatter all of it over the top. Cheddar-jack melts smoother than straight cheddar, and Colby-jack works just as well.

Stay close to the oven, because it’s only three to four minutes from melted cheese to lightly browned. Mine took four. Sprinkle a little parsley over the top and serve it right away.

Make It Ahead And Add The Rice Later

The beef and pepper mixture keeps for up to two days in the refrigerator or two months in the freezer, as long as the rice hasn’t gone in yet.

Rice left sitting in that liquid keeps soaking it up, so don’t add any rice until the day you want to serve it.

Cook it through the point where the crushed tomatoes and broth are stirred in, let it cool completely and store it in a lidded container, a freezer-safe one if it’s going in the freezer.

If the mixture is frozen, thaw it completely in the refrigerator. On the day, heat the oven to 350°F, bring the mixture back to a boil in the skillet and carry on from stirring in the rice.

Give Leftovers A Splash Of Liquid

Refrigerate cooked leftovers promptly in an airtight container and use them within three days. If the rice has soaked up most of the liquid by then, stir in two to three tablespoons of beef broth before you reheat it.

More Stuffed Pepper Recipes

Stuffed peppers are the whole-pepper version, with the beef and rice filling baked inside the peppers.
Stuffed pepper soup has the same beef, peppers, rice and tomato in a broth, made in one pot on the stovetop.
Chicken stuffed peppers use ground chicken, salsa and Colby-jack for a taco-style filling.
Sausage and peppers is the flavor this casserole moves away from, with Italian sausage, peppers and onions in one skillet.