While we mainly focus on baking and desserts, it’s fun to share dinner recipes every now and then—especially when we make one that REALLY hits the spot like this minestrone soup or this cilantro lime chicken. I’ve made these sausage stuffed peppers a handful of times, usually mixing up the type of sausage, cheese, herbs, and rice each time. I figured you’d enjoy trying a new dinner recipe, one that’s equally satisfying, flavorful, and comforting. My family has loved this dish!
Tell Me About These Sausage Stuffed Peppers
Flavor: Garlic! Herbs! Cheese! Sausage! Lots of flavor in each forkful. You can truly control the flavor by choosing your favorite sausage, herbs, and cheese. For herbs I recommend using fresh parsley, oregano, and basil but you can use dried or add others that you enjoy as well. Texture: If you avoided over-baking the peppers, they’ll be fork tender with a hot and hearty sausage filling. Ease: Though you need to pre-cook the filling, it’s a pretty straightforward process. I’d label this as an easy dinner recipe. Time: Set aside about 1 hour to complete this dish. It usually takes me awhile to perfectly slice off the tops/core out the peppers, but maybe you’re a little faster than I am! Prepping the filling takes at least 10-15 minutes. The peppers cook in about 40. As they cook, you can whip up a quick spring salad to serve alongside the heartier dish.
Overview of Key Ingredients
If you’re anything like me, your creativity shines in the kitchen. Feel free to make any substitutions that I list below. It’s easy to play around with different types of sausage, flavorful herbs, your favorite cheeses, and whatever rice you love most.
Bell Peppers: The best peppers for this recipe are large bell peppers with relatively even bottoms so they can stand up without toppling over. You can use any color. Sausage: We usually use Italian sausage, but you could use your favorite. It can be ground or as links, but be sure to remove the meat from casings so you can break it up as it cooks in step 3. How about chicken or turkey sausage? Those work too, but you’ll need to add them later in the recipe if they’re already cooked. See recipe note. Herbs: I recommend fresh oregano, parsley, and basil. Thyme or sage would be excellent with these flavors, too. You can use fresh or dried herbs as detailed in the written recipe below. Use a little extra for garnish, if desired. Chicken Broth: We need a little liquid to keep the filling moist and bound together. I usually use chicken broth, but the same amount of tomato sauce (just use your favorite) or even pesto works. Cheese: We use shredded cheese both in the filling and as a topping, too. Just use your favorite. Some great options for this recipe are parmesan, asiago (like in asiago-crusted skillet bread—so good!), cheddar, mozzarella, and/or pepper jack. You can use a blend of your favorite cheeses, too. Rice: Cook the rice before you get started with step 3 (the filling) below. Make sure that you measure the rice after it has been cooked. The amount of cooked rice that uncooked rice yields depends on the type, but it usually doubles in size. So cook about 3/4 cup of rice to yield the 1 and 1/2 cups needed for this recipe. Any of your favorite rice works such as white rice, brown rice, basmati rice, jasmine rice, wild rice, or even quinoa. We usually use a brown rice/quinoa blend.
Bake covered, then top with cheese and return it to the oven for 5 more minutes. It’s certainly difficult to make a lumpy brown filling look pretty, but I did my best!!! I think you’ll really love these. If you enjoy hearty baked dinners like this, try this chicken pot pie next—equally satisfying and flavorful!
More Satisfying Dinner Recipes to Try
Chicken Pot Pie or Turkey Pot Pie Crab Cakes Maryland style and loved by locals and out-of-towners! Black Bean Burgers Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup Homemade Stromboli Creamy Garlic Chicken Baked Chicken Meatballs Apple Cider Chicken Walnut Crusted Chicken
For more inspiration, see my list of 30 delicious fall dinner recipe ideas.
