These tender, charred chorizo-stuffed peppers with a creamy, spicy filling are the stuffed peppers that made me realize I like stuffed peppers. What’s more fun than serving food inside of more food??
It’s funny that my first post on this blog should be for chorizo-stuffed peppers, because I seem to have been the rare Midwesterner that didn’t grow up eating stuffed peppers at all. But at some point, it dawned on me that they would be a great way to pack all the food groups into a lower-carb meal. However, I had qualms:
- I had no desire to eat through a semi-crunchy bell pepper or roast the peppers before I could even stuff them.
- The commonly used ground beef + tomato sauce filling sounded kind of boring, like a less interesting version of a meaty pasta sauce. Except served on something less tasty than pasta (sorry, bell peppers).
The first recipe I tried exceeded my expectations, but it wasn’t anything to get too excited about. Then, I made this salsa from Serious Eats that involved broiling veggies to soften and char them quickly, and a lightbulb went off. I tried it with the peppers, and it worked like a charm. For the filling, I swapped out the ground beef for Mexican chorizo, added juicy fire-roasted tomatoes, and stirred in cream cheese for a tangy finish.
Arguably the best thing about these stuffed peppers is that they’re a complete meal on their own, but if you want a little something more on your plate, you can serve them with charred mixed vegetables, chips and salsa/guacamole, or a green salad with a lime dressing (like this one from Love and Lemons).
What to Know
- Peppers: Use any color bell peppers you want! Pick the largest ones you can find for hearty stuffed peppers, but smaller ones will work just as well. If using smaller peppers (about the size of your fist), I recommend buying a couple extra to use up the filling.
- Mexican chorizo: This is a fresh (raw) sausage made with chiles and other spices like paprika and oregano. It should be available near the ground meats at most large grocery stores. Keep in mind that it can be pretty spicy. If you can’t find Mexican chorizo or want to keep the spice level down, this recipe also works with ground beef or pork; see the recipe note for adjustments.
- To cut down the prep, I like to use microwavable rice cups (like these).
Tip of the Day: Just Add Water…But Actually, Do It
If you’ve read a lot of recipes, you’ve probably come across the instruction to add a splash of water to your pan if spices/ingredients start to stick to the bottom or get too dark. If you’re like me, you’ve thought, “That sounds unnecessary, and I mostly just don’t feel like filling a cup of water, so I’m not going to do that.” Well, I’m here to tell you that you should.
The fact is, anything from the condition of your cookware to the size of the ingredients could cause them to cook more quickly than expected, and burning will probably affect the flavor of your dish, even if you don’t see visibly burnt bits in the finished product. It’s much more convenient to get ahead of the burning than to try and fix the dish after it has burned. So: take ten seconds to fill a little bowl with water before you start sautéeing. And if you notice the bottom of your pan getting too dark (golden brown is OK!) before it’s time to add another liquid, splash a couple of teaspoons of water into the pan and scrape the bottom with a wooden or other pan-safe tool.
And if you missed your chance and accidentally burned the bottom layer of your food, all is not lost. Just dump the ingredients of the pan into a bowl, being careful not to dislodge any of the burnt material on the pan. Then, scrape off the burnt bits with some water and a wooden utensil, rinse the pan and add your ingredients back in, and keep going.
Chorizo-Stuffed Peppers
Charred bell peppers stuffed with a spicy, creamy chorizo filling, topped with cheese, and roasted.
Ingredients
- 3 large bell peppers (or 4 small ones)
- 2 teaspoons neutral oil (canola, vegetable, etc.)
- 9 ounces Mexican chorizo (see note)
- 1 cup yellow onion, finely diced (about 1 small or half a large onion)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon oregano
- 14-ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 ¼–1 ½ cups cooked rice
- 1 cup cooked black or pinto beans, drained and rinsed (optional)
- 3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1–1 ½ cups shredded Monterey jack cheese (or Chihuahua, Colby, cheddar…)
- Optional toppings: Salsa, chopped cilantro, sliced green onions, sour cream
Instructions
- Place your oven rack about 4 inches from the broiling element, usually the second slot from the top, and set your oven to broil. Let the oven preheat for about 10 minutes while you prepare the peppers.
- To prepare the peppers: Slice each pepper in half length-wise, leaving the stems on. With the peppers cut-side up, use a small, sharp knife to cut a straight line just below where the green part of the stem ends.
- Using a dinner spoon, scoop and scrape out the inner parts (seeds, white sections) so that the pepper makes a nice shell for the filling (see photo above). Place pepper halves cut-side down on a foil-lined baking sheet.
- Broil the peppers for about 5 minutes; when they’re ready, peppers will be charred in some spots and feel softer but still sturdy when poked with a fork. Decrease oven temperature to 375° F and let peppers cool while you prep the filling.
- To prepare the filling: Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat for about 3 minutes, until you can feel warm air above the pan and the oil is runny.
- Add chorizo and cook, stirring and breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until the chorizo gives off fat and forms small, slightly firm crumbles (about 5-6 minutes). Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Add diced onion to the pan and sauté until tender and mostly translucent, about 3–5 minutes. If the pan gets too dry or the onions start to stick, add a splash of water.
- Add garlic, salt, cumin, chili powder, paprika, and oregano and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. If spices start to stick, add a splash of water and scrape the bottom of the pan with the wooden spoon.
- Add tomatoes, rice, beans, and cooked chorizo to the pan and stir until most of the liquid is absorbed and the mixture is thickened, about 1 minute. It should look saucy, but not watery.
- Turn off the heat and stir in the cream cheese, brown sugar, and vinegar. Taste and add salt or additional spices to taste.
- To stuff and bake: Spoon the filling into the pepper halves, pressing it into the corners of the peppers so they’re nice and full. Top with enough shredded cheese to cover the filling (or as much as your heart desires).
- Bake for about 20–30 minutes, until peppers are soft and cheese is browned to your liking. If the cheese starts to brown too much before the peppers are perfectly tender, loosely cover the tray with a piece of foil coated with a bit of oil or cooking spray on the underside. Top as desired and serve! Leftovers can be stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to four days.
Notes
Mexican chorizo is a fresh sausage, usually located by other ground meats at the store. See FAQ for substitutions.
Chorizo-Stuffed Peppers FAQ
- Can I use cured (Spanish) chorizo or ground beef in this recipe?
Technically, you can use any quick-cooking meat in the stuffed pepper filling, but I don’t recommend using cured/Spanish chorizo since it has a much firmer texture. However, feel free to substitute another unseasoned ground meat, like beef, pork, or turkey. (Beef is my favorite substitute for this recipe.) If using plain ground meat, I recommend adding a bit more oil to the pan before browning the meat and tripling the spices (cumin through oregano on the ingredients list), adding half of them to the meat as you brown it and half with the garlic. - Do peppers need to be cooked before stuffing them?
Nothing disastrous will happen if you don’t broil the peppers before stuffing and roasting them; however, I find that it takes the peppers much longer to soften in the oven without pre-cooking, and it’s easy to overestimate how done they are and wind up with unpleasantly crunchy peppers. Broiling the peppers is the quickest method I found for pre-cooking them, and it gives them a nice charred taste, too!
Your first entry looks great! Very thorough advice, and I bet the writing would make your father proud if he fancied himself a writing critic.