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Meatball Stuffed Peppers Recipe

A homemade meatball mixture is stuffed into green bell peppers to make this tasty Meatball Stuffed Peppers recipe.

For more meat-filled recipe ideas, check out all our beef recipes.

Sauce and cheese on top of a cooked green pepper with the words "Meatball Stuffed Peppers" digitally written on top.

Pete was cleaning off my car once, when we still lived in New York and it was snowing, when he got the idea that he wanted to make meatball stuffed peppers.

And then, hours later, we were eating his idea.

You can pretty much stuff peppers with anything that will fit inside a pepper (meats, veggies, and rice too). This time around, Pete stuffed them with a variation of his mom’s meatball recipe.

We’ve tweaked it over the years because I like an all-beef recipe rather than a blend, and that’s the recipe we settled on below.

If you have your own meatball recipe, you can use that but follow our instructions to stuff and cook the peppers.

Beef chunks in a bowl with the words "10+ Budget-Friendly Beef Recipes" digitally written on top.

If you have leftover ground beef after making this recipe, you can use it in one of our other Budget-Friendly Beef Recipes.

Meatball Stuffed Peppers Recipe

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Meatball Stuffed Peppers Ingredients:

How To Make Meatball Stuffed Peppers:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.

Three cut green peppers in a bread tin.

Wash the peppers. Cut the tops of and spoon out the insides. Season with half the salt and pepper.

Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, ground meat, seasoning, eggs, and chopped garlic in a bowl.

Put the ground beef, chopped garlic, eggs, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, and the remaining salt and pepper in a bowl.

Meatball mixture in a bowl.

Mix until the ingredients are combined. Using your hands is the best way to go.

Three green peppers stuffed with a meatball mixture in a bread pan.

Stuff your peppers with the meatball mixture. You can push down on the meatball mixture so it’s as packed in as possible, but you may need to cook them a little longer if the meat is too packed in.

Place three peppers in a 8- x 4-inch bread pan. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes until the meat is cooked to 160 F and the peppers are soft and wrinkly on the outside.

A stuffed green pepper topped with sauce.

Take your peppers out of the oven and top with sauce and cheese.

Serve them with pasta, garlic bread, or a great side salad.

A stuffed green pepper topped with cheese and sauce.

Meatball Stuffed Peppers: Frequently Asked Questions

Should peppers be boiled before stuffing?

Some people will boil green peppers before stuffing them in order to soften the pepper before cooking. But, if you cook the peppers long enough, they’ll soften up on their own and you can omit boiling the peppers first.

What can you do with leftover meatball mixture?

If you have any leftover meatball mixture, or you don’t need to stuff six peppers at once, you can simply turn that into meatballs.

Use a cookie scoop to measure out enough mix for a meatball. Roll it into a ball and place it on a cookie sheet. Bake it at 350 F for about 20 to 25 minutes.

Since these will be done before the Meatball Stuffed Peppers, you can serve them as an appetizer before the main course.

Can you use red peppers instead of green peppers?

Personally I like red peppers better than green peppers in most meals. Red peppers have more sweetness to them.

But, when you’re making stuffed peppers, green peppers are the better choice. They’re frugal, which is helpful for your budget. And since you have so many other ingredients in the recipe, you don’t want the sweetness of the red pepper competing with the savory meatball mixture.

Of course, you can use either, but if you are worried about your budget, green is the way to go.

Can you use ground turkey or chicken instead of beef?

We personally really like using ground beef in this recipe because of the flavor it gives to meatballs. But, I get it. Ground beef is getting expensive and some people just choose not to eat it.

So yes, if you want, you can swap the ground beef for ground turkey or ground chicken. If you do, the taste will be off so I suggest adding a half to a whole tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce into the meat mixture. That helps ground poultry taste more like ground beef.

Keep in mind that those are both leaner than beef, so the recipe won’t be as juicy. In that case, you may want to pre-bake the peppers for about 20 minutes before stuffing them, then cook the stuffed peppers about 25 minutes. That should be long enough for the peppers to soften but not too long that the turkey or chicken dries out.

That time may need to be adjusted based on your oven, so keep checking and pull the peppers out of the oven when the chicken or turkey has reached 165 F.

How do you store leftover stuffed peppers?

Store leftover stuffed peppers in an airtight container in the fridge for three to five days.

Can you freeze stuffed peppers?

If you’ve made too many stuffed peppers, you can freeze the leftovers. After you’ve cooked the stuffed peppers and they’ve cooked, wrap them in foil and place them in a freezer safe bag. The stuffed peppers will last about three months in the fridge.

To reheat them, defrost the frozen stuffed peppers in the fridge overnight. Heat them for about 20 to 30 minutes at 350 F.

Sausage, rice, onions, and cheese combine to make these Sausage And Rice Stuffed Peppers, which are a perfect weeknight dinner meal.

Other Stuffed Pepper Recipes:

If you’re in the mood for stuffed peppers now, try our Rice & Sausage Stuffed Peppers too.

Sliced onions and peppers on a sheet pan.

More Pepper Recipes:

If you bought too many peppers and you’re looking for ways to use them, like our Sheet Pan Sausage And Peppers recipe above, check out our list of 15+ Pepper Recipes (Bell Pepper, Sweet Pepper & Jalapeño Pepper Recipes).

Yield: 6 Peppers

Meatball Stuffed Peppers

A homemade meatball mixture is stuffed into green bell peppers to make this tasty Meatball Stuffed Peppers recipe.

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 6 green peppers
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper, plus 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 16 oz. ground beef
  • 5 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
  • 1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
  • 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
  • 1/2 cup marinara sauce

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
  2. Wash the peppers. Cut the tops of and spoon out the insides. Season with half the salt and pepper.
  3. Put the ground beef, chopped garlic, eggs, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, and the remaining salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix until the ingredients are combined. 
  4. Stuff your peppers with the meatball mixture. 
  5. Place three peppers in a 8- x 4-inch bread pan. Bake for 45 minutes until the meat is cooked to 160 F and the peppers are soft and wrinkly on the outside.
  6. Take your peppers out of the oven and top with sauce and cheese.

Notes

If you want to make less peppers, you can save any extra meatball mixture to make meatballs.

Nutrition Information

Yield

6

Serving Size

1

Amount Per Serving Calories 353Total Fat 18gSaturated Fat 7gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 9gCholesterol 137mgSodium 828mgCarbohydrates 19gFiber 3gSugar 5gProtein 28g

Have you tried this Meatball Stuffed Peppers recipe yet? Let us know what you thought in the comments.

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