Taco Stuffed Peppers Recipe

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Taco Stuffed Peppers Ingredients:

You can get the full list of ingredients with measurements in the recipe card below.

• Onion – Adding a white onion to the mixture adds some aromatics and a little flavor.
• Ground meat – We use ground turkey because it’s more budget friendly. But you could substitute ground beef.
• Beans – We use canned black beans, but you could substitute kidney beans. Canned beans are really filling and a great way to stretch the meat mixture if you’re on a budget.
• Tomatoes – Firm Roma tomatoes work best because they don’t add any liquid to the meat mixture, which would make it soggy.
• Bell peppers – Red, yellow, and orange bell peppers are sweeter than green bell peppers, so they’re a much better balance for the meat mixture.
• Seasonings – We add a packet of taco seasoning to the meat mixture and salt to season the peppers.
• Cheese – We shred a block of extra sharp cheddar cheese for this recipe. Pre-shredded bagged cheese has a preservative on it that stops the cheese from melting. That’s good because it won’t clump in the bag, but that’s bad because it won’t melt. So anytime you want a melty cheese, we suggest shredding it yourself.
• Toppings – Optional, but you can serve these with sour cream and cilantro on top.

How to Make Taco Stuffed Peppers:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Dice the onion and add it to a large skillet on the stovetop over medium heat.

You can add a little drizzle of olive oil to ensure it doesn’t stick and add a little bit of extra flavor.

Cook them for about five minutes until they start to soften.

Add the ground turkey to the pan with the onions.

Make sure to break the meat apart into crumbles as it cooks.

Cook for about five minutes until the turkey is cooked through.

Add in the can of beans with liquid from the can. Don’t rinse or drain the beans.

The liquid in the beans has a lot of flavor that you lose when you drain and rinse them. We want this extra flavor to make the meat more flavorful, especially if you’re using ground turkey, which is sort of plain.

Add in the taco seasoning.

Since you’re adding in the liquid from the beans, you don’t need to add the water that you usually add when you’re using taco seasoning

Stir until combined.

Remove the pan from the heat.

Dice the Roma tomatoes and add them to the meat mixture.

You want to add the tomatoes when the pan is off the heat because that prevents the tomatoes from breaking down too much and getting really mushy.

Stir everything together until it’s combined.

While that’s all cooking, slice your peppers in half. Cut the stems off and clean the insides, removing all the seeds.

Place them cut side up in a baking dish.

Sprinkle the inside of them with salt.

When you’re making stuffed peppers, you can either cut them in half or leave them whole. It doesn’t matter.

For this recipe, I cut them in half, mostly because it looks prettier in the blog photos. So, for consistency’s sake, I’m telling you to cut them so that when you make this recipe, it looks just like the pictures.

But, you can also just cut the tops off and leave these whole. Either way, the rest of the recipe is still the same.

Stuff each pepper half with about 1/3 cup of the meat mixture to lightly stuff the peppers.

You don’t want to overstuff the pepper because that will make the mixture taste dense.

Bake the peppers in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.

Shred the block of cheese.

With five minutes to go, take out the pan, put the shredded cheese on top of the peppers, and put it back in the oven.

Close the oven door and cook for five minutes until the cheese is melted.

Serve them with a dollop of sour cream and chopped cilantro on top.

We always serve these with cilantro lime rice on the side.

Taco Stuffed Peppers: Frequently Asked Questions

More Stuffed Peppers Recipes:

If you’re looking for more stuffed pepper ideas, try our meatball stuffed peppers. Fill those with meatballs and top with your favorite marinara sauce.

We also have a sausage and rice stuffed peppers recipe, which to me is the most traditional way to make stuffed peppers.