My freezer is starting to overflow with leftover ingredients, so it’s time to take stock of what I have and find recipes to use it up! I had a half pound chorizo left over from my Chorizo Sweet Potato Skillet, so I decided to do some quick and easy Chorizo Stuffed Bell Peppers. This is a super simple, scaled back stuffed pepper that is still totally flavorful and manageable for a weeknight. If you want to go one step further, or if you like things extra saucy, you can whip up a batch of my Easy Red Enchilada Sauce to drizzle over top of the peppers.
Pairs well with: Easy Red Enchilada Sauce, Cumin Lime Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Cowboy Caviar, Sweet Potato Cornbread, or Warm Corn and Avocado Salad
Chorizo Stuffed Bell Peppers
Chorizo is Key
The magic of the simplicity of this recipe is all in the chorizo. Chorizo has so many herbs and spices built in that it tends to flavor whatever dish you’re using it in, without needing to add much else. If you want to go vegetarian with this one, I suggest either using a soyrizo product, or adding something like taco seasoning to make up for all the flavor the chorizo brings to the table. Also note, this recipe calls for Mexican chorizo, which is a fresh meat product. Spanish chorizo is a cured meat product, similar to salami or pepperoni, and will not give the same results.
Rice & Tomato Notes
You will need pre-cooked rice for this dish, but that makes it a great way to use up leftover rice from the night before. If you don’t have any pre-cooked rice on hand, you can just get a pot going before you begin cooking the chorizo and it should be done in no time.
P.S. If you can’t find diced tomatoes with green chiles, you can use something like fire roasted diced tomatoes, or regular diced tomatoes, and add a 4 oz. can of diced green chiles if those are available.
Chorizo Stuffed Bell Peppers
Servings 6Ingredients
- 1/2 lb. Mexican Chorizo* ($2.37)
- 2 cups cooked rice ($0.38)
- 1 10oz. can diced tomatoes with green chiles ($0.49)
- 1 15oz. can black beans ($0.59)
- 1/2 Tbsp chili powder ($0.15)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 4 oz. Monterey jack or cheddar cheese, shredded ($1.25)
- 2 green onions, sliced ($0.15)
- 3 large bell peppers ($2.37)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Add the chorizo to a skillet and sauté over medium heat until fully cooked. Remove it from the heat.
- Rinse and drain the black beans, then add them to the skillet, along with the diced tomatoes (with juices), cooked rice, chili powder, and salt. Stir to combine.
- Add half of the cheese and half of the green onion to the chorizo mixture, then stir to combine.
- Slice each of the bell peppers in half and then carefully remove the white ribs and seed pods, keeping the stem intact to help hold in the stuffing. Pile the chorizo and rice mixture into each pepper, making sure to stuff it up into all the crevices, and mound it up over top. Place the peppers in a casserole dish as you fill them.
- Once all the peppers are filled, add about 1/2 inch of water to the dish to help the peppers steam and soften. Cover the dish tightly with foil, then bake for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, remove the foil and top the peppers with the remaining shredded cheese. Bake for another 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly on the edges. Top the peppers with the remaining sliced green onion just before serving.
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Notes
Nutrition
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Step by Step Photos
Begin by preheating the oven to 350ºF. Add 1/2 lb. Mexican chorizo to a skillet and sautéing until it is fully cooked (about 5-7 minutes). I used Johnsonville chorizo, which is my favorite. It it not quite as fatty as some other brands I’ve used, but still enough fat to be quite flavorful and not to need any extra oil in the skillet as I cook it.
Turn the heat under the chorizo off and add 2 cups cooked rice, one 15 oz. can black beans (rinsed and drained), and a 10 oz. can of diced tomatoes with chiles (like Rotel), 1/2 Tbsp chili powder, and 1/4 tsp salt. Stir until everything is combined.
After everything is mixed together, it won’t be quite so hot, so you can stir in 2 oz. shredded cheese and half of the sliced green onions. You’ll save the other 2 oz. cheese and the rest of the green onions to top the stuffed peppers.
Slice three large bell peppers in half, lengthwise, then carefully remove the white ribs and seed pods, while leaving the stems intact. I left the stems on so the peppers would be a closed container without a hole on the side for the stuffing to fall out of. You can simply eat around the stem.
Stuff the bell peppers with the chorizo and rice filling, making sure to get it up in all the nooks and crevices. Mound it high on top because you’ll have a lot of filling.
Place the peppers in a casserole dish as you stuff them, then add about 1/2 inch of water to the bottom of the dish. This will create steam and help the peppers cook. Cover the dish tightly with foil to hold in the steam, then bake for 30 minutes in the preheated 350ºF oven.
After baking for 30 minutes, remove the foil and top with the remaining cheese. Bake for another 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly around the edges. Take the chorizo stuffed bell peppers out of the oven and top with the remaining sliced green onion.
Enjoy the cheesy chorizo-y goodness!!
Could you make these with the mini sweet peppers and serve them as an app? How do you think that would impact the baking time and water added to the pan?
Hmm, that’s tough to say. There are so many variables there that I’d really need to test it before offering advice.
This was SOOOOOOOOO good! I could have just eaten the pepper stuffing by itself, but stuffed in a pepper covered in cheese (chef’s kiss). I substituted quinoa for rice because that’s what we had on hand and it turned out amazing.
way too bland but otherwise good
Do you think these would freeze well after baking? Or would you recommend freezing them assembled but before baking? Thanks!
I suppose it depends on how you plan on reheating. If you’re going to reheat one at a time in the microwave, I’d probably just bake it before freezing. If you plan on thawing the entire meal then baking, I’d assemble and then freeze without baking first.
We made these with Trader Joe’s Soyrizo and tossed in a bag of steamed riced cauliflower instead of using rice. Also, I just put a little bit of cheese on top of each stuffed green pepper (I used what I had on hand: a Mexican blend) – probably a TB or so if I had to guess. (trying to keep it low carb
We easily had enough filling for another 9 green pepper halves (granted, our green peppers were fairly small but I grabbed what they had at Aldi).
I love how far the recipe goes, how quick it goes together, and how it can be modified, like we did, to make it super healthy and vegetarian (or vegan if you use soy cheese).
We enjoyed it. LOTS of leftovers. Thanks for a great meal!
These were great. I substituted in finely chopped cabbage for the rice and only used half the black beans to make it low carb!! I would recommend to anyone! This will be a go to!
This recipe was SO GOOD. I hate green bell peppers, but we had several on hand from our CSA and were looking for a way to use them up. I made the recipe vegetarian by using Trader Joe’s Soyrizo (vegan chorizo), as my husband and I do not eat meat, and it worked really well. This recipe could easily be made vegan by using a chorizo meat substitute like the Trader Joe’s Soyrizo and omitting the cheese or using vegan cheese. This is definitely going in our regular rotation!
I felt the Chorizo might have been too fatty so I cut it in half with ground turkey…It was AMAZING, steamed it with the Cowboy Caviar and sliced avocados. New Favorite!!!
Don’t get me wrong, these were delicious and made a beautiful presentation but they were really spicy! I don’t know if it was the chorizo since I’m not used to cooking with it or if it was the Rotel. I think next time I will try just regular diced tomatoes or use half ground beef? Also, I like my peppers with a little crunch but my husband doesn’t. I will pre-bake them next time. I will definitely make again.
I made these last night and it was the first time I have ever made stuffed bell peppers. They were very good, except I felt like I would have enjoyed eating just the filling more than the complete dish. The cooked green peppers were kind of flavorless. I know I’ve had stuffed green peppers before that didn’t really have this issue. Is there something I potentially did wrong, or something I can do to improve the pepper itself apart from using a yellow/orange/red pepper (although I really have no problem trying that)?
Sounds delicious. This way of cutting the peppers in half lengthwise is new to me! Love it!
Can this be made with rice and beans instead of chorizo?
Sure, I think that would be a delicious filling. You may need to add quite a few extra spices to make up for all the seasoning that is in chorizo, though.
Another winner! Served with some sweet potato fries tossed with cumin and lime juice (because I was too lazy to chop up my own sweet potatoes). The peppers were a little al dente for my taste, so next time I might put them in the oven as it heats up as someone else mentioned. But the flavors were great!
Also, I noticed that in the step-by-step section with photos, you forgot to mention adding the chili powder and salt. They’re in the photo but not in the caption underneath.
Thank you for catching that!
I made these a few weeks ago and they were amazing! And the leftovers were fantastic. Thanks so much!