Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Tex Mex Stuffed Peppers

These were amazing! I couldn't even tell I was eating a pepper because of how this cooked together. My kids didn't eat too much of the pepper, but they LOVED the filling. :)

3 green bell peppers
7 tbsp uncooked long-grain white rice
1-1.5 lbs ground chuck
1/2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp oregano
1/3 large yellow onion, chopped
1/2 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
8-oz can tomato sauce
~1 cup mild chunky salsa
1/3 cup cheddar cheese

Cut peppers in half lengthwise and remove stems and seeds. Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil. Plunge peppers into boiling water and cook for 5 minutes, until slightly tender. Drain well.

Pour tomato sauce into bottom of pan. Place pepper halves in pan on top of sauce. In a very large bowl, gently combine the rice, ground chuck, cumin, oregano, onion, salt, and pepper. Do not compress meat while mixing. Fill each pepper half with some of the mixture. Spoon some of the salsa over each pepper half. Sprinkle each with some of the cheese. Cover casserole with foil.

To serve immediately: Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes, until peppers are tender and meat is cooked through.

To freeze: Wrap with saran wrap and foil. To serve, thaw in refrigerator overnight, then remove saran wrap (recover with foil). Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, until hot and bubbly.

1 comment:

Lisa Ross said...

These had a really good flavor, but the rice didn't cook for me and I couldn't eat more than a few bites. They also took over an hour to cook, so next time I think I'll pre-cook the meat and onions as well. I'm looking forward to trying them with some updates :-)