One-Pan Stuffed Pepper Casserole | Easy Beef & Rice Stuffed Peppers | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with one pan stuffed pepper casserole. That's right, we're going to make it one pan and bake it in one pan. And if you're a fan of beef and rice stuffed peppers, you're going to love this easier, less fussy version since this casserole delivery system delivers the same taste and texture with no actual stuffing involved. And to get started, we'll go ahead and cut up our bell peppers. And by far the easiest method to do that is to cut both ends off the pepper like this about a/ inch or so from the end. And we'll go ahead and set those two pieces aside for now. And once that's done, we will cut straight down. And then we'll turn it on its side. And we'll simply cut through all the membranes that hold the pepper together while we unroll it, which is going to give us a long, beautiful seed-free strip. And then what we'll do is cut that in half and trim out any excess membrane if we want, which is optional and not really necessary. And then what we'll do is cut these pieces into smaller strips. And then all we need to do is turn those strips and slice across into about 1 in pieces. And I was just about to say this is the easiest way for a beginner to cut a pepper, which it is, but it's also the best way for a professional chef to cut a pepper. And of course, the more strips you cut at once, the faster this goes. But this is only going to take a few minutes. So if you just want to do two or three at a time, that's fine. And once that's done, we'll take the end pieces and cut those into a similar size. And if there's a tiny black speck on the end of the pepper where the flower used to attach, we could trim that off if it bothers us, which apparently it did me. Oh, and I should mention I do love to use a serrated knife for peppers since the skins are really tough and most folks dull kitchen knives are going to struggle with that. But no matter what you use, we'll cut up three or four bell peppers, depending on the size. And then we'll head to the stove where we're going to add a pound of ground beef to a skillet in which we put a little bit of olive oil. And we'll toss in a nice big pinch of salt. And over high heat, we will start breaking this meat up since the first step is to brown this with some onions. But I find it much easier to break the meat up a little bit first before we add the onions in. Otherwise, as I've learned the hard way, they tend to fly out of the pan. So, I like to work the meat over with a spatula a little bit before adding those in. And then what we'll do is continue to cook this while crumbling the meat into smaller pieces. And we will do that for about five or six minutes or however long it takes to get some nice color on the meat. Right. This step is called browning. Not graining, not tanning. It's called browning. So, please take your time and make sure you get a little bit of color on the meat, which always every time makes it taste better. And once we're happy with that, we will stop and toss in some butter as well as a fair amount of crushed garlic. And we'll reduce our heat to medium high. And we will cook this stirring for about a minute or until that butter melts in. And once that happens, we'll go ahead and season this up with some freshly ground black pepper, a little bit of smoked paprika, although regular is fine. And we'll also do a little bit of garlic powder, plus a few shakes of cayenne because why not? And what we'll do is stir those in and cook this for about a minute just to kind of wake them up and infuse them into that oil and beef fat. And once that's been accomplished, we can add our bell peppers to the pan. And we'll go ahead and stir those in. And then we'll cook this for about 2 or 3 minutes. Basically, just until those peppers are heated through. Okay, we don't really need them to soften since this whole thing is going to get baked in the oven, but I do like to cook them for a couple minutes just to take off the raw edge, at which point I like to transfer in my rice and give that a quick stir for about a minute since I think if we coat the rice with the fat in the pan, the texture of our final products a little nicer and a little more peeloff like where the rice gets beautifully tender yet still holds its shape. So, like I said, that step is optional, but personally, I do think it's worth the extra minute. And that's it. We'll go ahead and add in the rest of our salt along with a splash of worstersher sauce. Followed by a couple cups of tomato sauce, or pretty much any tomato product. And then we'll finish up with our beef broth, which could also be chicken broth. They both will actually work fine in this. And what we'll do is stir all that together. And we'll raise our heat to high. Since we want to bring this up to a simmer before we cover it and pop it in the oven. And by the way, if you don't have a pan like this, they can go straight in the oven from the stove. Just simply do this in a regular skillet and then transfer everything into a casserole dish. And the final product will be the same, but with a slightly different name. But anyway, once our pan's bubbling, we'll go ahead and turn off the heat. And we'll go ahead and transfer over our cheese, but not all of it. We're going to save some for the top, which as you'll see, will stay on the top. But with this portion of the cheese, we're going to take a spoon and kind of poke and stir that in. And by the way, I'm using a nice white cheddar for this. But if you wanted, you could use half cheddar and then half something more mild like a Monterey Jack or a mozzarella. All right. As usual, the exact cheeses are up to you. I mean, you are after all the Chef John stand of making stuffed pepper casserole in one pan. And that's it. Once that's been poked and stirred in, we'll go ahead and cover that tightly. And we will transfer that into the upper center of a 375°ree oven for about 45 minutes. At which point, we'll pull it out, uncover it, and do two things. Well, maybe two things, right? That depends on the first thing, which is to take a spoon and test the dness of the rice. which should be just tender by now. And if it is, and mine was, we can apply the rest of our cheese over the top. But if your rice is not quite cooked yet, you can just cover it back up and pop it in the oven until it is. But anyway, once the rice is tender and this has been topped with cheese, we will pop this under the broiler uncovered for a couple minutes just to melt the cheese and maybe have it get a little bit golden brown, which you can also do in a hot oven like 475 for about 5 or 10 minutes. At which point, if everything goes according to plan, it should look like this. Oh yeah, that is beautiful and way way too hot to eat. So, I think we should let this sit for at least 10 minutes before we serve up. But hang on, I forgot a very, very important thing. Anytime we take a pan out of the oven that has a handle or handles, we always place towels over those because if you don't, someone will grab them and they will burn themselves and it will be your fault. So, please play it safe. And that's it. I went ahead and let mine rest and remove the towels since I'm the only one in the kitchen. And then I finish this up with some freshly chopped Italian parsley. And after taking way too many contractually obligated pictures, I grabbed a spoon and served some up. And some of these recipes I do are a little bit challenging to describe the taste and texture. But this one is not. Right. That, my friends, tastes exactly like a beef and rice stuffed pepper. Except because we have more surface area with this, it might actually even be a little bit better and more flavorful. Which reminds me, this is more of an idea than a specific recipe. So, whatever you usually put in your stuffed peppers will work with this technique. Oh, and do not let this little sample plate fool you. I'm usually enjoying a slightly larger portion next to a nice big green salad since this is a fairly rich dish. So, I think enjoying it next to some crunchy greens is a great idea. But no matter how you serve it, if you're a fan of stuffed bell peppers and you're a fan of just making things with one pan, I really do hope you give this a try soon. So, please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And is always in joy.