Stuffed Peppers Recipe (2024)

4.25 from 8 votes

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April 28, 2019

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An amazingly savory and sweet stuffed peppers recipe, filled with pork, beef, and rice served with a tasty tomato sauce. A hearty, delicious dinner. Enjoy as is, or mop up with bread.

I grew up eating this sweet and savory version of stuffed peppers. There are so many different kinds and ways to make stuffed peppers and I’m thrilled to share this saucy recipe with you today!

These stuffed peppers fall under the ‘make it until it tastes right’ family recipe category. Meaning there are no measurements–just ingredients. So, after a few days of trial and error, I got the measurements DOWN so you too can make my Mom’s stuffed peppers… It’s just a delicious, stick to your ribs kind of recipe. Good food for the upcoming months.

How to Make Stuffed Peppers

{For full recipe with measurements and cook time, see the printable recipe card below}

Prepare bell peppers by cutting the tops off and removing the seeds and the ribs. Wash and set aside.
Make the meat mixture by mixing ground beef, pork, onion, rice, salt, and pepper together.
Stuff bell peppers and place into a large pot.
Top stuffed peppers with tomato juice. Try to submerge them as best as possible.
Cook several hours until peppers are tender and rice is completely cooked.
Make a roux using vegetable shortening and flour. Cook roux to be a medium brown color.
Thicken the tomato sauce using the prepared roux. It will bubble and that is totally normal! Sweeten sauce with sugar.
Serve stuffed peppers hot with rye bread–or any other bread you have around, but really, rye is the best.

Ingredients for Stuffed Peppers

This list is quite minimal, based on how much flavor you get out of this stuffed pepper recipe! The longer you cook these, the better they taste! And be sure to not skip browning the roux. It’s the secret ingredient.

Green Bell Peppers – I like using green peppers because that is how my mom made this recipe, but red or yellow work well too!
Ground beef and pork – The combination of these two meats makes for a moist and flavorful filling.
Rice – I use uncooked long grain white rice. Uncle Ben’s is my go-to.
Onions – diced up and added for flavor
S&P – seasonings!
Tomato juice – this is the cooking liquid for our stuffed peppers.
Vegetable Shortening or lard – part of the roux.
Flour – thickening agent for the tomato sauce
Sugar – I love a sweet tomato sauce to accompany the savory stuffed peppers! Add as much or as little sugar as you’d like.

Hope you all are in the mood for some German food tonight! Or maybe it’s Hungarian. (My ancestors are from both places, so we eat food from both places and things get confusing!) Either way, these stuffed peppers are mighty tasty.

Printable recipe card below! Enjoy!

Recipes similar to Stuffed Peppers you will love:

Grandma’s Cucumber Salad Recipe
Goulash Recipe with Nookedli
Broccoli Salad Recipe with Bacon
Hungarian Chicken Paprikash Recipe

Hungarian Stuffed Peppers Recipe

An amazingly savory and sweet stuffed peppers recipe, filled with pork, beef, and rice served with a tasty tomato sauce. A hearty, delicious dinner.

servings 6 servings

Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 2 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

Ingredients

▢ 1 lb. ground beef 80/20
▢ 1 lb. ground pork
▢ 1 medium onion diced
▢ 1/2 cup long grain white rice
▢ salt & pepper
▢ 6 green bell peppers*
▢ 46 oz tomato juice 1 can
▢ 1/2 cup water
▢ 1/4 cup lard or shortening
▢ 1/4 cup all purpose flour
▢ 1/2 cup granulated sugar

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Prepare bell peppers by cutting the tops off and removing the seeds and the ribs. Wash and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together beef, pork, onion, rice, salt, and pepper. Stuff bell peppers with meat mixture.
*If you do not have enough green peppers, then form meatballs with the remaining stuffing--this is a great way to get your kids to eat this meal, too!*
In a large pot, pour in the entire can of tomato juice. Rinse can out with 1/2 cup water. Place stuffed peppers and any meatballs into the pot. Try to submerge them as best as possible. Cover with lid and heat pot over medium-high heat. Once it comes to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer lightly for 1-2 hours.
In a large skillet, melt shortening over medium heat. Sprinkle in flour and whisk until smooth. Cook roux until it deepens in color to be a medium brown. Stir frequently to make sure it doesn't burn.
Using a slotted spoon, remove stuffed peppers and meatballs from the pot leaving the hot cooking liquid. Pour the browned roux into remaining tomato juice (it will bubble violently for a few seconds at first, so just be aware that it is totally normal). Stir well. After a few minutes, the tomato juice should thicken and become more of a sauce. Stir in sugar and more salt and pepper. It will be sweet--as it should be 🙂 Serve with rye bread--or any other bread you have around, but really, rye is the best.

Notes

You can use all ground beef if you don't have/can't find ground pork.

Nutrition

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: German

Keyword: beef, cooking, german food, meatballs, pork, rice, stuffed peppers, stuffed peppers recipe