Sausage Stuffed Peppers
Sausage Stuffed Peppers is a hearty and easy dinner recipe using simple ingredients yielding big, bold flavor in every bite. These Italian sausage stuffed peppers make for a wonderful weeknight meal as well as something fun when entertaining.
If you love to to cook sausage and bell peppers together, try our Sausage, Peppers, and Rice Skillet and Skillet Barbecue Chicken n’ Sausage.
What are stuffed peppers?
Stuffed peppers are pretty much what they sound like peppers that have been stuffed with some kind of filling. Several cuisines worldwide have a version of stuffed peppers usually consisting of meat, rice, various vegetables, and in many cases, cheese.
Once the filling mixture has been made, it’s stuffed into the hallowed out pepper and baked. It’s a simple dish but packs a lot of flavor.
Recipe ingredients
- Bell Peppers — Choose plumb bell peppers to allow for more stuffing. Any color will work. Green bell peppers are often a bit less expensive than yellow peppers, orange peppers, and red bell peppers
- Italian Sausage — We used a package of sweet Italian sausage not in casings. If you use the links, remove the casings and crumble the meat to brown. If you like spicy, use hot Italian sausage.
- Pasta Sauce —We used a jar of marinara. Use your favorite brand or any of the flavored and seasoned varieties. Homemade sauce works wonderfully too.
- Minute Rice — The rice will fully cook inside the peppers.
- Cheese — We used an Italian blend of cheeses and added more grated mozzarella cheese.
- Produce — One yellow onion and fresh parsley.
- Seasonings — Granulated garlic, Italian seasoning blend, salt, and pepper.
How to make Sausage Stuffed Peppers
Step 1 — Preheat oven to 350°F. Prep the peppers by slicing the tops off. Then scrape out the seeds and veins. Dice the tops of the peppers but remove the core.
Step 2 — In a large skillet on medium high heat, saute the diced onions and bell peppers. If your skillet is not non-stick, you may need to add a bit of olive oil to prevent them from sticking. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until they begin to soften.
Step 3 — Crumble in the Italian sausage, mix it in well and continue to cook until the pork sausage is mostly done, another 2-3 minutes.
Step 4 — Sprinkle in the seasonings and chopped fresh parsley. Stir well and reduce head to medium.
Step 5 — Stir in the rice until it is completed combined with the sausage and vegetables.
Step 6 — Slowly stir in the pasta sauce, reserving about a cup to be added to the bottom of the skillet later, and heat though. Remove from heat and stir in 2 cups of cheese.
How to make the stuffed peppers stand upright
If the bell peppers won’t stand flat, you can trim the bottom of the peppers to make them even and able to stand up right. Test if any need trimming before filling. If they will be nestled snugly in the skillet, it won’t be necessary to trim the bottoms.
Step 7 — Stuff each of the peppers to just above the top, leaving a bit of room for the filling to expand while the rice cooks and to add the cheese topping near the end of the baking time. Once all the peppers have been stuffed, pour the remaining pasta sauce into the now empty skillet. Place each pepper in the skillet.
Step 8 — Cover the stuffed peppers with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes.
Step 9 — After the peppers have cooked for 40 minutes, remove the foil and top each pepper with the remaining cheese. Bake for an additional 5 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly, melted, and browned.
TIP — For camp oven, outdoor cooking instructions, see recipe card.
Adaptations and variations
Meat —Use half lean ground beef and half Italian sausage. Or skip the ground beef and use ground turkey. Chicken sausage and turkey sausage are also wonderful options if they’ve been blended in the Italian style.
Rice — Using instant rice is simple and convenient but there’s so many other wonderful rices out there you could use. Brown rice. Wild rice. Jasmine rice. Basmati rice. Cauliflower rice. And of course, long grain white rice. If you use any rice other than instant, it must be fully cooked rice or it will be still be mostly raw at the end of the cooking time.
Sauce — Swap out the pasta sauce and use tomato sauce. Add your favorite Italian seasonings to give it flavor like thyme, oregano, fresh basil, minced garlic, red pepper flakes, and more.
Cheese — Using only mozzarella cheese will work, but even cheddar cheese will work in a pinch. Really, any shredded cheese will do this fabulous recipe justice.
Mix-ins — This is where the possibilities are endless. Diced tomatoes, chopped mushrooms, fire roasted tomatoes, Rotel tomatoes, and diced zucchini are just a few options.
Recipe FAQs
If you store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator, they will last 3-4 days.
They do not have to be. If you do blanch them before stuffing, they will be softer and need less baking time.
Absolutely but you may need a bigger skillet, large baking dish or baking pan.
Our favorite tools to make Sausage Stuffed Peppers!
Lodge 10.25″ Cast Iron Pre-Seasoned Skillet
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BuzzyWaxx Original Blend – Cast Iron and Carbon Steel Seasoning
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Sausage Stuffed Peppers
Equipment
- 10" cast iron skillet
Ingredients
- 7 bell peppers
- 1/2 cup onion diced
- 1 lb sweet Italian sausage ground
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 2 tsp granulated garlic
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp parsley chopped
- 1 cup instant rice uncooked
- 24 oz pasta sauce
- 2 cups Italian blend cheese shredded
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F.
- Slice the tops of the bell peppers off. Then scrape out the seeds and veins. Dice the tops of the peppers but remove the core. You'll need 1/2 cup of chopped tops.
- In a large skillet on medium high heat, sauté the diced onions and bell peppers. If your skillet is not non-stick, you may need to add a bit of olive oil to prevent them from sticking. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until they begin to soften.
- Crumble in the Italian sausage, mix it in well and continue to cook until the pork sausage is mostly done, another 2-3 minutes.
- Sprinkle in the Italian seasoning, garlic, salt, pepper, and chopped fresh parsley. Stir well and reduce head to medium.
- Stir in the rice until it is completed combined with the sausage and vegetables.
- Stir in the pasta sauce (but reserve about a cup for later) and heat though. Remove from heat and stir in 2 cups of cheese.
- Stuff each of the peppers to just above the top.
- Once all the peppers have been stuffed, pour the remaining pasta sauce into the now empty skillet. Place each pepper in the skillet.
- Cover the stuffed peppers with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes.
- At the end of the cooking time, remove the foil and top each pepper with the remaining cheese. Bake for an additional 5 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly, melted, and browned.
Outdoor Camp Oven
- Heat coals in a charcoal chimney and do the prep work for preparing the recipe.
- Once hot, place 9-10 coals on bottom (camp table, fire pit, etc).
- Nestle camp oven on top of the coals.
- Follow directions above for making the recipe.
- Cover with the camp oven lid. Place heated coals over the entire lid.
- Use a lid lifter when adding the cheese and then serving.
Notes
How to make the stuffed peppers stand upright
If the bell peppers won’t stand flat, you can trim the bottom of the peppers to make them even and able to stand up right. Test if any need trimming before filling. If they will be nestled snugly in the skillet, it won’t be necessary to trim the bottoms.Nutrition
Dutch Oven Daddy is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
Apparently I chose a spicy italian sausage. It had tons of kick. The kids didn’t like it but the adults enjoyed it.
These stuffed peppers were so hearty and delicious!! Loved all the Italian flavors, it was the perfect dinner for our family tonight!
Stuffed peppers sounds delish. I love the little note about keeping them upright as i struggle to keep them that way.
Sausage stuffed peppers look fantastic. Thanks for the recipe.
One of my favorite recipes ever. So easy and satisfying! Thank you!
They were perfect classic stuffed peppers! So good.
Oooh, so many incredible flavors packed into these peppers. I love the combination of sausage with all the melty cheese.
These stuffed peppers turned dinner into a delightful experience, and I can’t wait to share this recipe with friends. Thank you for sharing this amazing dish that’s now a family favorite!
We loved these at our summer party. Great fun and the kids loved them too.
These were amazing. My husband and I loved them and he asked when I’ll be making them again.
I cut the peppers in half lengthwise when I made these for a little more portion control and they came out perfect! Will definitely be adding these to the rotation.
A perfect side dish for the weekend. I love that it is so cheesy and flavorful.
My family went crazy for these stuffed peppers! I love how nutritious and filling this recipe is.
Served this for dinner tonight and it was a savory success! Easy, hearty and delicious; my whole family loved it!
A brilliant new recipe the whole family loved this weekend. I can’t wait to make it again.
These peppers were really good and very filling! I loved the Italian sausage
These sausage stuffed peppers are a game changer! The blend of flavors is spot-on and they hit the perfect balance of savory and satisfying. You’ve really outdone yourself with this recipe; it’s become a new staple in my kitchen.
Don’t miss out on this delicious and comforting culinary experience!
These peppers were fantastic! Thank you for the great recipe!
Substituting ground beef with Italian sausage sounds wonderful. I can’t wait to try this variation and I know my family will love it.
These are incredible! I love to incorporate sausage into my stuffed peppers—there’s so much more flavor. I loved your version of it, and so did our dinner guests. I ended up sending the recipe link to them because they were determined to know how to make them for themselves, haha 🙂
I made these stuffed peppers for dinner last night and LOVED them! And my entire family did too!
These peppers are absolutely delicious. I love the flavor profile with the Italian sausage in place of ground beef.
These stuffed peppers are amazing! Definitely one of my favorite recipes to make over the weekend!
These are my kind of stuffed peppers! I love sausage and all the filling inside, such an awesome recipe! Thank you for sharing!
Everyone at my house really enjoyed this! Such an amazing meal! Thanks for the recipe!
Made this for dinner last night and came out so perfect and delicious. So flavorful and so easy to make.
A perfect balance of comfort and creativity, this recipe is a true winner that’ll have everyone asking for seconds. Get ready to savor every bite of these culinary marvels!
We love stuffed peppers here in Italy and make them often. This version with sausage was super good! Such a great weeknight meal!
These look so good! I’ve only had them made with regular beef so the italian sausage sounds like a kick it needs! Thanks for sharing.
I double batched this recipe and it’s the best thing ever!!! Also, I used Spicy maple Italian sausage and everything came out do good!!!
This easy, flavor packed stuffed pepper recipe is perfect for my family. Looking forward to trying it.
I love stuffed peppers but never tried then with sausage, these ones look delicious, can’t wait to make them!
This is my new favorite stuffed pepper recipe! I’ve made it several times and it always turns out perfctly!