Our Country Kitchen

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Our Country Kitchen brings you amazingly tasty recipes each week, using Goodparla’s finest Missouri pasture raised beef.

We’ve got something crazy cooking up in Goodparla’s Our Country Kitchen this week! Crazy delicious that is! We’ve taken a classic stuffed bell peppers dish and we’ve turned it into a fiesta for your taste buds. Generously stuffed with premium Goodparla ground beef, just the right blend of spices, corn, black beans, diced tomatoes and green chilies and then topped with a heaping serving of melted cheese, salsa, sour cream and guacamole, these stuffed bell peppers will leave you feeling stuffed!

Let’s dive right in and get this fiesta started!

It all starts with the peppers…

If you truly want to make a stand-out stuffed bell pepper dish, then it all boils down to the actual bell pepper. You want to make sure to select the most symmetrical bell peppers with the flattest base possible. This ensures that your peppers don’t tip over while cooking, as well as making sure your ratio of pepper to filling is in balance.

Now, as many of you are aware, bell peppers typically come in three different varieties: green, red and yellow. While you can use whatever pepper you’d like, Our Country Kitchen has some recommendations and helpful tips on choosing the right peppers for you and your family.

As a general rule of thumb, red and yellow bell peppers tend to be on the sweeter end while green bell peppers are considered to have that teeny tiny spice tingle on your tongue. The other main difference between these bell peppers is that the green ones tend to be larger and have a thicker skin and therefore, take longer to properly roast.

Our Country Kitchen highly recommends using green bell peppers for this specific recipe, as they compliment and highlight the ‘taco-flavor’ of these fiesta taco stuffed bell peppers.

The key to the perfectly cooked bell pepper

Now, imagine taking your first bite of an overstuffed cheesy, mouthwatering ground beef packed with traditional taco flavors bell pepper. Now imagine that bell pepper is crunchy and not all the way cooked through. Can we say disappointment? We can’t tell you how many times we’ve whipped together a stuffed bell peppers masterpiece, only to have the peppers be under cooked and essentially, ruining our hard prepared meal (at least in our eyes). Our trial and error is really to your benefit though, as we are going to share with you a fool proof way to make sure your stuffed bell peppers come out perfectly roasted, every single time!

The trick to having the most delectable and perfectly cooked stuffed bell peppers is to pre-roast them. Here is our quick guide for pre-roasting:

• Cut the tops off the peppers and clean out seeds and the ribs inside the peppers
• Rub a small amount of your choice of oil, salt and pepper on both the interior and exterior of the peppers
• Place peppers in a baking dish and add 3 to 4 tablespoons of water
• Roast for 25 minutes

The best part about this method is that you can prep the rest of the ingredients while your peppers are roasting, and it will be perfect timing for when your peppers come out of the oven!

Quick tips & tricks for all the yummy add--ins

Taco Seasoning:

• We all know that you can’t have a taco stuffed bell pepper without taco seasoning! While store bought taco seasoning works great, we’ve also included a basic recipe below to make your own
• The taco seasoning recipe will make more than the 2 tablespoons required for this recipe. Store the remaining seasoning mix in an air tight container or sandwich bag.
• By making your own seasoning mix, you control the amount of ‘spicy’ – just remember if you reduce the chili powder to make up for it by adding extra garlic, onion and cumin.

What about rice?

• The stuffing mixture for this recipe contains no rice. You can add rice into this recipe if you wish. This can make your stuffing stretch farther to create more stuffed peppers too!
• If you add rice, we recommend cooking it fully, before incorporating it into the stuffing mixture
• To make the same serving size, adjust your corn and black beans amount. Our recommended measurement adjustments are ½ cup cooked rice, ½ can black beans, 1 cup of frozen corn

Remove the ‘spicy’:

If you are concerned about spice-level, here are our helpful substitutions for making this recipe absolutely delicious minus the mild spice level:

• Do not add in the jalapeño when sautéing the onion.
• Make sure to use a mild taco seasoning (see above notes on taco seasoning measurements
• You can substitute a can of regular diced tomatoes for a can of Rotel/Hatch (the diced tomatoes with green chilies in it)
• When topping with salsa and guacamole, make sure you use a mild one

Let us know in the comments section if you made this recipe and how it turned out!

Taco Fiesta Stuffed Bell Peppers Recipe

Prep Time: 20 minutes |  Cook Time: 40 minutes  |  Serves: 6 

Stuffed Bell Peppers Ingredients:

• 1 pound Goodparla ground beef
• 1 packet taco seasoning mix or 2 tablespoons of homemade taco seasoning (see below)

Taco Seasoning Mix Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 ½ teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ¼ teaspoon oregano

Taco Seasoning Mix Instructions:

1. Measure out spices into a small bowl and mix thoroughly. Store in an airtight container or bag. 

*will make more than the 2 tablespoons needed for this recipe

Stuffed Bell Peppers Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350℉ and prepare peppers by slicing off the tops and removing seeds and veins. Place peppers in a baking dish with 3 tablespoons of water. Bake peppers for 25 minutes.
2. While peppers are roasting, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Saute diced onion and jalapeño pepper for about 3 minutes. Remove from skillet.
3. Add the ground beef to the skillet and brown on all sides, breaking it up as it cooks for about 6 minutes. Add the taco seasoning packet (or 2 tablespoons of ‘make-your-own’ taco seasoning) and sauteed onion and jalapeño pepper. 
4. Reduce heat to medium and add in black beans, corn, and can of diced tomatoes with green chilies. Stir thoroughly and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add one cup of shredded cheese and incorporate fully.
5. Once the peppers have roasted for 25 minutes, pull from the oven and spoon mixture into peppers, filling them completely.
6. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of salsa on top of each pepper. Then top the peppers with the remaining ½ cup shredded cheese.
7. Bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes. Top with sour cream and guacamole.