Deconstructed Stuffed Peppers
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You can make deconstructed stuffed peppers in 30 minutes! Our recipe for unstuffed peppers makes a delicious and healthy meal with the same flavors as the classic comfort food recipe.
This Unstuffed Bell Pepper Skillet will be your new favorite weeknight dinner!
This is one of our favorite ground beef and rice recipes, with a zesty tomato sauce, rice, and bright bell peppers, all covered with cheese.
Naturally gluten free and easy to adapt, with just a couple of substitutions, you can make it dairy free or try unstuffed pepper bowls if you need Whole 30 or low carb.
This skillet recipe is so quick and easy, you can have dinner on the table in less than an hour, and because it’s made in one pan, there are fewer dishes to wash at the end of the meal!
liz’s tips for creating the best flavor
- Drain any excess grease from the skillet before adding seasonings.
- Wait to add the garlic so it doesn’t burn. It can take 5 to 7 minutes for the onion to soften, but garlic needs no longer than a minute.
- Taste for flavor as the skillet meal cooks. Deconstructed bell peppers are full of flavor, and the longer the seasonings simmer with the ground beef, rice, and tomato sauce, the deeper the flavor will be. Note: Depending on how much salt is in the tomato sauce, you may not need to add any salt.
ingredients
substitutions
Olive Oil: You can substitute avocado oil, butter, or ghee.
Ground Beef: We like 85/15 ground beef. Feel free to use leaner ground beef depending on what you like. To make vegetarian you can use cooked lentils or ground beef substitute. You’ll need to adjust your cooking time. I haven’t tried making this with ground turkey, sausage, ground pork, or ground chicken but I think it would work. We love Butcherbox ground beef!
Bell Peppers: We use red because their flavor is milder than green peppers, but keep in mind that red, yellow, and orange bell peppers are higher in carbs than green. Any variety will work with this unstuffed peppers recipe.
Tomato Sauce: Canned sauce is fine, but we love the flavors in our homemade, crockpot tomato sauce. Note that canned tomato sauce and jarred pasta sauce are very different. Pasta sauce is much thicker and usually has seasonings added to it. If you can’t find tomato sauce, look for plain pureed tomatoes or crushed tomatoes!
Broth: Store-bought or homemade Beef Broth, Chicken Broth, or vegetable broth all work interchangeably. We always use low or no-salt broth.
White rice: Brown rice should work as a white rice substitute in this recipe, but it will take much longer to cook, and you will need to use more broth. We don’t recommend subbing cauliflower rice because it can be very soggy.
Cheese: Use freshly shredded cheese because it melts better. Cheese is optional on top. We like freshly grated mozzarella, but provolone, cheddar cheese, or any other mild shredded cheese should work. Or, you can totally omit the cheese to make this dairy free!
How to Make deconstructed stuffed peppers
- In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil. Brown ground beef for 10 minutes until no longer pink. Add onions and garlic and sauté for an additional 5 minutes.
- Add spices, tomato sauce, white rice, beef broth and bell peppers to the pot. Stir together, cover and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally until rice is cooked.
- Once rice is cooked, top with mozzarella cheese, cover and let the cheese melt.
If you like the convenience of one pan dinner recipes like unstuffed peppers, check out our taco skillet recipe!
serving suggestions
We like to serve this skillet meal as-is because it has a healthy blend of protein, vegetables, and starches. You can serve your dinner in bowls or lettuce wraps. Or, for a fun twist on tacos, serve the filling in tortillas or pita bread.
Storage
Keep any leftovers in an airtight container in your fridge, and use them up within 4 days.
Reheating: Unlike traditional stuffed bell peppers, this dish is a snap to reheat for a second meal later in the week! You can reheat individual portions at 80% power in the microwave until heated through, or in a baking dish in a 350°F. oven for about 20 minutes. Be sure to cover the pan with foil to keep the moisture in.
Other Healthy Dinners to Try:
Deconstructed Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef
- ½ cup diced onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 3 cups diced red bell pepper orange or yellow work too!
- 2 cup low sodium beef broth
- 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 cup dry white rice
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.
- Add the ground beef to the pan and cook for 10 minutes, using a spatula to break apart the ground beef as it cooks.
- Once the ground beef has browned and cooked through, add the onions and garlic to the pan. Sauté for 3 minutes.
- Add the bell peppers, beef broth, tomato sauce, white rice, basil, oregano, parsley, and black pepper to the pan. Stir together well. Cover the pan and bring to a boil. It will take about 5 minutes to come to a boil.
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium and cook covered for 20-25 minutes, stirring every few minutes until almost all of the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is thoroughly cooked.
- Once the rice has cooked, top with the mozzarella. Cover the pan and cook over low heat until the cheese melts.
I just made this! Super easy and so good!!
This was so good and easy to make!
This recipe was so quick and easy to make. Delicious for a weeknight meal.
Can I use minute rice for this? Or does it need to be regular rice?
I don’t think minute rice will work in this recipe because the cook time is so much less, and the broth needed is different. I would follow the recipe as written!
I just diced up 2 gallon bags of little bell peppers from the garden and froze them. Is that okay to use? Also, if I’m using already cooked rice, I’m assuming the cook time would be reduced to maybe 10 minutes? Long enough to kinda cook the peppers?
I honestly don’t know how using cooked rice will impact this. Or frozen peppers. I think you’d need less broth and less of a cook time but I really don’t know. I’m sorry!
I no longer make traditional stuffed peppers because this recipe is so easy and a winner!
I noticed a cup of dry white wine in the ingredient list but was wondering if I could sub extra broth for it?
There is no wine in this recipe. It calls for dry white rice.
Quick question in the recipe it say beef broth, in the tips it’s says heat the chicken broth. Umm which one do we use?
Oops, that’s a typo – should say beef broth. Store-bought or homemade Beef Broth, Chicken Broth, or vegetable broth all work interchangeably in this recipe (and almost all recipes!). We always use low or no-salt broth.
Made this last night for the first time and didn’t realize I was supposed to drain the ground beef before adding in next ingredients but it turned out just fine! My only question was whether or not the dish should be covered or uncovered while it was simmering for the 20 – 25 minutes. I went ahead and kept it covered (since that’s how stovetop rice is prepared anyway) and was more than pleased with how it turned out. (I was a little worried that by keeping it covered that the dish would have held too much moisture but absolutely did not.) It came out looking just like Liz’s photos and I would make this again the exact same way! And husband approved saying it was one of the best dishes I’ve made in a long time! I guess I’ll take that as a compliment, so thank you!
Hi! I’m so happy you both enjoyed it! I’m sorry about that, I just updated the recipe to clarify – you did the right thing! This should be cooked covered 🙂
Delicious! I love all the recipes I have made from this website. Not once have I been disappointed!
This was a dinner hit!
I’ve made this a few times now, but this last time I doubled it, used 1lb ground beef and 1lb hot sausage, and used Monterey Jack cheese instead since that’s what I had and it’s INCREDIBLE! I love it sooo much!
I’ve made these more than once and they’re delicious! Most recently I doubled the recipe to have extra servings to freeze for an easy weeknight meal later. These are definitely a weekly go-to in my house!
Another great one! This was super easy to make and had a lot of flavor without the mess of traditional stuffed peppers. Looking forward to trying more of the one pot recipes!
This recipe is delicious! So so easy. This is my second time trying Clean Eating Couple recipes and it did not disappoint. One pot, TONS of flavor, you definitely need to try!
Lots of flavor in this one!! Love it!
This was delicious! It made a lot but I froze some in individual portions. I also used cauliflower rice. I would definitely recommend & make again. Thank you😋
How much broth did you use with the cauliflower rice? I’m assuming since it doesn’t absorb liquid the same as rice you’d want to use less, but wasn’t sure how much
I have never tried making this with cauliflower rice but I don’t think it would need any broth. The cauliflower rice emits water when it cooks, so if you add broth, this is going to be a watery mess!
This recipe is one of my new favorites! It’s so easy to make, is healthy, and freezes extremely well. Nobody in my house likes peppers except for me so I put the leftovers in meal prep containers and into the freezer. I doubled the seasonings, and I added a little extra salt and added some onion powder at the end.
I should have added that I used their tomato sauce recipe in this recipe and I now have 5 15oz bags of tomato sauce in my freezer to use for future recipes. I need to rate that as well. 😉
Can I make this in a slow cooker?
I don’t think that this would work in the slow cooker, I think the rice would get overcooked. It’s so quick to make on the stovetop. You could chop the veggies ahead of time to save time when it comes to cooking!
This was great. Added some mushroom and corn as well. My children loved it.
Once again, Liz and Tyler did not disappoint. This receipe, like their others, was excellent. We always feel so good about eating any of their receipes. I did make a couple of substitutions: ground turkey for the ground beef and brown rice for white rice. The flavors of the dish were amazing. We are so appreciate of all your efforts. Thank you!
Delicious! cooked it for the first time last week and it’s a new favorite!
So glad you liked them, Lexi!
Can you make this ahead of time and freeze it? If so, how would you reheat it in the oven?
you can, but the rice can get a little bit soggy. I would thaw overnight then reheat in a baking dish in a 350°F. oven for about 20 minutes. Be sure to cover the pan with foil to keep the moisture in. (We have a storage section in our blog posts that cover this, pasting from there!
This was super easy and very delicious.
So glad you liked it!