STUFFED MEXICAN PEPPERS

Stuffed Mexican Peppers image

This is a recipe I came up with 20 years ago that has recently won me the grand prize in our paper's holiday recipe contest. It is my family's favorite meal. Serve with tortilla chips on the side.

Provided by Jasgirl

Categories World Cuisine Recipes Latin American Mexican

Time 1h15m

Yield 6

Number Of Ingredients 11

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 (1 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
¾ cup water
2 teaspoons chili powder
½ cup cooked rice
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon garlic salt
⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce, divided
3 large red bell peppers
6 (1 inch) cubes Colby-Jack cheese

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
Place the ground beef into a skillet over medium heat, and brown the meat, breaking it apart into crumbles as it cooks, about 8 minutes. Drain excess fat. Stir in the taco seasoning, water, chili powder, cooked rice, salt, garlic salt, black pepper, and 1 can of tomato sauce; mix until thoroughly combined. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, cut the bell peppers in half lengthwise, and remove stems, membranes, cores, and seeds. Place a steamer insert into a large saucepan, and fill with water to just below the bottom of the steamer. Cover, and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Place the peppers into the steamer insert, cover the pan, and steam until just tender, 3 to 5 minutes.
Place the steamed peppers into the prepared baking dish, and fill lightly with the meat filling. Press 1 cube of Colby-Jack cheese into the center of the filling in each pepper, and spoon the remaining can of tomato sauce over the peppers. Cover the dish with aluminum foil.
Bake in the preheated oven until the peppers are tender and the filling is hot, 25 to 30 minutes.

Nutrition Facts : Calories 321.8 calories, Carbohydrate 17.3 g, Cholesterol 73 mg, Fat 18.5 g, Fiber 3.1 g, Protein 21.2 g, SaturatedFat 9.9 g, Sodium 1182.2 mg, Sugar 7.1 g