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Slow Cooker Taco Stuffed Peppers are packed with a flavorful filling, cooked low and slow in salsa, and finished with melted cheese for an easy, satisfying dinner.
Key Takeaways: Taco Stuffed Peppers
- Taco Stuffed Peppers are easy to make and packed with flavor, thanks to a slow cooker method.
- Key ingredients include bell peppers, ground beef, taco seasoning, and cheddar cheese.
- To prepare, stuff the peppers, arrange them in a slow cooker, and cook until tender.
- Variations include using ground turkey, adding beans, or substituting cauliflower rice.
- Serve with sour cream and green onions for a delicious meal.
Featured Comment
“So delish! Thanks for sharing!! My boys (big and small!) absolutely loved this dish. So easy too.”
– UMI
Mexican Stuffed Peppers are an easy, flavorful way to switch up taco night! The peppers get perfectly tender while soaking up all the delicious taco flavored meatloaf. Let the slow cooker do the work for fuss-free meal the whole family will love.
If you love stuffed peppers also try my slow cooker stuffed pepper soup, or my classic crockpot stuffed peppers, which have more of a loose filling.
Key Ingredients
- Bell peppers: Serve as the base and become tender as they cook.
- Ground beef: A perfect base for the stuffed-pepper mix.
- Taco seasoning: All the flavor is measured out for you here.
- Crushed saltines & minute rice: The crackers are the binding, and the rice tastes great along with the beef/
- Sour cream & salsa: Keep the mixture moist
- Cheddar cheese: Melted on top at the end.
Variations
Here are my approved variations for this recipe:
- Swap in ground turkey or chicken for a lighter option, but keep in mind it will have a different flavor profile.
- Add a can of drained black or pinto beans to boost protein and texture.
- Use tomatillo green salsa for a fresh, tangy twist that transforms the dish.
- Replace the rice with cauliflower rice for a lower-carb, veggie-packed alternative.
How to make Taco Stuffed Peppers
- Prepare the taco beef filling and stuff the peppers.
- Arrange the peppers in the slow cooker with sauce.
- Cook until the peppers are tender, then top with cheese before serving.
My Serving Suggestions:
Here is how I serve these easy stuffed peppers
- My favorite toppings are sour cream and sliced green onions.
- For sides, we love a green salad or homemade refried beans.
- Still craving tortillas? You can serve these with warmed flour tortillas for an even more filling meal.
Taco Stuffed Peppers FAQs
Should I brown the beef in a skillet?
No, this stuffed pepper filling is more of a meatloaf mixture, not a loose stuffed pepper mix. If you want to brown the meat, you will need a completely different filling recipe.
Can I use raw meat in stuffed peppers?
Yes, you can use raw meat in stuffed peppers, as long as the filling is fully cooked before serving.
Raw ground beef, pork, turkey, or chicken can be mixed with rice, seasonings, and binders like egg or breadcrumbs, then baked inside the peppers. This creates a tender, juicy, meatloaf-style filling as it cooks.
For food safety, use a meat thermometer and make sure the center of the filling reaches 160°F for ground beef or pork and 165°F for ground turkey or chicken before serving.
Other Slow Cooker Ground Beef Recipes
If you tried this Taco Stuffed Peppers recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the 📝 comments below. Happy Slow Cooking!
Taco Stuffed Peppers Recipe
How to Video
Ingredients
The sauce for under the peppers:
- 1 1/2 cup salsa
For the peppers
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 4-5 bell peppers, any colors (4 large sized or 5 medium)
- 1/2 cup diced white onion
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup salsa
- 1.25 oz. taco seasoning mix, (1 packet)
- 15 saltine crackers, crushed
- 1/2 cup minute rice, not cooked
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, add this on top at the end
Instructions
- Add the 1 1/2 cups salsa to the slow cooker.
- Cut the tops off the peppers remove and discard the seeds. Don’t throw away the tops, chop up the top of the pepper and add to the meat loaf filling. In a medium sized bowl add the meat, diced tops from the bell peppers, onion, egg, sour cream, salsa, taco seasoning mix, crushed saltine crackers and rice. With clean hands mix the meat loaf ingredients together until just combined, don’t over mix.
- Stuff the peppers with the meat loaf mixture.
- Place the stuffed peppers on top of the salsa.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 5 hours without opening the lid during the cooking time.
- After cooking time is done add a 1/4 cup of cheese to each pepper. Add the lid back on the slow cooker and let the cheese melt, it will only take a few minutes.
- Serve and enjoy!
Sarah’s Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
I absolutely don’t like Minute Rice. I’d rather use steam jasmine rice. Do you know how many cups of cooked rice I would use and the time in the crock pot? The recipe looks great! TIA
I would do a cup of cooked rice.
how can I make this into a meatloaf my youngest does not like green peppers ty and love all your recipes
You can skip it or add a little more onion.
I ❤️ it
These were amazing! I made these to swap out for our regular taco night. However, I found myself debating if I should just mix everything up and put it in a taco shell. My family will definitely be craving these again soon. YUM!
i dont have minute rice..what other rice can i use
You can cook the rice first, I think that would work best. Cooking raw rice in the slow cooker doesn’t work very well, it gets chalky.
My husband and I loved these! I followed the recipe, except I left off the rice completely to make it lower carb. I was afraid they would have too much liquid that way, but they were wonderful! Leftovers were great, too. Thank you! These will be a go-to recipe now. Very easy!
Could I use Bread crumbs in place of the saltines? If so, how much bread crumbs?
I would start with a 1/4 cup and see if the meat holds together with that amount. I apologize that I don’t have an exact answer without test it out.
Could you use riced caulflower instead of minute rice?
I don’t see why not.
Would this work making it up the night before and cooking the next day?
Yes, it would work great.
It took an additional hour to cook the bell peppers on high. I prefer my bell peppers cooked rather than crunchy.
Thanks for letting us know about the bell peppers.
I made this recipe I hope it comes out delicious cause it looked tasty but I stuck the peppers in a roaster instead cause I only have a 4qt crock pot and I made a lot cause I’m feeding my son myself and my fiancee and my son’s grandparents on his dad’s side. I doubled the recipe is that okay cause how many people are eating them?
I think that would work great. How did you like them?