Stuffed Pepper Meatballs
We love love love stuffed peppers. I don’t know if it’s a regional midwestern thing – I mean we do love anything we can cook in a casserole dish. These are a great weeknight alternative to stuffing peppers with the same great flavors.
Stuffed Pepper Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 cup Italian style breadcrumbs
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbs butter
- 1 cup cooked white rice
- 1 red pepper minced
- 1/2 small onion minced
- salt & pepper to taste
- 27 cubes pepper jack cheese
- 27 small slices of provolone cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a saucepan add the butter and once the butter is melted add the minced peppers and onions. Cook until soft – about 15 mins. Set them aside and let them cool before adding to the meat mixture.
- In a bowl combine ground meat, Italian breadcrumbs, eggs, cooked rice, sauteed peppers and onions. Season to taste salt and pepper.
- Take the meat mixture and flatten in the palm of your hand. Take one of the pepper jack pieces and wrap the meat mixture around the cheese. Roll the meat mixture and cheese around in your hand to form a ball.
- Place your meatballs on a greased baking sheet, add a slice of provolone on the top of each meatball and place in the oven. Bake for 25 mins.
I do sauté the peppers and onions for this before I add it to the meat mixture to make sure the peppers and onions are soft. You could probably put these ingredients in raw and it would change the texture of the meatballs – it would add little pops of crunch from the peppers and onions. The meatballs aren’t in the oven that long so those items probably won’t get as soft as they do when sautéing them first.
Once you have all of your ingredients well mixed you can flatten out the mixture so you can place a cube of pepper jack in the middle and roll the meat around the cheese until you have a nice little ball. I place mine on a foil lined baking sheet with a little cooking spray to help them not stick and for faster cleanup.
For this recipe to add more cheese I top each meatball with a little slice of provolone – because when is more cheese a bad thing?? You can use any sliced cheese you’d like to top these meatballs with – if you want more spice you can use sliced pepper jack cheese – for a little saltier cheese you can use Munster. The options are really endless and you can make these meatballs custom to what your family likes.
Once you have all the meatballs rolled out and stuffed and topped with cheese you can pop them in a preheated oven and cook for 25 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
I like to serve these with some fresh veggies for a lighter dinner option or you can always add these to the menu for a meatball party for a meatball with some spice and a lot of cheese. This recipe also makes some darn good meatball subs as well.
We love stuffed peppers in our house hold so it only made sense for me to make them into meatballs. These meatballs are so delicious with the sautéd peppers and onions. The rice gives them a little body and different texture and it sneaks in more of those carbs we all really love. The pepper jack cheese gives these little balls a little kick of heat and the melted provolone on the top just adds more cheese – because is there ever too much cheese?>
More Recipes By Category
Midwestern Meatballs
We live in the Midwest and there are so many classic recipes that the rest of the country is missing out on. I’m here to help share those recipes in meatball form.
Classic Meatballs
I have some classic meatballs that are the foundation of a lot of my meatball recipes. You’ll find some basic meatball recipes and recipes that we are grew up with and love.
Stuffed Meatballs
I love stuffing meatballs – and once you start browsing the site you’ll see that I’m pretty creative with what I can come up with to stuff my balls with – and every recipe is delicious.
