Sausage Cornbread Stuffed Peppers
These Sausage cornbread stuffed peppers are easy to make with a shortcut secret ingredient...Stove Top cornbread stuffing. (I guess it's not a secret anymore!) The stuffing lends lots of flavor and the rest of the ingredients are easy to assemble.
These peppers are not the usual stuffed pepper which includes a mix of rice and hamburger. Instead, these have a Tex-Mex flavor with sausage, roasted tomatoes, and sweet corn.
It's a great recipe to use up bell peppers from the garden and it freezes well!
Stove Top Stuffing
I know for a lot of you from-scratch cooks, adding Stove Top Stuffing mix to a batch of homegrown, organic peppers borders on blasphemy! But I like Stovetop Stuffing! There I said it!
My mom has always hated Stove Top Stuffing so we never had it at our house. I remember as a kid going to my friends for dinner and loving the salty-herb side dish and wishing my mom would make it for us. It's all the salt, right? That's why it tastes so good!
If you are a purist and have a batch of leftover, prepared cornbread you could absolutely crumble that up and use it instead of the boxed stuffing. You could probably add some cornmeal as a replacement as well.
But the Stovetop cheat makes this recipe fast and tasty!
Growing peppers
Bell peppers are always a sneaky plant in our garden. I feel like I plant them and then nothing...nothing...nothing...and just when I'm about to give up hope, we start to get peppers. I also feel like all our peppers come in at the same time.
This recipe is a great way to use up a stockpile of bell peppers.
Freezing stuffed peppers
We are a family of 3, so I usually make this recipe and we eat half for dinner and I freeze the other half.
To freeze, prepare, and cook the dish as directed minus the cheese on top. Allow to cool. Place the remaining peppers in a smaller freezer-safe pan, (I like disposable aluminum pans). Cover with aluminum foil, label, and freeze.
To serve, place the covered pan in a 350-degree oven and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover, add the cheese, and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes.
How to pick the best peppers
If you look at the bottom of a bell pepper, you might notice that some peppers have 3 bumps and some have 4. Peppers with 4 bumps are female peppers, they are full of seeds and are sweeter, especially when eaten raw. Male peppers have 3 bumps. They are not quite as sweet but hold up better while cooking.
Red peppers are the sweetest of all the bell pepper colors. They are at full ripeness and in my opinion, the most delicious.
In this recipe, I prefer the 4-bump peppers. They're sweeter and when the pepper is sliced in half, the two bumps help the pepper to lay more balanced in the cooking tray.
If you have a hard time getting your peppers to lay flat in your baking dish, bunch some aluminum foil around them to keep the peppers upright.
Choosing a sausage for stuffed peppers
We always have a freezer-full of homemade sausage that I like to use in these kinds of recipes. Our breakfast sausage recipe minus the maple flavoring is my favorite for this recipe. Our Sweet Italian Sausage recipe is also delicious! Check out our homemade sausage recipe posts.
Homemade Sweet Italian Sausage
Maple Breakfast Sausage
But if you don't have homemade sausage on hand, you can use store-bought. I like Jimmy Dean's or Bob Evan's breakfast sausage that comes in a tube. You could also experiment with chorizo which would give it
Sausage Cornbread Stuffed Bell Peppers
Recipe for Sausage Cornbread Stuffed Peppers
4 bell peppers
a 1 lb tube of your favorite ground sausage (I use Jimmy Dean Breakfast)
1 large onion chopped
can sweet corn
can diced fire-roasted tomatoes (drained)
box Cornbread Stove-Top Stuffing
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
optional (red pepper flakes, cumin, chili powder, Cayenne pepper, your favorite hot sauce, etc.)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Slice bell peppers in half lengthwise and remove stems and seeds. Place in a greased baking dish hollow side up.
Prepare stuffing according to the directions. Set aside.
In a skillet, brown the sausage. When the sausage is almost browned through add the onion and cook until translucent.
Mix in the can of corn and tomatoes and any additional seasonings. (a pinch of red pepper flakes, cumin, chili powder, Cayenne pepper, or your favorite hot sauce, etc.)
Remove from heat and add the stuffing. Mix until well incorporated.
Spoon the hot filling into the pepper halves. I really stuff it in there. And it's ok if some spills over te sides. That's just bonus stuffing.
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove and sprinkle with cheese. Return to oven for 5-10 minutes for cheese to melt.
Enjoy!
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Sausage Cornbread Stuffed Bell Peppers
These peppers are not the usual stuffed pepper which usually includes rice, hamburger and a tomato base. Instead, these have a Tex-Mex kind flavor with sausage and (cheat here) a box of Stove-Top Cornbread Stuffing. If you have a batch of leftover cornbread, you could by all means break that up and use it.
Ingredients
- 4 Bell peppers
- 1 lb. ground breakfast sausage
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 can sweet corn (drained)
- 1 can diced fire-roasted tomatoes (drained)
- 1 box Stove Top Cornbread Stuffing (prepared)
- 1 cup cheddar cheese
- 1/2 tsp. cumin
- optional: red pepper flakes, chili powder, Cayenne pepper, diced jalapenos, your favorite hot sauce, etc.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Slice bell peppers in half lengthwise and remove the stems and seeds. Place in a greased 9x13 baking dish hollow sides up.
- In a large skillet, brown the sausage. Add the onion and cook until translucent.
- Mix in the can of corn, tomatoes, and cumin, and any additional spicy seasonings you wish.
- Remove from heat and add the stuffing. Mix until well incorporated.
- Spoon the hot filling into the pepper halves.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until the peppers are tender and begin to brown.
- Remove from oven and sprinkle with cheese. Return to oven for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
