Crock Pot stuffed peppers are loaded with lean ground turkey, cooked rice, and then topped with a flavorful tomato sauce for an easy and healthy weeknight dinner recipe. Making this gluten-free stuffed bell peppers recipe in the slow cooker also makes clean-up a breeze!
Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers Aroma Fills the House!
One of the best smells is the aroma that fills the air when I walk into the house and can smell these slow cooker stuffed peppers cooking away!
There is no worrying about prepping vegetables for dinner, slaving away over a hot stove, or making last-minute trips to the grocery store because I forgot an ingredient.
Nope! I thought ahead, stuffed the bell peppers with a bit of ground turkey and rice, and Cohl and I are now about to enjoy the fruits of my labor.
Anyone else out there get super excited when you come home to Crock Pot recipes?
Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers Recipe for Busy Weeknights
This Crock Pot stuffed peppers recipe is an easy and healthy recipe to make on those busy weeknights when you would normally go through the drive-thru or order takeout.
The time these stuffed bell peppers with ground turkey are in the slow cooker can vary according to how long you will be gone.
You can cook these Crock Pot stuffed peppers on high for as little as 4 hours or on Low for up to 8 hours.
Having this sort of variability in cook times can really help you plan your meals around your hectic schedule versus the other way around.
How to Make Stuffed Bell Peppers?
So you know that we cook these stuffed bell peppers in the Crock Pot for a few hours, but exactly how do you make stuffed peppers? (See the full recipe and ingredients in the recipe card below.)
- The first step when making stuffed bell peppers is to cut around the stem of the bell pepper and remove it, the seeds, and as much of the membranes (the white stuff!) as you can. Keep the bell pepper stem, though!
- Once your bell peppers are prepped, you will be mixing together the ground turkey, rice, and seasonings. There is no need to cook the ground turkey prior to making these Crock Pot stuffed peppers, but you WILL want to use pre-cooked rice. Throw all of your ingredients together in a large bowl and mix together.
- You’ve got your prepped peppers, your ground turkey and rice mixture, and now all you have to do is stuff your bell peppers with the ground turkey and rice mixture. Go ahead and fill ’em all the way up because they will reduce down quite a bit in the slow cooker!
- Pop your stuffed peppers in the Crock Pot and pour 1/4 cup water in the bottom to create a good bit of steam and to prevent your stuffed bell peppers from burning.
- Set your slow cooker to High for 4 hours, or Low for up to 8 hours. During the last 30 minutes, whisk together the tomato sauce ingredients, pour over your stuffed bell peppers, and let them finish cooking.
- Very Important Step! The ground turkey and rice mixture will release quite a bit of moisture into the bell peppers, so simply cut a small slit in the bottom of each pepper before removing from the Crock Pot.
- Serve with fresh parsley and mozzarella cheese and enjoy!
Perfect Crock Pot for this Stuffed Peppers Recipe
Honestly, you cannot really go wrong when selecting a slow cooker to use for this stuffed peppers recipe.
Slow cookers are an extremely affordable kitchen appliance that are well worth the space they take up in your kitchen.
They come in various sizes, but I would highly encourage you to get at least a 6-QT Crock-Pot.
This will give you plenty of room to make big batches of soup, stew or these Crock Pot stuffed peppers!
Don’t Want to Clean Up a Mess?
Sometimes your slow cooker can be a bit of a hassle to clean-up.
If you want to save even more time, these Slow Cooker Liners can be thrown away after use.
What to Serve with Stuffed Peppers?
You’ve got your ground turkey stuffed peppers simmering away in the slow cooker, but what side dish goes with stuffed bell peppers?
You can really let your imagination soar here, but a few of my favorite quick and easy side dishes include:
- Honey Oven Roasted Broccoli with Garlic
- Ultra Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Garlic + Herbs
- Crispy Brussels Sprouts with Bacon
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Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers with Ground Turkey
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Ingredients
- 6 bell peppers tops, seeds, and membranes removed
- 1 lb. ground turkey 93/7
- ½ cup sweet onion finely diced
- 1 ½ cups cooked rice
- ½ tsp. garlic powder divided
- 1 tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. pepper
- 1 tsp. dried herbs divided, thyme or rosemary
- 1 ½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce divided
- ¼ cup water
- 12 oz. can tomato sauce
- ½ cup Mozzarella cheese optional
- Parsley optional
Instructions
- Cut the tops off of 6 bell peppers (red, yellow, green, or orange) and remove the seeds and membranes. Save the tops for later.
- In a large bowl combine uncooked ground turkey, diced onion, cooked rice, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder, salt, pepper, ½ teaspoon dried herbs, and 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce. Mix until combined.
- Stuff bell peppers with equal amounts of the turkey-rice mixture. Cover bell peppers with tops and place in a 6-quart slow cooker.
- Pour ¼ cup water in the bottom of the slow cooker and cook for 4 hours on high or up to 8 hours on low.
- During the last 30 minutes of cooking, whisk together the tomato sauce, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon dried herbs, and ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce in a medium-sized bowl. Remove tops from the bell peppers and pour tomato sauce over each. Top with Mozzarella cheese if desired and finish cooking for the last 30 minutes.
- Just before serving, cut a small slit in the bottom of the bell peppers to let any excess liquid out.
- Sprinkle bell peppers with fresh parsley and enjoy!
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Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I put sauce in bottom of cooker instead of water for added taste.
That sounds delicious!
Can you make this without the rice?
Hi Danielle! I have not personally tried and I think you would need to do quite a bit of tweaking to get the liquid ratio just right. But if you try it out I would love to know how it goes for you!
My mother always used rice and used “Minute Rice” so that the rice was never undercooked. I prefer to use seasoned bread crumbs to hold the mixture together and cooking wine (red or marsala) for the liquid. When I don’t have a big can of tomato sauce in the pantry, I use a large jar of pasta sauce and also (optional) throw in a can of diced tomatoes. Using seasoned bread crumbs can cut down on the seasonings you add but it’s really hard to ruin this recipe! If you make more than you can eat in one sitting, it reheats superbly and you can opt to freeze the peppers in quantities that make it easy to reheat 1 or 2 for lunch of “Dinner for One!” Also works well served over a bed of mashed potatoes (champ. . .mash!)
Hi,
Quick question—I’d like to make this recipe soon! Do you use UNCOOKED pre-cooked rice (Minute Rice), or cook the pre-cooked rice prior to mixing with the turkey, etc.?
Thanks!
Hi Marge! I use cooked regular rice (not Minute Rice). I cook it either in the Instant Pot, rice cooker, or on the stovetop! Thank you for your question. I can’t wait to hear what you think about the peppers!
Can i use cooked minute rice??
Yes, any pre-cooked rice should work for this recipe.
Hi London, thinking of throwing together these bad boys! Do you use breast mince?? What sort of tomato sauce do you use? Pasta, Passata, Ketchup?? Thanks
Hi Bobby-Jo! For this recipe I used ground turkey, but you can also use ground chicken or ground pork! For the tomato sauce, you might refer to it as passata… it comes in the can. Definitely would not use ketchup or pasta sauce here. Hope you enjoy!
I probably make Stuffed Peppers once a week so I vary it up a ton with different stuffing mixtures as well as different peppers to stuff the mixture into. One of my favorites is the Poblano. They have an earthier taste and the walls of the peppers aren’t as thick as the bells. Making them in a Slow Cooker is such a great method. It makes it so easy.
That’s amazing, Mike!! I would love to know what different types of stuffing you use. Stuffed peppers are so versatile! Thanks so much for your comment and rating 🙂