I tried stuffed-pepper recipes from three chefs to find the best

I tested stuffed-pepper recipes from Alex Guarnaschelli, Ree Drummond, and Giada De Laurentiis to find a dependable go-to. Stuffed peppers are an easy way to add vegetables to a meal and scale up for a crowd or leftovers, but these recipes differed in balance, texture, and technique.

Ree Drummond’s version used a lot of fresh produce—zucchini, onion, garlic, Roma tomatoes, and bell peppers—plus ground beef and a mix of long-grain and wild rice. I precooked the beef, sautéed the vegetables, mixed in the rice and pepper-jack cheese (I swapped red-pepper flakes for Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning), stuffed the peppers, and baked them at 350 °F, covered for 30 minutes then uncovered for 20.

The result was creamy from the cheese but felt heavy on vegetables; it could use more meat or rice for better balance. Giada De Laurentiis’s recipe stood out by skipping ground meat and using orzo, canned tomatoes, chicken stock, zucchini, mint, and pecorino Romano.

stuffed peppers, alex guarnaschelli, ree drummond, giada, ground beef, orzo, pecorino romano, wild rice, pepper jack, zucchini