The Secret Ingredient for the Best Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed peppers can take many forms, but there’s one simple secret ingredient that will make any version the absolute most delicious you’ll ever eat. So what’s the secret to the best stuffed peppers ever.

But hear me out! The thing about most stuffed bell pepper recipes is that they call for salt in the filling not for the peppers themselves. Without salt the peppers are flabby and bland merely a filling case. With a sprinkle of salt they transform into a sweet and powerfully savory part of the dish.

OK, more than a sprinkle; you’ll want to salt the inside and outside (if you’ve peeled the peppers—if not you can skip the outside part) and then be sure to properly salt the filling too.

Do this for big stuffed bell peppers and little stuffed jalapeño poppers, whether you bake, broil, or grill them. Do it for cheese-stuffed chiles rellenos too. And use this trick when you make stuffed tomatoes and stuffed zucchini boats as well. Just remember that different types of salt taste more or less salty than others so start cautiously and add more to taste.

Stuffed peppers are so easy that I’m going to give you a wing-it recipe. Substitute at will. Nice additions might be finely chopped raisins, olives, capers, hard-boiled eggs, beans, grated zucchini, or crumbled cheese. Just follow the two salting steps you might otherwise forget about and you’ll be amazed at how much better these taste than the last ones you ate.

How to Make the Best Stuffed Bell Peppers

• Uncooked rice, any kind, about 1/2 cup
• 4 bell peppers, any color or size, washed, 1/2 inch from the top, cores and ribs discarded
• Butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped into sizes you like to eat
• 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 1 pound of ground meat
• Worcestershire sauce
• Some form of tomato: chopped fresh, canned (small can oughta do it) tomato sauce, even ketchup
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 egg
• Grated cheese

1. Cook the rice as usual. Feel free to swap in any whole grain instead.

2. While that’s cooking, start water boiling in a pot big enough to hold your four peppers. Stir in enough salt to make it as salty as seawater, at least a tablespoon per four quarts.

3. When the water boils, dump in your peppers. Let them sit until they’re just starting to get soft, about three minutes. Remove them from the water with tongs and let the peppers drain in a colander while you prepare the filling.

4. Put a big knob of butter into a pan and heat over medium high. When the butter foams tip in the onions and cook until soft, a couple of minutes. Shake some salt over them.

5. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant.

6. Stir in the meat and cook until it’s no longer pink. Salt the living hell out of it, and chuck Worcestershire on it until it tastes good to you.

7. Put the meat in a bowl and let it sit for a few minutes. Stir in the rice. Stir in whatever tomato form you’re using until the mixture looks nice and moist and juicy. Taste for salt—you want this thing good and salty so go nuts. Put some pepper on there too. Taste it again. Hey that’s not bad. Maybe you’ll eat lunch right here over the sink.

8. Crack the egg on top of the meat and rice and stir it up good.

9. Sprinkle salt all over the peppers, inside and outside. Stand them up in a 9-inch square baking dish.

10. Using a soup spoon, squish the stuffing into the peppers, making sure to pack it in tightly. I despise cheese but there are people who seem to like it, so if you are one of them, throw your grated cheese over the top now. Yuck. You just ruined it, but OK.