Quick and easy for weeknight dinners! Best comfort food you'll ever eat.
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Table of Contents
🗝️ Key takeaways
- It cooks so much faster than regular meatloaf recipes and it's delicous.
- This is another recipe I like for weeknights because you can assemble them ahead of time or even freeze them. Quick and easy!
- See the FAQs section for how to make these in a
slow cooker . Even easier!
A spicy, seasoned meatloaf mixture is packed into bell pepper halves. The whole thing is wrapped in bacon and baked.
The peppers and bacon add their flavors to the meat as it cooks and keeps it nice and moist.
The flavors from the bacon and peppers saturate the meat during cooking to create a family friendly meal that looks (and tastes) like you slaved in the kitchen all afternoon.
And, since you're making small meatloaves, rather than one big one, the cooking time is way shorter -- just about 30 minutes.
Think of it as stuffed peppers without rice!
🧾 Ingredients
Here are the meatloaf stuffed pepper ingredients so you can make this simple (yet stunning!) recipe-
- Bell peppers add so much flavor as the meatloaf cooks! If you have any kind of questions about peppers you'll want to read this post about bell peppers!
- Ground beef used is 90/10 or lower fat. The meatloaf stays moist because of the Bell pepper and the bacon so there's no reason to use a fattier blend.
- Panko bread crumbs add texture and help it all hold together.
- Onion adds even more flavor. Use yellow or white - either is fine.
- Spicy ketchup is my preference because I like the flavor. You can use regular ketchup if you like.
- Eggs act as a binder in this recipe. Large eggs were used.
- Salt and pepper are the only seasoning you'll need.
- Bacon adds a smoky flavor as well as helping the meat stay moist.
🔪 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the green recipe card below.
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Cut the peppers in half long-wise and remove seeds and membrane.
- Set aside.
- Mix the ground beef, breadcrumbs, onion, ketchup, eggs, salt, and pepper together until it is well blended.
- Pack an equal amount of the mixture in each Bell pepper half.
- Wind bacon around the pepper and meatloaf, securing it with toothpicks.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 155F and the bacon is crispy.
- Remove from the oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving.
See the recipe card for
🥫 How to store leftovers
You can assemble the meatloaf stuffed peppers up to 2 days ahead of time and bake them when ready.
Once baked these easy stuffed peppers will be fine in the refrigerator for about 3 or 4 days. Be sure to cover it with plastic wrap.
You can also freeze them for up to 3 months in an airtight container, baked or unbaked.
Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bake as directed. If they're cooked then thaw and heat in the microwave or in the oven.
You'll want to cook any meatloaf until an instant read thermometer registers 160F in the center.
After you take it out of the oven you'll let it stand for 5 minutes or so which allows all the juices to settle as well as bringing the final temperature up to 165F.
The nice thing about meatloaf is that it can be served at any temperature and it will still taste scrumptious!
💭 Things to know
- Save time by assembling them up to 2 days ahead of time and baking them when you are ready to eat.
- I like to cut the peppers in half longwise and fill each half with meatloaf because it cooks more quickly. You can also just cut the tops of the peppers off, clean out the seeds, and stuff the whole pepper with the meat mixture.
- You can make these on the grill - just place on top of an aluminum pan so the fat doesn't catch on fire. Add some wood chips to the grill for even more flavor from the smoke.
👩🍳 FAQs
Here are the questions I am most frequently asked about this recipe.
A conventional meatloaf made in a loaf pan cooks for about an hour however this bacon wrapped meatloaf recipe takes just 30 minutes since they are a small size.
Yes you can! You'll just cook on low for about 6 hours.
🥗 Best sides for meatloaf
- Mashed potatoes
- Macaroni and cheese
- Noodles Romanoff
- Cheesy hashbrown casserole
- Corn Pudding
- Green Beans
- Maple roasted carrots
- Salad
- Cloverleaf Rolls
📖 Variations
These easy mini meatloaf stuffed peppers have plenty of variations - and because they freeze really well they're great to have on hand. Here are some of my favorites.
- Use poblano peppers.
- Use the small sweet peppers to use this recipe to make appetizers. Bake for just 10 to 15 minutes or until the internal temp is 160.
- Add a slice of cheese to the top before wrapping in the bacon.
- Make cheese-stuffed meatloaf by forming the ground beef around a cube or two of Pepper-Jack cheese.
- Substitute crushed crackers for the Panko.
- Hollow out Vidalia onions and use in place of the Bell peppers. So good!
- Ground venison works really well in this recipe because this cooks in bell peppers and is wrapped in bacon. The fat helps it to stay moist.
📚 Related recipes
Here are some more of my favorite quick and easy recipes.
- Chicken Alfredo Ravioli takes no more than 15 minutes if you start with a rotisserie chicken from the deli.
- Meatballs with Honey Garlic Sauce are sweet and tangy - and best of all just take about 30 minutes.
- Bourbon Chicken is another 30 minute meal that tastes just like the food court favorite!
- Shrimp Po' Boy with Spicy Avocado Remoulade just needs some chips to round out the meal.
- Stuffed Pepper Soup is so good and it takes just 30 minutes or less -- or you can make it in a
slow cooker . - Grilled Shrimp Creole is quick and easy for summer!
📞 The last word
I love meatloaf.
I know it's totally not a cool thing to love but to me it is one of those iconic comfort foods from my childhood. It's inexpensive, easy to make, and if you are lucky enough to have leftovers (we never do) it's even better the next day.
The extra flavor that it gets when made into these meatloaf-stuffed Bell peppers wrapped in bacon just takes it right over the top!
One of the things I like to do is make a bunch of them when I have some free time then wrap them individually in plastic wrap and freeze in a freezer container.
Doing it that way means I can make as many as I need without thawing all of them. That's super important during those times everyone is going in different directions at different times!
Next time try this classic Heinz 57 Meatloaf.
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need.
If you love this recipe please comment below and give it 5 stars!
📖 Recipe
Meatloaf Stuffed Bell Peppers Wrapped in Bacon
Print Pin Recipe Save Recipe Rate RecipeIngredients
- 3 bell peppers, large
- 2 pounds ground beef
- ¾ cup bread crumbs, I used Panko
- ½ cup onion, finely chopped
- ¼ cup sriracha ketchup, use plain catsup if you don't like it spicy
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons black pepper
- 12 slices bacon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Cut the peppers in half long-wise and remove seeds and membrane.
- Set aside.
- Mix the ground beef, breadcrumbs, onion, ketchup, eggs, salt, and pepper together until it is well blended.
- Pack an equal amount of the mixture in each Bell pepper half.
- Wind bacon around the pepper and meatloaf, securing it with toothpicks.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 155F and the bacon is crispy.
- Remove from the oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving.
Slow Cooker Instructions
- Don't wrap with bacon - place cooked, crumbled bacon on the top after cooking.
- Prepare as above but without wrapping with bacon.
- Add ¼ cup of water or tomato juice to the slow cooker.
- Add the meatloaf stuffed peppers to the slow cooker.
- Cook on low 6 hours.
- Serve.
Notes
- Use poblano peppers.
- Use the small sweet peppers to use this recipe to make appetizers. Bake for just 10 to 15 minutes or until the internal temp is 160.
- Add a slice of cheese to the top before wrapping in the bacon.
- Make cheese stuffed meatloaf by forming the ground beef around a cube or two of Pepper-Jack cheese.
- Substitute crushed crackers for the Panko.
- Make on the grill - just place on top of an aluminum pan so the fat doesn't catch on fire. Add some wood chips for even more flavor.
- Hollow out Vidalia onions and use in place of the Bell peppers. So good!
- Ground venison works really well in this recipe because this cooks in Bell peppers and is wrapped in bacon. The fat helps it to stay moist.
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
✍🏻 A note from Marye...
I know y'all don't always like the stories bloggers tell so when I have one I try to put it at the very bottom so you can read or skip as you like.
Today I was running late, as usual. I had the ingredients for meatloaf out when I spotted some red Bell peppers in the fridge that definitely needed to be used.
Please tell me that I am not the only one that goes to Costco, sees all this amazing fresh produce, then loses it in the auxiliary fridge until it's almost too late!
Being totally honest? Sometimes it's way, way, way too late and I just have to feel guilty and through the fuzzy, blue mass away, wondering what it was before it was fuzzy and blue.
First published October 5, 2015. Last updated May August 24,2023 to improve user experience and add more information.
Emmie Stacy says
Wow, these are soooo good! I love stuffed peppers and this is my first time ever making them with meatloaf and wrapping them in bacon. Excellent! The only thing I did differently was I rubbed the peppers in olive oil and spread some spaghetti sauce on the inside of the peppers before filling them with the meatloaf. Now though I have extra meatloaf so I'm thinking about baking it as meatloaf then crumbling the meat and adding to spaghetti for tonight's dinner.
Marye says
THat sounds great!
Amy says
My mom used to make meatloaf stuffed peppers growing up and I loved them.Your version has me so excited! I can't wait to try this "grown up" version, I say grown up because I wouldn't eat spicy food as a kid, but I love it now.
Kacey @ The Cookie Writer says
Holy moly, girl, this has to be the best thing ever! I love making meatloaf and stuffed peppers, but combining them together and adding bacon?! I know my husband is going to thank me later!
Paula - bell'alimento says
This might be my new favorite stuffed pepper recipe. Looks incredible.
Kristen @ A Mind Full Mom says
Cool or not, I love meatloaf too and this meatloaf may just make it cool!