Chile Rellenos are a pain to make.  But if you’ve ever had one, you know it’s well worth the effort.  This recipe is a conglomeration of different techniques and ingredients I have tried over the years.  With rellenos there are usually two types of batter or coating that is used.  The first is with a fluffy egg batter and the second is a crunchier style.  This recipe is for the crunchy style.

So here are the ingredients:

• 4 Anaheim or Pasilla peppers.  The larger and more dark green the better. These will be roasted, peeled, seeded and the stuffed.  Directions to follow.

For Stuffing the Peppers:

• 1 large chicken breast boiled and shredded. (For this recipe I used left-over rotisserie chicken)
• 2 ears corn on cob roasted then kernels shaved off the cob.
• ¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• ¼ cup sharp cheddar cheese
• ¼ cream cheese (optional)

For the Sauce:

• 4-5 dried Ancho(Pasilla) peppers.  Or for this recipe I used 3 Anchos and 2 New Mexico.  The New Mexico chiles add a bit more spice.
• 1 lb. can of skinned stewed tomatoes.
• 1-2 cloves of garlic. Or 3 just for fun.
• ½ cup chopped cilantro
• 1-2 pinch salt or to taste
• 1 small onion chopped
• 3-4 tablespoons sour cream

For the Batter:

• 1 Beer.  I brew my own, so I used 1 bottle of my Robust Vanilla Porter.
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 2 cups flour
• 3 eggs

Miscellaneous:

• 3-4 cups vegetable oil for frying
• 3 cups cornmeal for breading rellenos
• 2 cups flour for dusting rellenos
• avocado, sour cream, cilantro for garnish

Preparing the Chilis:

Get the larger greener peppers.  There is a saying that the length of the stem determines how hot the pepper is.  But the problem is that I don’t remember if short means hot or long means hot.  These chilis had long stems and had a bit of kick to them so maybe long stem = hot chile.

Roast the peppers in the oven until the skin starts to bubble and blacken.  Throw a couple ears of corn without the husk in too so they can raost along with the peppers.  You’ll use the corn for the stuffing.Turn occasionally so that each side of peppers have bubbles.  They look real ugly at this point but don’t worry this is how they should look.

Remove the peppers from the oven and then place them in a plastic bag.  Tie the bag shut and leave the peppers in there for about 20 minutes.  This is going to sweat the peppers so the skins are easier to remove.  You can start preparing the other items of the recipe during the 20 minutes to speed things along.

After your 20 minutes is up, remove the peppers from the bag and place on a plate to cool.  You should now be able to carefully peel the skin off the peppers as shown in the photo below.

After all the skins are off the peppers you will now have to remove the seeds.  This is a tricky procedure as now the peppers are very delicate.  I like to cut a T in the pepper with a horizontal cut near the stem and a vertical cut about one half the length down the pepper.  Then using a sharp paring knife cut the seed ball from the stem and then spoon out with a small spoon.

It is important to get as many seeds out as possible because the seeds are what add the most heat.

After you have seeded the peppers set aside.

For the Stuffing:

Boil a chicken breast and then when cool, shred it.  Alternatively if you have leftover rotisserie chicken from the night before, use that.  Put shredded chicken in a mixing bowl.    For the corn, you should have roasted this with the peppers until golden brown.  Even some blackening is OK. 

Shave the kernels off the cob with a sharp knife. 

Add shredded cheese and roasted corn to the chicken and mix with a spoon.

With a spoon, gently stuff the peppers with this mixture.  Fill them as much as possible without splitting the peppers.

Set the peppers aside.

Making the Sauce:

(You can begin this step while the pasilla peppers are roasting in the oven and when peppers are sweating.)

Place dried chiles on a pan on medium and heat until they are roasted.  Turn over after a few minutes. You will be able to smell the chiles when they start to roast.  They also may puff up as they begin to roast.

After chiles are roasted set aside to cool.  When they are cool, break off the stems and then break pods open and remove and discard the seeds.  Then rip the chiles into smaller pieces and place into a measuring cup with about a cup of warm water.  Soak the chiles in the water until soft.

Combine the chiles and water with the tomatoes, onions, cilantro, garlic and puree in a blender.

After blending, pour the mixture into a large saucepan and bring to a boil.   As soon as boil starts reduce heat to low, add sour cream, salt and pepper to taste, and simmer until ready to serve. 

Making the batter:

Mix the ingredients for the batter in a large mixing bowl.  Mixture should be a little less dense than pancake batter.

Breading and Frying the Chiles:

Here I like to set a sort of assembly line with a bowl of flour, the beer batter, and bowl of corn meal.  This should go right by the frying pan you will be frying the chiles.

First you will coat each chile with flour so the batter will stick.  Just a light coating is fine.

Then you will dip the pepper into the batter and coat completely.  It helps to use a spoon to help coat the pepper with the batter.

Now dip the pepper into the cornmeal and again use a spoon to make sure the entire pepper is coated in the cornmeal.

After you coat with the cornmeal, place the pepper into the frying pan with about 2-3 cups oil on med to med/hi.  The oil should be hot but not smoking.  Be carefull here because oil can spatter. If you have a mesh splatter guard, it helps to use it during this step to avoid splashing hot oil.

Continue the above steps for each chile pepper.  Here is a photo of chiles frying under the spatter guard.  Using tongs, turn each pepper as they start to brown.

When chiles are done and golden brown and crispy, remove using tongs and place on paper towels to absorb any excess oil. 

Plate the Chile Rellenos:

The sauce you have been simmering should be done now.  Spoon a generous amount of sauce onto a plate and place a chile relleno on top of the sauce.  Garnish the chile with some sour cream, cilantro and avacado.  Serve with Spanish style rice if you like.

I hope you enjoyed reading the recipe and that you like the rellenos you make.  It’s a lenthy process to make rellenos, but once you get the hang of it it’s not so bad.  And as I said before, it’s well worth the effort for a delicious chile relleno.

Please leave some feedback, and enjoy some of my other articles.  Thanks!

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