Chiles Rellenos is a very special dish that we seem to reserve for guests. Now that the kids are older, I should make them more often for just us, because family are the best people to share your best dishes with!
A Very Delicious Stuffed Pepper
Almost every culture has some sort of stuffed pepper, but Chiles Rellenos are very special here along the border. The preparation is rather lengthy, but then they stuffed peppers have to be fried right before serving in a light airy egg batter. Very delicate and very worth the extra effort!
Fresh chile poblano are the types of chiles you will need for making Chiles Rellenos. Freshly roasted Hatch chiles or Anaheim chiles are acceptable substitutes, but you definitely can’t use canned chiles for this dish. Bell peppers are not a great substitute as they have so much moisture.
If you are wondering if poblano chiles are spicy, I can’t really answer that question. Each harvest has a different level of spiciness, sor of like a chile roulette! You never know what you will get! Chile poblano can occasionally be outrageously spicy, but lately all the chiles I have purchased have been on the mild side. There is no way to tell how spicy they are until you take that first bite!
Cheese or Beef?
The cheese filled ones seem to be the most popular, so that is the recipe I am featuring here. But you can easily make beef filled Chiles Rellenos by using leftover beef picadillo, a beef stew made from ground meat.
Also, I love to roast both the chile poblano and tomatoes and spicy chile serrano for the sauce all at the same time for convenience. The vegetables will roast at different rates, so make sure you remove wach one when it reaches its full level of roastiness!
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