Chiles Rellenos, Third World Countyâ„¢ Style
6 (green) anaheim or poblano peppers
2 lg. eggs
1/2 tsp. salt, if you want
Monterey Jack cheese, sliced or grated
Flour
Oil
Broil the peppers until their skins are bubbly (you can see them char a bit and even hear them pop sometimes). You’ll need to turn them at least once, so watch ’em! Remove the peppers from the oven, and put ’em in a plastic bag. Set ’em aside and let ’em, cool for a while (this would be a good time to start heating your pan, eh?). Peel the outer layer of skin. Slice down one side and remove seeds. Stuff the peppers with cheese (see note below). Beat the eggs with 1/8-1/8 c flour. Add salt. Dip the stuffed peppers into egg mixture. Dredge ’em in flour. Fry them in hot oil until they’re golden brown all over.
Sauce:
Take a can of green chiles (or broil and peel some extra green anaheims, then steam, add water, etc.) and puree it. OR just use some canned green enchilada sauce. Nummies.
Notes:
- I like the lil extra spiciness of the poblanos as against the milder anaheims. Nice change of pace. YMMV (Poblanos taste kinda like a spicier version of your garden variety bell pepper.)
- I like to brown some hamburger with LOTS of freshly-ground cumin as seasoning and add that to the pepper stuffing.
- If you were especially vigorous removing seeds *a-hem*, you may find that pinning the slit on the peppers with some wooden toothpicks then frying and removing the toothpicks will help keep the slits closed.
- Note the usual warnings about handling peppers apply. Anaheims and poblanos are both relatively mild peppers, but some folks are more sensitive than others. Keep your hands away from your face until after they’ve been washed and if you’re particularly sensitive, well, why are you making this recipe, anyway?
- Also, pick peppers with nice, long, sturdy stems, so you can use the stems when dipping/dredging, turning the peppers, etc. Handy.
- Some like a tomato-based sauce. If you wanna go that way, just about any generic tomato-based pasta sauce will do, if you add some green anaheim chiles to it. Heck, you can even add the browned ground beef/cumin I suggest to that.
- Also note that for frying these I prefer (in descending order)
Corn oil
Olive oil (watch it! Olive oil won’t take the higher heat corn oil will!)
Vegetable oil that does NOT contain soybean oil
Serve this as a part of a Tex-Mex Border-style meal. Rice, refried beans, etc.