Here’s the recipe from yesterday’s post. You’ll notice we used a small amount of beans in the recipe — it’s because we only filled three of the chiles with beans and cheese; the rest were cheese only. Enjoy!
Ingredients
For the chiles:
8 poblano chiles
1/4 kilo block of Mexican manchego cheese, cut into three-inch strips (just shorter than the length of our chiles)
About 1/4 cup of beans of your choice
1/2 c. flour
5 eggs
1/2 to 1 c. vegetable oil
For the sauce:
6 tomatoes, quartered
1/4 of a medium-sized white onion
1 large garlic clove
1 cube of Knorr-Suiza chicken bouillon, Better than Bouillon, or broth and seasonings of your choice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1. Toasting. Roast all of your chiles on a comal or in a very hot oven, until blackened on all sides. Transfer the chiles to a plastic or paper bag, and place the bag in a larger bowl. Cover with dish towels and let sit for 20 to 25 minutes, until the chiles have softened and are easier to peel.
2. The sauce. While the chiles rest, place your tomatoes, garlic and onion in a blender jar, and blend until liquified. (You don’t want to see any large chunks.) Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat, and have a strainer ready. When the oil is hot, place the strainer over the pan and pour your sauce through the strainer into the hot oil. Tap the strainer lightly and to make sure you get out all the excess liquid. Juanita also pressed down on the tomato pulp inside the strainer, just to make sure she got every last drop. Bring sauce to a boil, add your broth and then let simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, until the sauce has turned a deep red color.
3. Peeling and seeding. Once you’ve set the sauce to cook, return to your chiles. Peel each chile of all visible skin. (Use a knife to help scrape it off, if you like.) When the chiles have been peeled, rinse them under cold water to remove any blackened bits. Place them in a colander to drain. Then, grab each chile and cut a slit down the side — pay attention if there’s already a small slit in any of the chiles from roasting. If there is, use that as your starting point. Don’t cut all the way to the bottom or else the filling will spill out. Leave at least an inch of space near the stem and the tip.
[Note: It’s a good idea to check on your tomato sauce here. Give it a stir and adjust your seasonings, if need be.]
Taking care not to make the gashes in your chiles any wider, gently reach into each chile with a small spoon, or your (hopefully gloved) hands, and scrape out any seeds and veins. When each chile has been deseeded, set them aside.
4. Assembly. Clear a space on your kitchen table or counter and assemble your cheese strips and your freshly deseeded, cut chiles. Pick up one chile, and gently stuff it with the strip of cheese, folding the sides of the chile over each other so the cheese is completely covered. If you are using beans, add the cheese first and then a few tablespoons of beans. Continue until all the chiles have been stuffed.
Sprinkle your flour on a plate or workspace. Using the tips of your fingers to make sure the filling doesn’t spill out, carefully dredge each chile in flour and set aside.
5. The egg batter. Add egg whites only to a mixing bowl; beat for about 5 minutes, until fluffy and thickened. Check out this picture for the type of texture you’re looking for. After your egg whites are sufficiently beaten, add your eggs and lightly beat until they’re combined. Don’t over-mix.
6. Frying. Heat about 1/3 c. of vegetable oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet. (If you have a larger skillet that can fit more than one chile, you may want use more.) When the oil is hot, dunk each flour-dredged chile in the egg batter. Pull it out by its stem and place in the hot pan. Fry until golden-brown on all sides. Drain each chile on a plate lined with paper towels, or kitchen paper.
To serve, place one chile on a plate. Top with a few healthy ladles of tomato sauce. Eat and try not to moan.
I’ve never tried them with beans, usually it’s picadillo or cheese. Will def do so. I always screw up when frying them, the egg browns too much. I guess it just takes practice. Your blog makes me miss Mexico so much. Thanks for posting.
Love your blog. Chiles Rellenos when I was in Viet Nam one of my fellow soldiers that was from Texas would recieve cans of Jalapeno peppers stuffed with shrimp. I live in California and have never been able to find them. My question is living in mexico have you ever seen or heard of such a thing. Just wondering no need to reply.
thank you for posting how to make traditional chili rellenos.any one who has a mother,aunt,grandmother,etc.that shares the original tradition of thier family roots in cooking,i think is lucky.never take anything for granted,cherish every day and what you can learn.it usually brings family together.my grandmother passed away i did not get the chance like some others have but i do enjoy learning from others.thank-u once agin for this posting.bendiga a todos!
I know this is an old recipe, but I was out at the 126 and the farms and they had wonderful pasillo chilies. I bought them and my husband said to make chili relleno. Well, I”ve never made them before although I do cook a lot of Mexican dinners (so cal you know, ) Anyway, I went on a search for the perfect rellenos and finally came upon your site. I felt it was perfect and started my journey for those wonderful rellenos! I have to tell you that they were completely amazing! I have swollen ankles, lol, but so worth it! Just so great. I absolutely have to thank you for myself and my family for such a wonderful tasting dinner.
Hi Tracy: I’m glad this worked out for you, swollen ankles and all! 🙂 Thanks so much for commenting.
My husband is Mexican and came over here as a young boy. He asked me to make Chile Rellenos one day and I, Thankfully, found your blog! I honestly LOVE making these….they take such tender care and mine are always perfectly golden and SOO addicting. Our teen “hated” these at other people’s houses but when i made your recipe, she was hooked too! They’re now a Family Favorite and I make them 2-3 times a month. Thank You so much for sharing this experience with us, I love your blog!
Hi Amber: This comment made my day! Thank you so much for sharing, and for reading. I’m really glad the chiles rellenos worked out for you.
Can you take Chiles after they are stuffed and freeze them..This has been the best recipe I have found..Thank You
Hi Gerrie: I haven’t tried freezing the stuffed chiles, but my hunch is that it wouldn’t work. The chiles do carry a bit of water naturally, and I think freezing them may knock off the balance of the egg batter, and perhaps they wouldn’t puff up so nicely once they’re fried in the pan. I have also heard warnings against freezing cooked beans, so I’ve never done it. Some people on the Internet have and insist it’s fine. My advice would be — maybe try one and report back what happens? Hope that helps.
Chiles Rellenos are my boyfriend’s favorite Mexican food, and after quite a bit of searching, I found your site! I plan to try the recipe next week, but I have a question–you call for a boullion cube OR “broth”–do you mean a solid cube without liquid or alternatively using some amount of liquid broth? I plan to use a boullion cube, but I want to make sure I shouldn’t be adding any additional liquid.
Hi Tessa: I’m trying to remember, but I’m pretty sure I meant a cube with liquid. The sauce shouldn’t be super thick, so I would have some prepared broth at the ready, to pour into the pan and thin it out if need be. The sauce should be like a slightly thick soup — not a puree. I’m sure it will be fine, as long as you taste it and make sure it tastes like you want it to.
Also, on a separate note, I apologize for the vaguely written recipe! This post is already more than three years old, and I’d like to say I’ve gotten better since then. Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions.
Thanks! Everything else looks pretty clear, I was just happy to find an authentic recipe. I’ll definitely follow up with the results later this week.
Hi Lesley–I made these last night and they turned out perfectly! I just splashed a little broth in with the tomato sauce and it worked fine. I think the most delicate/tedious part which wasn’t mentioned in the recipe is how fragile the chiles are after roasting and that it’s pretty tricky to seed them while keeping the slit small. However, despite my fear that I had botched a few (slit end-to-end), the flour acts as a glue and the egg batter kind of seals them back up, so there were no leaks. Thanks for helping me conquer my fear of frying! I’ll be making these again just as soon as the first round of “fried” smell is gone from my kitchen 🙂
Its been 7 years since you posted this so I’m hoping you get this comment 🙂 Do you think I could use a deep fryer to fry them? And if yes, what temp. would you recommend? Thank you so much!
Hi Stevie: I think you can. I went to a cooking demo at a book festival few weekends ago, and one of the chefs used a deep fryer for this dish. I’m not sure what temperature. You may need to experiment. In regular oil they cook pretty fast, and the chef’s dish seemed to be done very quickly also. (I think he did flip it in the oil, if that helps.) Best of luck!