BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Mexican Food Chile Rellenos

Isabel, do you have a good recipe for Chili Rellenos? Where I live, there is not one restaurant that knows how to fix them right. The ones I always loved, when living in California, were soft (not deep-fried), filled with cheese and served with a wonderful mild sauce, and melted cheese over it.

I ordered Chili Rellenos at one restaurant here and it looked like a crispy blowfish sitting on my plate.

Hmm, this caught my eye. I recently wrote down my fav. recipe for authentic Mexican [url=http://eauthenticmexicanrecipes.com/authentic-mexican-recipes/authentic-mexican-recipes-chiles-rellenos-de-queso-chile-rellenos-with-cheese-recip]chile rellenos with cheese[/url] , but from the way you describe the ones you've tried, the authentic ones might be closer to your "crispy blowfish" ones. The authentic chile rellenos are fried, but only to remove their outer layer of skin: they remain soft, but are cooked with an egg batter and then layered with a tasty sauce, sort of like you describe--but it's definitely not cheese. I've never tried the Californian style ones I think you're describing, but in case my mind is picturing something other than what you intended, maybe the authentic one is closer to what you're thinking of... Sorry I couldn't be of more help here :(

The ones I like are stuffed with cheese, dipped in the batter and fried. like you say, they remain soft and are almost flat. When served, the sauce covers the pepper and shredded cheese is sprinkled on top. They are so good.

I wonder if the canned large peppers is the way to start.(?) They are already skinned, split, and the seeds removed. I have used those before for casseroles with taco-like filling and cheese layers.

Hi Phyllis. There are countless recipes for chiles rellenos, and I personally prefer them without the batter coating, which tends to absorb the oil and make them rather heavy. Like you, I occasionally used tinned or bottled peppers as they save a lot of time, but I have never tried stuffing them; I also find they have a background flavour which I don't like. I am starting a series on chillies in the next few weeks, and will be doing a chiles rellenos recipe - I am waiting for poblano chillies to be available, they should be around very soon now!