How To Make The Best Chile Rellenos

This is an easy recipe for making the perennial favorite, Chile Rellenos. Beautiful Poblano peppers are stuffed with cheese and fried in an egg batter. Serve with Mexican Rice. We also have many sauce recipes for ideas to finish the plate. Our favorite is molé but the other sauces are all good too.

This recipe can be gluten free if you use gluten free flour. This recipe is naturally vegetarian.

The Chiles

The best time to make Chile Rellenos is late summer and fall when the Poblano Peppers are ripe. We find beautiful chiles at the Farmers Market. The chiles get thicker and meatier toward late September and October. A special treat is finding sweet red Poblanos at the end of the season.

Watch a Video

Here is one of the first 2 Cooks in the Kitchen videos in which we make Chile Rellenos:

The Ingredients For Chile Rellenos

• 4 Whole fresh Poblano Chiles
• 1 1/2 cups Jack Cheese (shredded)
• 1 1/2 cups Mexican Cheese (shredded) (or Cheddar)
• 1 1/2 cups Mozzarella Cheese (shredded)
• 3 Eggs, separated
• 3 Tbls Gluten Free Flour plus more for coating the chiles
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 Tbls Water
• Oil for frying (we prefer Vegetable Oil)

Roast the Chiles

To prepare our beautiful poblanos we need to peel them and remove the seeds. We want to keep the chiles intact so this has to be done carefully. First we need to char the skins so they come off easier. We like to do this on the grill but you can do it under the broiler or over any flame. If you burn them the skin tends to stick, but you want it to get dark all over.

Steam the Chiles

Keep an eye on the progress and turn the chiles so they darken on all sides. Any place the skin doesn’t darken it will stick to the chile and be hard to peel so get this as even as you can. Perfection doesn’t seem to be possible so don’t overstress about it. When they are done, put them in a soup pot and cover with a lid so they steam. This will help with the peeling as well.

Remove the Skins

Let the chiles cool in the covered pot until they can be handled. We often roast them in the morning when we return from Farmers Market and wait to peel them in the afternoon. The skins shopuld come off fairly easily.

Remove the Seeds

For Rellenos we want to leave the stem on and make a small slit in one side of the chile to remove the seeds. We always start with purchasing and preparing extra chiles because some of them split too much to make good rellenos, or the stems fall off. Those chiles go into the freezer for a future use and the best ones get used for rellenos. The seeds are attached at the base of the stem. We use a small paring knife to cut a slit half way down one side of the chile. Then we carefully scrape at the base of the stem to loosen the seeds for removal.

Stuff the Chiles With Cheese

Once we have our peeled chiles it is time to stuff them. For traditional rellenos we are just going to stuff them with cheese. We use a mix of Mozzarella, Jack, Cheddar and Mexican Cheese but you can do this with any cheese you have on hand. We mix the cheese in a large bowl and then compress handfuls to work into the chile. Push the cheese around to fill the whole chile.

Roll the Chiles In Flour

Roll the filled chile in flour. One-To-One flour works great for a gluten-free dish. This helps hold everything together when we dip it in the egg batter and fry it. We like to put the flour coated chiles in the refrigerator for a couple hours to make them easier to work with.

Separate 3 Eggs, Beat the Whites

To prepare the egg batter we need to separate three eggs. Whip the whites into stiff peaks with a mixer. You need a very clean bowl and very clean beaters to accomplish this as foreign matter can inhibit this process. It doesn’t matter with the yolks, so beat the whites and then beat the yolks in their bowl.

Beat the Yolks

Add the gluten free flour, salt and water to the yolks and beat them until fluffy. Try to get some air into them. Use one-to-one flour for a gluten free batter.

Fold In the Yolks

Fold the egg yolks into the egg whites. Be gentle to try to keep as much air as possible in the mixture.

Heat Oil to 350°

Heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a heavy skillet. We use a 10″ cast iron pan. You want the oil to reach right around 350 degrees for this job.

Dip the Chiles In the Batter and Place In the Pan

Now dip the rellenos in the egg batter and lay them in the hot oil. Cook them one at a time for good control. We use a slotted round skimmer placing the relleno on it and then lower it into the bowl of egg batter. Then using a spoon, spoon the batter over the relleno. We slide it into the pan, flipping it over so the well-battered side goes down, then we can spoon a little more batter on the other side if need be.

Drain the Cooked Chiles

Cook the first side until golden and then turn the relleno over. This should be 1 to 2 minutes per side. Cook the other side until it is golden and remove carefully to a paper towel lined sheet pan. Repeat for the other rellenos. You may need to wait a little for the oil to heat up after each relleno. Keep the finished ones in a warm oven while you cook the rest.

Plate With Sauce

We like to plate these with some Mexican Rice, some Molé or other sauce, and some Pico De Gallo or just cut tomatoes to add a little brightness.

We have a variety of sauce recipes that work great with Chile Rellenos.

• Molé Colorado
• Molé Verde
• Classic Molé Rojo
• Easy Molé Rojo
• Molé Coloradito
• Molé Poblano
• Poblano Sauce

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