Chili Rellenos

One of my favorite places to eat Mexican food is Pueblo Nuevo in Hazelwood on Lindbergh. They serve chili rellenos that are really good. They use poblano or ancho peppers which are shapes somewhat like bell peppers but they are mildly hot and are usually picked when they are dark green. They are called ancho peppers when they are fresh and called poblano when they are cooked.

I liked the chili rellenos so much that I decided to grow my own poblano peppers. I started with 6 plans and recently picked the peppers. The photo below shows the peppers we had AFTER about 15 had been roasted, including the 6 Mom used to make our dinner last week.
The peppers are roasted to get the skins off. We used the oven method by putting them in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. When the skins puff up, they are done. The peppers are then pulled out and wrapped in a wet towel. When they have cooled down enough to handle, the skins are removed and the top of the pepper is opened and seeds removed without completely opening the pepper. Strips of Monterrey Jack Cheese are then placed inside the peppers as shown in the following photo.
The peppers are then rolled in flower.
Once coated, the peppers are dipped in an egg mixture described at the end.
They are then fried in hot oil until golden brown.
Mom made 6 of them.
This is what it looked like on the plate with rice.
They were really really good. We each had two for dinner. Mom had one the next day for lunch and I froze my leftover one and took in my lunch to see how good they were after freezing and then re-heating in the microwave. It was still really good.

I roasted quite a few peppers and pealed them and then froze them to use in future foods. Mom also roasted a bunch of peppers and made a green chili stew that was really tasty. We still have about half of the peppers in the refrigerator that I plan on roasting one of these days and making a bunch more chili rellenos.

The recipe that Mom used was scaled from the recipe on page 7 of Ryan and Hailey’s Family Cookbook.

6 ancho (poblano) peppers
Monterrey Jack Cheese
4 eggs – separated
½ tsp salt
Pinch of baking powder
1 T milk
Oil for frying.

After baking the peppers in the oven at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes, or when the skins puff up, they are removed and placed in a wet towel. Remove the skins when the peppers have cooled enough to handle. Cut open the to and remove the seeds without completely opening up the pepper. Some recipes say to leave the stem in, which is what they do at Pueblo Nuevo, but since we do not eat the stem, there was no point to leaving it in. Stuff the pepper with cheese and then roll in flour. The peppers are then dipped in the egg batter made as follows:
Combine egg whites, salt and baking powder in a mixing bowl and beat until stiff. In another bowl, stir the egg yokes and milk together. Very gently fold the whipped egg whites into the yoke mixture. This is a very critical step. Don’t mix, just fold 2 or 3 times maximum. Don’t crush the little bubbles of egg whites
After dipping in the egg batter, fry in hot oil until golden brown and the cheese is melting and oozing out of the pepper. Remove from frying pan and drain on a paper towel. Serve with favorite salsa and sour cream. Our favorite salsa is actually Salsa Verde, but we were out and use Pace mild salsa instead.