What are Chile Rellenos?
Chile Rellenos are a classic Mexican dish. They are traditionally made from roasted Poblano peppers and can be filled with meat, vegetables, or cheese. These stuffed peppers are then covered in egg wash and deep-fried to greasy perfection. Poblano peppers are the star of this dish. They look like a large, wrinkly cousin to the jalapeno pepper. Famous in the state of Puebla, where they come from, nowadays you can find them anywhere. They are not considered a spicy pepper, but you should still remove the seeds before cooking.
The Most Well Known Chile Relleno
Chiles rellenos are considered a staple in Mexican cooking. There are many different variations depending on where you are in Mexico, and the size of your pocketbook usually determines the filling.
The most famous version is chiles en nogada: a Poblano pepper filled with minced meat and covered in a white walnut sauce topped with sprinkled parsley and pomegranate seeds. It’s a patriotic dish associated with Mexican culture and Independence Day.
The legend is this dish was created by nuns in Puebla to celebrate a battle in the war for independence from Spain in 1810. The white of the sauce, the green of the parsley, and the deep red of the pomegranate seeds resembled the Mexican flag; thus, it is now seen as a patriotic dish and seen on menus in August and September to coincide with the Mexican Independence holiday, which falls on September 15 at midnight. At midnight on this night, locals gather in the city center to hear la grita, which is the shout of Viva Mexico, followed by Viva and names of various figures from the war.
At other times of the year, you can find a variety of chile rellenos made to your taste. They can be meat-filled, vegetarian, or even vegan. Vegan and vegetarian chile rellenos are not traditional, but there seems to be a movement of the younger generation and the international community to remake traditional Mexican dishes in a healthier way.
Why I Learned How to Make Them
I learned how to make chiles rellenos a couple of years ago. I always thought it would be too difficult and time-consuming. So I hadn’t bothered learning and would usually get them as take-out food from a restaurant a few blocks from my house.
This little restaurant has many different local Mexican dishes, and they are all on display behind a glass sneeze guard. You choose the dishes you want, and they package them up for you to take home to enjoy. The menu changes daily, but a few staples, like chile rellenos, are always available. The place is always packed with locals and foreigners, and in Mexico, the general rule is only to eat in places filled with people. Maybe that’s a rule everywhere. I don’t know. But in Mexico, if a restaurant doesn’t have many people, they usually reuse food and won’t have the freshest dishes, which can lead to food poisoning, which is a real concern here.
The last day I ate there, I brought some chile rellenos home. I was eight months pregnant and didn’t feel like cooking. As I was sitting at the table, enjoying them with my family, my partner found a fingernail in his chile. And it wasn’t just a little fingernail but a gnarly thick yellow toenail. Needless to say, we stopped eating there and eating chile rellenos for a while. Then, after the yuck factor passed, which took maybe a year, we had a craving and decided to learn how to make them at home.
My Healthy Version
I wanted to make a healthy version that would taste good and not take all day to make. I experimented with a few ideas and tried different veggies/meat/cheese combination finally found one that I think this is the best version.
This one is filled with tuna, peas, potatoes, carrots, red onion, and manchego cheese. The sauce is a mushroom cream sauce. Although a walnut sauce is delicious, it can sometimes be hard to find walnuts in my small town, so I made a creamy mushroom sauce that I can use on pasta as well, which is a win-win.
Now, the first and most crucial step in making them is to roast the peppers. You can do it on the stovetop flame, and once they are blackened, put them in boiled water with a pinch of sugar. This will cut any heat. Poblano peppers usually aren’t hot, but as my Mexican partner says, son enganosos, meaning they are deceptive, so they may look mild, but sometimes they can be hot.
After they are in the sugar water for about ten minutes, take them out, and the skin will easily fall off. Then, put aside to cool.
Now, it’s time to make the filling. I usually use about two cans of tuna (packaged in water) for three peppers. Mix the canned tuna and peas together. Grate the cheese. Add finely chopped red onion and chop the boiled carrots and potato into cubes. The filling doesn’t have to be exact. This time, I used two carrots, one large potato, and a small handful of peas. And a big man handful of grated cheese. But feel free to experiment. If you don’t like any of these veggies, you can use shredded zucchini or minced mushrooms, which would work, too. If you are a vegetarian, you could use wild rice instead of tuna. The possibilities are endless.
Pepper Assembly
Now you are ready to fill these guys. It helps to have toothpicks to keep them together. At this point, if you want to fry them, you can do a flour dredge and egg wash and fry in about an inch of oil, but I don’t do that. Obviously, they will probably taste better; everything deep-fried is delicious, but they won’t be good for your diet. And, well, the whole point is to make them healthy.
As for the sauce, it’s a reasonably simple mushroom cream sauce. I use Mexican crema, which is sort of like a watery sour cream as a base. First, saute the mushrooms and garlic, add a pinch of salt and black pepper. After it cools, toss in the blender with the cream. Simple.
I’ve also seen some places make a red sauce, almost like an enchilada sauce, but that is usually for minced meat chile rellenos.
So there you have my take on a classic Mexican dish.
100% approved by my 100% Mexican partner.
My next project is to make healthy empanadas, which may just be an oxymoron.
Keri Anne Johnson
Keri has been teaching English and ESL for the past twenty years. She loves learning about new places and perspectives. She is an ex-expat and a mother to a teenager and toddler. She is slowly readjusting to life in the Pacific Northwest after twenty years in Mexico.
