Homemade Chile Relleno Recipe
One of my favorite things to order when eating out at a Mexican restaurant is chile relleno. It’s the best! We have a super easy recipe for a chile relleno casserole that I’ve been making for years, but I’ve always wanted to perfect the classic more authentic real deal chile relleno recipe to share here. It is for sure a labor of love, but so worth it! I love that you don’t have to make it all in one day, you can do a bunch of it ahead of time if you want.
What are chile rellenos?
Chile rellenos is basically stuffed pepper. It’s a Mexican dish made with roasted poblano peppers stuffed with cheese that melts really good, coated in a light airy egg batter and fried until golden and served with a simple red or green sauce.
What you need to make Chile Relleno:
For the Stuffed Peppers:
6 large poblano chile peppers (the larger the more room to stuff)
3 eggs
1lb. Monterrey Jack cheese, cut into cubes
1/2 cup all purpose flour
For the Tomato Sauce:
4-6 roma tomatoes
1 white or yellow onion, peeled and cut into chunks
1 cup water
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 small corn tortilla fried
1 small bunch fresh cilantro
salt to taste
For Frying the peppers:
2-3 cups vegetable oil
How to make Chile Relleno:
Start by roasting your peppers. You can do this over a gas cook top with tongs rotating the peppers to get charred on all sides. Or if you have an electric cook top you can place them in a dry skillet and let them char, blacken and blister in the pan, turning each pepper to blister on all sides. Or you can do this by placing the peppers on a sheet pan using the broil option on your oven. Make sure to blister and char all sides of the peppers. Use tongs to lift and rotate each pepper.
When all the peppers are evenly blackened on all sides, place them in a large bowl (or in an empty plastic bag). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the blistered peppers sweet for 5-10 minutes. Don’t leave them to sweat for more than this time because they will soften too much.
When the time is up you can start to peel the skin off the peppers. Make sure the peppers are not too hot to handle. Wearing gloves while you peel the skin off of the peppers is a good idea here. It will keep the hot pepper oils off of your skin. Carefully remove all the skin from the peppers until all the skin is removed.
Make a small cut towards the top side of each pepper. At this point you can remove the seeds from the inside of the pepper, if you desire. Using a knife you can gently cut the seeds out of the inside, careful not to remove the stem…just all the seeds.
Carefully add the cheese to the inside of the peppers. If the cut side of your pepper is too big to keep the cheese contained, you can always add a couple of toothpicks to hold the pepper closed during the next steps.
Dredge the stuffed peppers into the flour, coating the peppers with the flour on all sides.
For the whipped egg batter:
Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. In a large bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment or with a hand mixer. Whip the egg whites until they are a very stiff firm peak. So stiff that if you turn the bowl upside down, the egg whites will not fall out of the bowl.
Now add the egg yolks one at a time into the egg whites. Continue mixing until the whipped egg whites become light yellow in color with the addition of the egg yolks. Avoid over whipping.
Take each stuffed pepper and dip it completely into the whipped egg mixture, coating it on all sides.
Fry the Stuffed Peppers:
Working two stuffed peppers at a time, carefully add each coated pepper into a large skillet with hot oil (set to medium heat) to fry. Turn the pepper to fry until golden on all sides. This process should take 3-4 minutes for each pepper.
After each pepper has fried and is golden on all sides, place each pepper onto a paper towel lined plate (or sheet pan) to absorb excess oil. Let the peppers rest here while you make the tomato sauce.
Make the tomato Sauce:
The secret ingredient to this tomato sauce is to fry a few corn tortilla chips in a small pan with a little oil for a few minutes or a small corn tortilla until golden and crispy. Place on a paper towel lined plate. This fried corn tortilla really adds a great flavor to the blended sauce.
In a medium to large sauce pot with water, boil the Roma tomatoes until the skins split and peel off. This will take about 20 minutes. When cooled, peel the skin off the tomatoes.
Into a blender, add the peeled tomatoes, onion, 1 cup water, oregano, cumin, chicken bouillon, and the crumbled fried tortilla. Cover with a lid and blend well. Strain this blended tomato mixture.
Add the strained liquids of the tomato sauce to a medium sized skillet set to medium high heat. Season this sauce with salt to taste. Add a small bunch of uncut cilantro with stems to the sauce for the aromatic flavor. Lower to low heat and let the sauce simmer for one minute.
Add the Stuffed Peppers to the sauce:
Now add a few of the stuffed peppers to the sauce. Spoon the sauce over the stuffed peppers. After a few minutes in the sauce, the chile relleno will be ready. The sauce will melt the cheese, the peppers will soften and the egg batter will absorb the flavors of the sauce.
Chile Relleno
Delicious homemade chile relleno recipe made with poblano peppers stuffed with cheese, fried in an egg batter and served with a mild warm tomato sauce.
Ingredients
For the Stuffed Chiles:
- 6 large poblano chile peppers
- 3 eggs
- 1lb. Monterrey Jack cheese cut into cubes
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
For the Tomato Sauce:
- 4-6 roma tomatoes
- 1 white or yellow onion peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 small corn tortilla fried
- 1 small bunch fresh cilantro
- salt to taste
For Frying:
- 2-3 cups vegetable oil
Instructions
Roast the Peppers:
-
There are a few different ways to roast the peppers:
1-You can roast the poblano peppers over a gas cook top with tongs rotating the peppers to get charred on all sides.
2-If you have an electric cook top you can place them in a dry skillet and let them char, blacken and blister in the pan, turning each pepper to blister on all sides.
3-Or you can roast them by placing the peppers on a sheet pan using the broil option on your oven. Make sure to blister and char all sides of the peppers. Use tongs to lift and rotate each pepper.
-
When all the peppers are evenly blackened on all sides, place them in a large bowl (or in an empty plastic bag). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the blistered peppers sweet for 5-10 minutes. Don’t leave them to sweat for more than this time because they will soften too much.
-
When the time is up you can start to peel the skin off the peppers. Making sure the peppers are not too hot to handle. Wearing gloves while you peel the skin off of the peppers is a good idea here. It will keep the hot pepper oils off of your skin. Carefully peel the skin from the peppers until all the skin is removed.
-
Make a small cut towards the top side of each pepper. At this point you can remove the seeds from the inside of the pepper, if you desire (I prefer to take all the seeds out). Using a knife you can gently cut the seeds out of the inside, careful not to remove the stem…just all the seeds.
-
Carefully add the chunks of cheese to the inside of the peppers. If the cut side of your pepper is too big to keep the cheese contained inside, you can always add a couple of toothpicks to hold the pepper closed during the next steps.
-
Dredge the stuffed peppers into the flour, coating the peppers with the flour on all sides.
-
For the whipped egg coating:
For the whipped egg batter:
-
Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. In a large bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment (or with a hand mixer). Whip the egg whites until they are a very stiff firm peaks. So stiff that if you turn the bowl upside down, the egg whites will not fall out of the bowl.
-
Now add the egg yolks one at a time into the egg whites. Continue mixing until the whipped egg whites become light yellow in color with the addition of each egg yolk. Avoid over whipping.
-
Take each stuffed pepper and dip it completely into the whipped egg mixture, coating it on all sides.
-
Working two peppers at a time, carefully add the coated pepper into a large skillet with hot oil (set to medium high heat) to fry. With tongs, turn the pepper to fry until golden on all sides. This process should take 3-4 minutes for each pepper.
-
After each pepper has had it's turn to fry and is golden on all sides, place each pepper onto a paper towel lined plate (or sheet pan) to absorb any excess oil. Let the peppers rest here while you make the tomato sauce.
For the Tomato Sauce:
-
The secret ingredient to this tomato sauce is to fry a few corn tortilla chips in a small pan with a little oil for a few minutes or fry one small corn tortilla until golden and crispy. After fried, place it on a paper towel lined plate. This fried corn tortilla really adds a great flavor to the blended sauce.
-
In a medium to large sauce pot with water, boil the roma tomatoes until the skins split and peel off. This will take about 20 minutes. When cooled, peel the skin off the tomatoes.
-
Into a blender, add the peeled tomatoes, onion, 1 cup water, oregano, cumin, chicken bouillon, and the crumbled fried corn tortilla. Cover with a lid and blend well. Strain this blended tomato mixture.
-
Add the strained liquids of the tomato sauce to a skillet set to medium high heat. Season this sauce with salt to taste. Add a small bunch of uncut cilantro with stems to the sauce to add an aromatic flavor. Lower the heat and let the sauce simmer for one minute.
-
Now add the stuffed peppers to the sauce. Spoon the sauce over the stuffed peppers. After a few minutes in the sauce, the chile relleno will be ready. The sauce will melt the cheese, the peppers will soften and the egg coating will absorb the flavors of the sauce.
Making This Recipe? Tag us on Instagram: @NoBiggie using the hashtag #NoBiggieRecipes, so we can see what you are making in the kitchen!
Can you make Chile Relleno days before serving?
Yes! There are the few things you can do ahead to make it easy to serve the day of: roast and peel all the peppers up to two days before frying. Also the tomato sauce can be made up to three days ahead and it will keep chilled in the fridge. Both the chiles and the sauce should be kept in the fridge until ready to use.
Can you freeze chile relleno?
Yes! Chile Relleno freezes wonderfully. After you have completed the frying step in the recipe, you can freeze the stuffed peppers. To reheat, you can let the peppers thaw in the fridge overnight and then you can warm them up and melt the cheese in the tomato sauce.
Tips for making Chile Relleno:
- Wear gloves: to keep the hot pepper oil off your hands wear gloves. Even though the pepper oils are invisible, the burning feeling can be felt days later on your hands.
- Buy the largest poblano peppers: the bigger the peppers the better so you can fill them with more cheese.
- When frying, avoid overcrowding the pan…only fry two peppers at a time. This will help to keep the oil temperature where is needs to be to fry.
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