Chile Rellenos Stuffed with Mexican Queso has been a favorite Mexican dish of ours for many, many years.
So flavorful, and not too spicy, with a simple, yet deeply flavorful sauce.
This is Mexican comfort at its most satisfyingly delicious.
HOW TO MAKE AUTHENTIC CHILE RELLENOS
You can roast the chili in a variety ways, from broiling, to grilling, or, by the method we love, roasting over a gas flame!
Talk about building a flavor sensation.
Watch us show you how to make Chile Rellenos!
When roasting the peppers over a hot flame, turn them frequently until they are charred and blistered.
We use all four burners to get them roasted quicker!
For the batter, bringing the eggs whites to stiff peaks ensures the batter is light and fluffy when quickly fried.
Let’s hear it for stiff peaks!
You can use a stand mixer or hand-held mixer. Or, a good ole whisk with a lot of elbow grease!
A SIMPLE RED SAUCE IS PERFECT FOR CHILES RELLENOS
You can make the simple, yet super flavorful red sauce ahead of time.
It’s not a thick sauce, yet compliments the stuffed chilis perfectly.
Oh, nothing better than a nice tomato-based sauce with some simple aromatics. Straining the sauce before cooking it down, slightly, produces a silky and smooth texture. And so delicious!
Carefully cut a slit in the side of the roasted, skinned pepper.
You’ll need to handle the pepper gently, because once the skin comes off, it is a little more fragile.
Ready! Set! Stuff!
You’ll want to go with a good melting cheese to stuff the chilis with.
We love using Asadero, or Chihuahua or Oaxaca, but if you can’t find any of those, go you can use good ole Monterrey Jack, or even cheddar.
Mmmmmm….cheese, please.
THE BATTER FOR CHILES RELLENOS IS LIGHT AND AIRY
Once the batter is ready and the chilis have been stuffed, it’s time to coat the peppers.
It may require a couple dips and rolls in the batter. And don’t worry if the pepper isn’t 100% covered in the batter. It will still fry up beautifully.
We’re getting close now!!
To prevent any cheese spilling out of the chili into the hot oil, we carefully lower the coated peppers into the hot oil, and then spoon more hot oil over the area where the seam is.
This will firm up the batter and make a seal so the cheese doesn’t come out. This isn’t difficult, but may take you a couple tries to find the best technique that works for you.
Yum.
CHILE RELLENOS CAN GET STARTED THE DAY BEFORE
Prepare the chiles and sauce a day ahead, and then quickly make the batter and fry ’em up just before ready to serve!
This dish is sure to please. It never fails to impress at our house.
The cheese, just look at that melty cheese!
OTHER MEXICAN DISHES TO TRY
Authentic Beef Chimichanga
Queso with Mexican Chorizo
Albondigas (Mexican Meatballs)
Mexican Rice
Mexican Black Beans
Ancho Chili Short Rib Nachos
Veracruz-Style Shrimp Enchiladas
But for now, go and make this amazing Chile Rellenos Stuffed with Mexican Queso Recipe!
You will be so very glad that you did!
This is Mexican cuisine at its very best!
Chiles Rellenos Stuffed with Mexican Queso
Ingredients
FOR THE SAUCE
- 1 1/2 lbs fresh ripe tomatoes chopped, or 1 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes, with juice
- 1 cup chicken stock or vegetable stock, or water
- 1/4 cup chopped white onion
- 2 large garlic cloves rough chop
- 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp dried Mexican oregano*
- 1 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
- 2 tbsp corn oil
- *available in most supermarkets specialty food stores, or Mexican markets. Regular oregano can be used in, too.
FOR THE CHILES
- 4 large fresh poblano chilis about 1 lb
- 1/2 lb Asadero Chihuahua or Monterey Jack cheese, coarsely grated
- 4 large eggs separated
- 1 & 1/4 cup all-purpose flour divided
- 2 to 3 cups corn oil or vegetable oil, for frying
Instructions
MAKE THE SAUCE
- Puree all sauce ingredients except oil with 1 1/4 teaspoons salt in a blender until smooth, then strain through a mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing on solids, then discarding them.
- Heat oil in a deep heavy large skillet over medium heat until it shimmers.
- Carefully pour in sauce and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. (Sauce will still be thin).
- Taste, and season with pepper, and more salt, if desired.
- Set aside, but keep warm over low heat.
ROAST, STUFF AND FRY THE CHILES
- Roast chilis on their sides over a gas flame over medium-heat, turning with tongs, until skins are blistered and slightly charred, 4 - 6 minutes. (Or, broil on a rack about 2 inches from heat).
- Transfer to a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap, let stand for 20 minutes. (This can be done ahead of time).
- Carefully rub off skins from chilies, leaving stems attached.
- Cut a slit lengthwise in each chile using kitchen shears or a sharp knife.
- Carefully cut out ribs and the seedpod. Clean out all seeds with a wet paper towel, if necessary (Leaving the seeds will make the peppers more hot).
- Stuff chilies with cheese and enclose filling by overlapping slit slightly, then transfer to a plate. (All this can be done the day before).
- Heat 1/2-inch of oil in another large heavy skillet over medium heat until it registers 350° F on thermometer.
- While oil heats, beat egg whites with 1/2 teaspoon salt, using an electric mixer until they just hold stiff peaks.
- Whisk in the yolks, two at a time, just until incorporated. Next, whisk in 1/4 cup flour.
- Spread 1 cup of flour onto a plate. Generously dust chilies with the flour, coating all sides. Gently shake off excess flour.
- When oil is ready, dip chilies, 1 at a time into egg batter, spooning it over chile to cover completely.
- Fry the chilis, turning once, until golden on all sides (Lap oil over any lighter areas, 4 to 5 minutes).
- Transfer chilies with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.
- Meanwhile, re-heat sauce.
- Ladle sauce onto plates and place a chili on top of sauce.
Ok guys, this was stupid good! But could I make the sauce thicker some how? And if I wasn’t super gentle the egg mixture would come off. But I am officially following you two.
Hi Nancy! We love the slightly thinner sauce for this, but you could certainly thicken it with a little cornstarch slurry (mix together 1 Tbsp cornstarch with just enough water until its syrupy). Add a few drops to the sauce and stir until thickened to your desire. We find that spooning the hot oil over the top of the relleno as it is cooking helps the batter adhere to the pepper. Hope this helps!
Made this for Mother’s Day! We are Mexican and the sauce was on point *chef’s kiss*! The ratios of the ingredients were balanced, and it was new to us to strain the sauce, but I’m glad I did it, it did have a silky texture. I didn’t add the sugar, but I did simmer it twice as long and it was sweet enough. Chile rellenos is my mom’s favorite dish, but she has different dietary needs nowadays so I made some modifications. We wanted gluten free and lower fat, so I dusted with cornstarch instead of flour. The batter was just egg, and we baked it in the oven I think around 30 minutes until golden brown. We used silicone mat for nonstick. It came out really really good, she loved it! We’ll be making it again.
Hi Adri!! We can’t even begin to tell you how thrilled this makes us!! Sounds like you made it perfectly and what a lovely way to show your mother how much we love her. And we’re so honored that we helped a little bit. Thanks so much for letting us know and for the wonderful review. That means the world to us!!! All the very best, Kris & Wesley
Looks great! Will be making for my sister when she comes to town next. Great to have the sauce recipe as well.
Hi Seth!! Thanks much! This is one of our all-time favorite dishes! We really hope you and your sister enjoy it as much as we do. And please let us know how it turns out! All the best, Kris & Wesley
Very fresh, simple and delicious, thank you for sharing. I used Anaheim chilis instead and they were fine, but I’ll use Poblano next time. My finished product wasn’t nearly as pretty as yours (the batter was not sticking very well), but that’s just inspiration to keep trying! Served with spanish rice and refried beans and my teenage son and husband could not stop raving…
Also wanted to add that I used the Vitamix for the sauce so didn’t feel the need to strain it.
Wow! Katherine! That all sounds wonderful. Glad you had success with the anaheim peppers! When you can, give the poblano’s a go, we think you’ll like them a lot, too. The batter definitely can be tricky when getting it to stick. Just takes practice, but sounds like you did fantastic. Thanks SO MUCH for letting us know and the great review. That means the world to us!! All the best, Kris & Wesley