Chiles Rellenos Made Easy

15 Reviews
ADD YOUR REVIEW
Photo: Oxmoor House
Hands-on Time
43 Mins
Total Time
1 Hour 6 Mins
Yield
4 servings (serving size: 1 chile and about 1/3 cup sauce)
By Daniel Croddy, Portland, Maine
June 2011
RECIPE BY Cooking Light

Ingredients

  • Cooking spray
  • 1 1/4 cups coarsely chopped onion
  • 2 cups chopped tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup low-sodium salsa verde
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
  • 4 poblano chiles
  • 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese, divided
  • 2 tablespoons goat cheese, divided
  • 3 large egg yolks
  • 3 large egg whites
  • 1.1 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1/4 cup)
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 tablespoons cornmeal
  • 1/4 cup canola oil

Nutritional Information

  • Calories 297
  • Fat 14.8g
  • Satfat 5.8g
  • Monofat 4.1g
  • Polyfat 1.8g
  • Protein 16.1g
  • Carbohydrate 25.6g
  • Fiber 2.7g
  • Cholesterol 159mg
  • Iron 1.9mg
  • Sodium 562mg
  • Calcium 254mg

How to Make It

Step 1

Preheat broiler to high.

Step 2

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion; sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Stir in chopped tomatoes, salsa verde, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook 15 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently. Place tomato mixture in a food processor; add cilantro. Process mixture until smooth. Set aside.

Step 3

Place poblanos on a foil-lined baking sheet; broil 3 inches from heat 8 minutes or until blackened and charred, turning after 6 minutes. Place in a paper bag; fold to close tightly. Let stand 15 minutes. Peel and discard skins. Cut a lengthwise slit in each chile; discard seeds, leaving stems intact. Spoon 1/4 cup Jack cheese and 1 1/2 teaspoons goat cheese in cavity of each chile.

Step 4

Preheat oven to 350°.

Step 5

Lightly beat egg yolks in a small bowl. Place egg whites in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold egg yolks into egg whites. Combine flour and black pepper in a shallow dish. Place cornmeal in another shallow dish. Dredge poblanos in flour mixture, and dip into egg mixture. Dredge in cornmeal.

Step 6

Heat oil in a large stainless steel skillet over medium-high heat until hot; reduce to medium heat. Add coated poblanos to oil; cook 6 minutes or until crisp, turning to cook on all sides. Place chiles on a baking sheet, and bake at 350° for 8 minutes or until cheese melts. Serve with tomato sauce.

Also appeared in: Oxmoor House, None, 2013,Cooking Light Lighten Up, America!

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Ratings & Reviews

BethNy's Review

girly668
November 26, 2011
The others reviewers were right that this is not "made easy." However, we loved it. I added a jalapeño and some red pepper to the sauce to give it some heat. We also used 2-3 toothpicks per pepper to hold them together. Just be sure to remove them before serving :) My husband eats lots of chile rellenos (he is from Phoenix and lived in Texas) and said this this the second best he has ever had...not bad for a light recipe. We plan to freeze the left over sauce to save time next timewe make it.

Emz101's Review

Emz101
July 03, 2013
Holy crow this was a complicated recipe recipe. I used regular salsa and it worked out fine, I think the sauce would have been a great salsa on its own. The peppers would take a lot of practice to get right. I found it hard to get all the skin off the pepper without ripping them, I had a hard time getting the membranes and seeds out of the peppers without ripping them even more and the dredging was really difficult since I had to use both my hands to wipe the egg white mixture all over the pepper since it wouldn't stick, the corn meal pulled all the egg off, I kind of had to force it on. It did cook up fine however I found the inside of the pepper was holding quite a bit of water so it was watery. The taste was good but not good enough for me to make again.

dgh204's Review

zannercoff
May 03, 2014
Not easy! I thought when I saw some reviewers say that it was not 'made easy' that perhaps they just weren't big cooks. Well, whether you cook a lot or not, this recipe is a lot of work. The saving grace, however, was that it was good. I will be seeking out another recipe for chile rellenos in the future.

Michelelyl's Review

wellfed59
May 25, 2011
I made this recipe tonight after reading about it in Cooking Light for the June 2011 issue- it was delicious, but not as flavorful as I expected. I did add some cumin and one chipotle in adobo to the sauce to add more flavor.My husband and I do like it hot- and flavorful. I really liked the whipped eggs whites as the dip for the cornmeal, but I think the egg yolks were not needed. It would have saved on the fat content in the calories. I also added a skewer to hold the poblanos closed. I don't care how good of a cook you are- after charring, peeling, slicing a slit in the pepper and pulling out the seeds, you still need something to keep the cheese in the pepper. I liked the technique. I loved the crunch of the cornmeal. Thank you Daniel and Cooking Light :)

atremag's Review

rkhill
June 27, 2011
"Chiles Rellenos made Easy," what a misnomer. This recipe was a pain in the butt! It took me over 2 hours! Usually, CL recipes tend to be more complicated, but this recipe had way too many steps for what is supposed to be a simplifed version. The egg fluff was goopy and messy. It didn't really coat the pepper well. I had to rub it on to get the cornmeal to stick. I had to use more than double the amount of cornmeal. I used toothpicks to keep the pepper closed while coating, but didn't need to when actually cooking them. Overall, the taste was good, but it wasn't worth the time and effort required. I would not make this again.

rkhill's Review

BethNy
May 26, 2011
Tasted great, but very messy to make. Ended up dumping cheese out into the egg fluff while trying to batter the whole thing, thought the whole dish was going to be a disaster, but it cooked up well.

MrsBachand's Review

dgh204
April 01, 2014
Delicious! Not hard, but a bit time consuming. I used queso fresco instead of goat cheese and think it tasted very authentic. Also used regular salsa instead of verde because that is what I had...I bet it is even better with the verde. The beating of the eggs made it foamy enough to help it really stick to the pepper. It is messy when you are dredging the peppers, but they cook up great.

Albalark's Review

MrsBachand
June 02, 2014
The taste is wonderful. My sole problem with this recipe lies in the idea that it is "easy". I am not an inexperienced cook, to say the least. But putting the coating on the stuffed chiles was an exercise in frustration that left both me and my kitchen a mess. The chiles split whist I was deseeding/stuffing them, so that while that first flour dredge worked OK, "dipping" them in the egg foam was not possible. I poured some of the egg into a shallow dish, and attempted to roll the chiles while I was trying to hold the split chile together, but the foam would stick to some places not others and I ended up having to smear it on the chile, making a gooey mess. As for only 3 Tbs cornmeal being enough to coat 4 chiles in this manner - not a chance. And as soon as I attempted to pick up the newly cornmeal coated chile and transfer it, the coating came off on my fingers. Frying was OK as long as they were placed on their sides in the pan. There has got to be a better way. :-(

starfroggie's Review

luvlelwyr
July 04, 2011
N/A

girly668's Review

EmilyJM
December 29, 2011
So good!! I added shredded chicken to the mixture inside the peppers. I also didnt bother separating and beating the eggs into peaks. I found it unnecessary. You definitely need to pin the peppers together with toothpicks! They will never make it into the pan if you dont!