Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Chile Relleno Casserole

It sounded like a good idea. Homemade chili rellenos but not individually fried or anything. I liked the stuffing ingredients and although I knew it would take a little bit of time, it was going to be doable. Not so much. I started these last Sunday afternoon while my daughter slept and I was going to whip up the egg mixture and pop them in the oven after church. My husband came in the kitchen at this point:

and asked me what I was doing. "Making a mess and a recipe I'll never, ever make again."

The problem was not Elise's recipe, which I'll link to below. I think it was that I didn't properly char the chiles and I had a real problem getting the skins off and the seeds out without totally demolishing the chile. The idea is to be able to stuff them with filling after roasting them and that part took me a good 45 minutes. I was also trying to be really careful not to make my hands an unbearable, stinging, fiery mess which I did the last time I stuffed chiles but I didn't follow my sister's advice and buy disposable gloves. I was using plastic baggies, trying to not touch them with my fingers, only with forks and knives, and just getting mad.

The outcome was pretty good. I would have quit for sure if I was making a full batch (8 chiles). Here's what they looked like stuffed and ready for the egg mixture (check out the water spots on my dish - we have super hard water):


And, here's the final product. As I served them up to my husband, I told him that I hoped he didn't like them too much because they were a pain in the neck and I was never making them again. He liked them a lot. Maybe Will can make real chile rellenos for us sometime because these won't be repeated soon. Here's the full recipe. I used spicy turkey sausage instead of chorizo and halved it for an 8x8 pan but otherwise followed it exactly.

5 comments:

  1. I admire you for posting not only your successes but your struggles as well! Although this looks like success in the end. What do you think would happen if you took these ingredients and layered instead of stuffed? Thats my go-to solution for many time consuming recipes. Isn't lasagne layered manicotti? I turn chicken enchiladas into layers . . . Love, mom

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  2. I love chile rellenos and almost always order them when I eat at a Mexican restaurant. I was excited when I saw your post, but I think I'll let you lead me to a less labor intensive version.

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  3. Mom - Thanks . . . I think layering has good potential and it would be easier to get the skins off and seeds out if you could open up the chile instead of trying to keep it intact

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  4. I love this recipe!!! Thanks for posting it. Here's my tip... Buy whole, peeled, canned green chile (Hatch if you can find them) rather than roasting your own. Flavor might not be as good, but still awesome. Tommy is a green chile man anyway. Also, I mixed regular ground turkey in with the chorizo so it wouldn't be so strong. We loved it!! I served it with fresh corn tortilla...mmmmmm

    I can't remember if she mentions this in the recipe, but a tip for roasting chiles is to wrap them in a wet towel after you roast them after they are roasted. It helps steam the skin off.

    Thanks for the recipe! Tiff

    We liked this so much we ate it for breakfast today!!!

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  5. Tiff - I would actually try these again with canned green chiles . . . great tip. And, I didn't try the wet towel - just a plastic ziplock bag.

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