Chile Rellenos (Stuffed poblano peppers)- Updated on Feb 10th (Picture added)
I am originally from Japan. Japan has great dishes,but USA has more diversity in dishes you can taste at restaurant. You can find more variety of fresh produce, cheese,herbs, and seasoning. And if you get online,you can find a lot of different unique recipes you would not have tasted in Japan. It is probably because USA is melting pot. Many people are from many places in the world.
Mexican food is one of those food you would not taste in Japan. No quesadilla,no tortillas,no fajitas,no burritos,no Chipotle restaurant, no salsa,no jarapano poppers,no Taco bells... So, tasting Mexican food,for me, was culture shock. Tostitos chips was new to me or my family as well. In fact, at our wedding ceremony,we served Tortillas to our guests and it was quite a hit.
One of my favorite Mexican dish to make is stuffed Poblano peppers, called Chile Rellenos. It is basically a saffron rice with vegetable stuffed in roasted poblano peppers and cheese is melted on top. When I first made it,I made it as basic recipe tells me to do,but I found the traditional way of the dish to be served is rather hard to eat. So, I came up with my version of Chile Rellenos and, I like how it comes out,and my neighbor likes it and asking for recipes so,I thought I would show you how to make it here too.
Dish start with roasting poblano peppers. I usually buy 3 poblano peppers.
I put the oven to broil "high",line the cookie sheet with foil,put the peppers and broil them. As it gets broil,you will start seeing charred area,and some area starts looking like peppers had blisters or some kinds. Keep an eye on it and rotate the peppers with Tongue and when all peppers became blister-looking all around, You will take the peppers out,and place them into bowl,seal it with saran.
This makes steaming effect and as it cools down, it makes easy for you to peel the outer skin off.
After 10-15 min later, peel the outer skin off,seeds off and wash under cold water. When everything got skin off,chop them fine and keep in zip bag.
Chop onions,1/4 red pepper,1/8 yellow peppers,1/8 orange peppers,1/2 tomatoes and satay them in a sauce pan with butter.
When vegetable gets softer, add 1 cup of uncooked Jasmin rice, 2 cup of chicken broth,pinch of saffron and bring it to boil.
When it came to boil,turn the heat down to simmer,put the lid on and cook about 20 minutes (follow the direction of rice package you will be using).
** If you did not want to buy Jasmin rice for just this recipe,you can buy a package of Yellow rice.You can use the package and just add the vegetable above and follow the direction on its back regarding how long the rice needs to be cooked with how much of water is needed. If you use instant rice package,you do not need to add saffron & chicken broth,just add water.
** My favorite Jasmin rice brand is called Della Gourmet Rice.
While the rice is cooking,grate/shred block of Monterey jack cheese. I find that Monterey Jack cheese is good combination for this recipe because of very creamy texture when melted.
When rice is done, add chopped roasted poblano peppers that you kept in zip bag. You want to add little by little so that you can adjust heat/zing to your taste. If you had leftover poblanos,keep in freezer and use it next time.
Add chopped cilantros leaves (handful),add handful of Monterey jack cheese,mix it well. And done.
If you prefer,you can put all the cooked rice with poblano pepper & cilantro leaves into lightly greased baking dish and sprinkle shredded Monterey jack cheese and put it under broiler for some seconds til cheese gets bubbly. This makes family style Chile Rellenos,which each members of the family scoop up from one dish to their plate.
I found that my way of making it gives you cheesiness & zing with every bite in balanced flavor. In traditional way of serving,plate looks good in eyes, but every time when I try to cut the pepper,cheese did not cut all the way through and,I ended up eating all cheese top at one bite with some saffron rice and rest was saffron rice without cheese. Or,depending on what part of peppers you are eating,zing from pepper was too much.Especially tip area of the pepper is very strong because tip area cannot stuff rice enough to balance out rice and peppers ratio.
In Japan, there is stuffed peppers dish.My mother used to make one. Basically,meatloaf mix stuffed in quartered Japanese pepper, and stuffed pepper is flavored with ketchup,Worcester sauce,and Mirin (sweetened rice wine). It was one of my favorite lunch box dish she has put into mine.
Japanese pepper is very small. maybe about your fist size or less,and it has bitter taste to it,and skin is much thinner than American peppers. We used to grill the Japanese peppers (whole) on griddle and dip in soy sauce and ate it. I cannot do the same with American peppers because skin is way too thick for this,but you can do similar. This is 5 minutes recipe.Really fast.
I like using colors so,I get green,red,yellow,orange peppers,and cut to julienne and satay with Extra Virgin Olive Oil for 2 min or so with high heat.Then add splash of nice soy sauce (I use extra fancy whole bean soy sauce from Kikkoman Japan,imported from Japan.This soy sauce is made with just 4 ingredients. You can get it at Asian store. Kikkoman USA soy sauce has funky flavor,and ingredients is different.) And mix well and cook till vegetable is done (you want a little crunchiness, not mushy.). This side dish is super fast and you can cook with 2 ingredients.
**** In case,you have not seen poblanos peppers, it is very dark colored skin peppers. It is not as hot as jarapano but roasting seems to concentrate the flavor and, small amount of chopped roasted poblano pepper goes long way.Taste the rice as you add more chopped roasted peppers.
Enjoy Chile Rellenos and let us know how it came out.
Mexican food is one of those food you would not taste in Japan. No quesadilla,no tortillas,no fajitas,no burritos,no Chipotle restaurant, no salsa,no jarapano poppers,no Taco bells... So, tasting Mexican food,for me, was culture shock. Tostitos chips was new to me or my family as well. In fact, at our wedding ceremony,we served Tortillas to our guests and it was quite a hit.
One of my favorite Mexican dish to make is stuffed Poblano peppers, called Chile Rellenos. It is basically a saffron rice with vegetable stuffed in roasted poblano peppers and cheese is melted on top. When I first made it,I made it as basic recipe tells me to do,but I found the traditional way of the dish to be served is rather hard to eat. So, I came up with my version of Chile Rellenos and, I like how it comes out,and my neighbor likes it and asking for recipes so,I thought I would show you how to make it here too.
Dish start with roasting poblano peppers. I usually buy 3 poblano peppers.
I put the oven to broil "high",line the cookie sheet with foil,put the peppers and broil them. As it gets broil,you will start seeing charred area,and some area starts looking like peppers had blisters or some kinds. Keep an eye on it and rotate the peppers with Tongue and when all peppers became blister-looking all around, You will take the peppers out,and place them into bowl,seal it with saran.
This makes steaming effect and as it cools down, it makes easy for you to peel the outer skin off.
After 10-15 min later, peel the outer skin off,seeds off and wash under cold water. When everything got skin off,chop them fine and keep in zip bag.
Chop onions,1/4 red pepper,1/8 yellow peppers,1/8 orange peppers,1/2 tomatoes and satay them in a sauce pan with butter.
When vegetable gets softer, add 1 cup of uncooked Jasmin rice, 2 cup of chicken broth,pinch of saffron and bring it to boil.
When it came to boil,turn the heat down to simmer,put the lid on and cook about 20 minutes (follow the direction of rice package you will be using).
** If you did not want to buy Jasmin rice for just this recipe,you can buy a package of Yellow rice.You can use the package and just add the vegetable above and follow the direction on its back regarding how long the rice needs to be cooked with how much of water is needed. If you use instant rice package,you do not need to add saffron & chicken broth,just add water.
** My favorite Jasmin rice brand is called Della Gourmet Rice.
While the rice is cooking,grate/shred block of Monterey jack cheese. I find that Monterey Jack cheese is good combination for this recipe because of very creamy texture when melted.
When rice is done, add chopped roasted poblano peppers that you kept in zip bag. You want to add little by little so that you can adjust heat/zing to your taste. If you had leftover poblanos,keep in freezer and use it next time.
Add chopped cilantros leaves (handful),add handful of Monterey jack cheese,mix it well. And done.
If you prefer,you can put all the cooked rice with poblano pepper & cilantro leaves into lightly greased baking dish and sprinkle shredded Monterey jack cheese and put it under broiler for some seconds til cheese gets bubbly. This makes family style Chile Rellenos,which each members of the family scoop up from one dish to their plate.
I found that my way of making it gives you cheesiness & zing with every bite in balanced flavor. In traditional way of serving,plate looks good in eyes, but every time when I try to cut the pepper,cheese did not cut all the way through and,I ended up eating all cheese top at one bite with some saffron rice and rest was saffron rice without cheese. Or,depending on what part of peppers you are eating,zing from pepper was too much.Especially tip area of the pepper is very strong because tip area cannot stuff rice enough to balance out rice and peppers ratio.
In Japan, there is stuffed peppers dish.My mother used to make one. Basically,meatloaf mix stuffed in quartered Japanese pepper, and stuffed pepper is flavored with ketchup,Worcester sauce,and Mirin (sweetened rice wine). It was one of my favorite lunch box dish she has put into mine.
Japanese pepper is very small. maybe about your fist size or less,and it has bitter taste to it,and skin is much thinner than American peppers. We used to grill the Japanese peppers (whole) on griddle and dip in soy sauce and ate it. I cannot do the same with American peppers because skin is way too thick for this,but you can do similar. This is 5 minutes recipe.Really fast.
I like using colors so,I get green,red,yellow,orange peppers,and cut to julienne and satay with Extra Virgin Olive Oil for 2 min or so with high heat.Then add splash of nice soy sauce (I use extra fancy whole bean soy sauce from Kikkoman Japan,imported from Japan.This soy sauce is made with just 4 ingredients. You can get it at Asian store. Kikkoman USA soy sauce has funky flavor,and ingredients is different.) And mix well and cook till vegetable is done (you want a little crunchiness, not mushy.). This side dish is super fast and you can cook with 2 ingredients.
**** In case,you have not seen poblanos peppers, it is very dark colored skin peppers. It is not as hot as jarapano but roasting seems to concentrate the flavor and, small amount of chopped roasted poblano pepper goes long way.Taste the rice as you add more chopped roasted peppers.
Enjoy Chile Rellenos and let us know how it came out.
This is a very interesting recipe. My mom was Mexican and we made it rather differently. We roasted the green peppers the same, but then stuffed them with cheese and onions, rolled them in eggs and fried them up.
I make a quick chili relleno breakfast by buying canned diced green chilies, and adding them to seasoned mixed eggs, diced red onions and shredded cheese blends. I add a little water and microwave a min. stir, microwave another min. (depending on how many eggs I've used) etc. until it is light, fluffy and cooked through. Makes a really quick great tasting breakfast.
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Thank you for interesting recipe with Chile Rellenos breakfast style. I did not think that it can be a breakfast. Your recipe sounds yummy. I will try your recipe and see how it comes out.
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