Chile Rellenos

Chile Rellenos is a traditional Mexican dish that originated in Puebla. The term literally means stuffed chili and is typically made from fresh poblano peppers. In place of a poblano pepper, a Hatch green chili, pasilla, jalapeno chili pepper, Ahaheim, or ancho chili can be used. The dish is usually made by battering a skinless pepper and stuffing it with picadillo meat or cheese. The stuffed pepper is then covered with a red sauce. Picadillo meat can be made of diced pork, nuts, and raisins or seasoned with canella. The pepper is covered with corn masa flour or an egg batter before frying.

During Lent, beef, pork, and poultry are avoided by Catholics on Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday, Fridays and Good Friday. Because of this, chile rellenos can be made stuffed with tuna, cheese, separated maize grains, other seeds, sliced vegetables or a mixture of all of these.

How To Roast, Peel And Seed Poblano Chiles

In order to prepare chile rellenos, the peppers need to be roasted, peeled, and seeded. In order to roast the peppers, place them on a broiler pan and place in oven. Broil peppers until the skins are charred or covered with black blisters. Be sure to turn them occasionally. Place chilies in resealable plastic bag and seal the bag. Let the chilies stand for 10 minutes. Remove from bag and remove peels. Be extra careful not to break the skins. To remove the seeds, make a vertical cut in each chili and remove the small cluster of seeds attached to the base of the chili.

Chiles Rellenos With Sweet Picadillo

This recipe uses poblano chilies which can usually be found in your grocery store. This recipe serves 6 people with a pepper each. The picadillo features a mixture of ground beef, raisins, and almonds. You can prepare these chile rellenos in advance, if needed, by preparing as directed and refrigerating up to 24 hours. When you get ready to serve, pop them in the oven covered for 20 minutes or until heated all the way through.

This dish can be topped with sour cream, shredded cheese, and pico de galo. Guacamole makes a great side for this delicious meal. Ground chicken, turkey, or pork can be substituted in place of ground beef. Low fat sour cream can be used in place of regular sour cream to cut down on calories and fat.

What You Need:

• 1 ½ pound lean ground beef
• 2 tablespoons zesty Italian salad dressing
• 1 8-ounce can of tomato sauce
• ½ cup toasted slivered almonds
• ¼ cup raisins
• 6 large roasted, peeled, seeded, and deveined poblano chilies
• ½ cup sour cream

How To Make It:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large skillet, brown meat and salad dressing while draining if necessary.

Stir in tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Stir in nuts and raisins. Simmer on medium-low heat for 10 minutes or until there is not any liquid remaining. Stir occasionally.

Spoon meat mixture into chilies and place in a shallow baking dish. Cover dish with foil and bake for 10 minutes or until heated through.

Serve topped with sour cream.  

Mole Sauce Recreated

Anyone who has ever attempted to make a mole sauce probably gave it up as a bad idea. An authentic mole has around 17 ingredients, and is a long, drawn our process. That explains why it is rarely offered on restaurant menus.

A trip to the store will reveal some magical philtres such as Abuelita Chocolate and Doña Maria Mole Paste.

Mole is traditionally made with chocolate and cinnamon, in a savory blend of ground seeds and spices and oil. Doña Maria takes much of the work out, and makes a fairly good product, but for some reason, they have left out the chocolate.

A good fix is the addition of some Abuelita Chocolate. Mexican chocolate comes in a pressed block divided into 8 sections. It is infused with cinnamon, and is not overly sweet.

To dress up jarred Mole sauce, first, measure out the amount you need into a saucepan, then to that add chicken broth, four parts broth to one part paste according to the package directions. Add the broth slowly so it does not lump up. Once you have the base of the mole ready, grab a wedge (one section of the disk) of the Abuelita. There may be other brands on the market, but this is the most common. You can recognize it by the octagonal shaped package with a picture of someone's sweet smiling grandmother on the front. Grate the chocolate into the mole sauce. About a third of a wedge should be enough for two servings of mole.

Heat the sauce over low heat, stirring almost constantly. Once it is on a simmer, give a taste. If you want a more pronounced flavor, you can add another grating of chocolate. A pinch of extra cinnamon or even cardamom may be to your taste. Keep the sauce on a very low heat for at least 15 minutes.

Mole sauce was served for years over sliced turkey, the way Americans use gravy. It also goes very well on grilled chicken breast.

You can also make up the entire jar of sauce (one small jar of Doña Maria's makes 8 servings) and keep it in the fridge. It will keep a week once it is prepared. In the jar, opened, it can last for up to six months.

One good use for mole sauce is with stuffed chicken breasts. These are easy to prepare on a countertop grill like a George Foreman, or they can be cooked in the oven or on the stove.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

What You Need:

• Two large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• four ounces fresh goat cheese, softened to room temperature
• 8 slices of thinly sliced cooked bacon, or 4 pieces of prosciutto
• lemon pepper seasoning
• grill spray, like Pam

How to Make It:

Cut the chicken breasts in half. Place one piece between two sheets of plastic wrap or inside a large plastic bag. Pound out with a mallet or the bottom of a pan until they are of uniform thinness, large and flat. Open the plastic. Sprinkle the chicken with lemon pepper seasoning. Put down two pieces of bacon or one of the prosciutto. You may need to trim the pork so it only takes up half of the surface of the chicken. Place one ounce of goat cheese in the center. Fold the pounded chicken in burrito fashion, folding the ends up, and then folding the sides over. Do not fold tightly, but do not leave any gaps if you can help it. Escaping cheese is not pretty.

Heat the grill, and cook the chicken bundles until done. You can check them with an instant read thermometer. 163° F is considered done for chicken. However, if you bring it to that temperature on the grill at one time, it will come out dry and tough. Instead, bring it up to between 145° and 150° F, and then allow it to rest for 15 minutes.

Serve with mole sauce and rice.