Description

Chile relleno enchiladas are a twist on the traditional Mexican dish, chiles relleno. Enchiladas stuffed with cheese and roasted poblano peppers, and cooked in a homemade red sauce. Simple, and delicious!

Ingredients

Units Scale

Enchiladas

3 to 4 poblano peppers

Sauce

10 Roma tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 cup cilantro, including stems (Plus extra leaves, for garnish)
1 small shallot
1 to 2 jalapenos, seeded
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup avocado oil (or grapeseed oil)
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth, or vegetable broth (or sub water)

Remaining Enchilada ingredients

3 to 4 cups (15 to 16 ounces) Monterey jack cheese, shredded (see notes)
12 soft corn tortilla shells

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Instructions

Roast the poblanos: There are two ways to roast poblanos. Gas burner method: place each poblano pepper onto an open flame on a gas burner. Allow the pepper to char on one side until it’s nice and black – about 2 to 3 minutes. Use tongs to carefully rotate the pepper onto the other side for another 2 minutes, or until most of the skin of the pepper is nicely charred. You can have more then one burner going at a time with this method. Oven broiler method: Place the poblano peppers on a sheet pan and place them under the broiler, as close as you can get them. Allow them to broil 3 to 4 minutes per side, until they are nicely charred and blackened. With both methods be sure to not walk away during the process. Once the peppers are charred, transfer them to a mixing bowl and cover them for 15 minutes. This allows the steam to loosen the charred skin of the peppers.
Pre-heat your oven: Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Make the sauce: To a blender add half of the ingredients, as much as will fit. Note: if you are using a high speed blender you can probably leave all of the ingredients whole. If you are not using a high speed blender, then you can cut the ingredients into chunks to help things blend up easier. Once half of the ingredients are blended, add the remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.
Simmer the sauce: Transfer the sauce to a medium sauce pot. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Allow the sauce to simmer or 2 to 3 minutes, or until the sauce has turned a light orange-y pink color, and has reduced slightly. Remove from the heat. Taste for seasoning, and adjust as needed. Set aside.
Finish the peppers: Once the peppers have cooled enough to handle, use a paper towel to peel off the charred skin, it should come off easily – you can use the stem as a handle for holding. The peppers don’t need to be perfect here, you can leave some of the charred skin on. Once all of the peppers have most of their skin removed, slice off the stem end and remove the seeds, cut the peppers in to strips.
Assemble the enchiladas: To a 9×13 casserole dish, add 1 1/2 cups of the sauce to the bottom of the pan, spread into an even layer. Take a corn tortilla shell and add a small handful of the shredded Monterrey jack cheese to the tortilla shell, then add several strips of the roasted poblano pepper to the shell, roll the tortilla shell up, and place the tortilla seam side down in the pan. Repeat until you have filled up your entire baking dish (mine fit 12 enchiladas). Ladle about 1 to 1/2 cups of sauce over top of the enchiladas so that they have a nice coating (you may not use all of the sauce). Sprinkle another 1 to 1/2 cups of cheese on top of the enchiladas (depending on how cheesy you want your enchiladas to be is up to you – for the sake of pictures I used the entire 16 ounces of cheese, but I used less the other time I made it, either is delicious).
Bake: Bake the enchiladas for 20 to 23 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly, and the cheese is a little charred on top.
Serve: Cut into the enchiladas using a spatula and transfer the enchiladas to your serving plates. Garnish with cilantro leaves, if desired. Enjoy.

Notes

Cheese: I highly recommend shredding your own cheese. Pre-shredded cheese is coated with anti-caking agents so it doesn’t melt as nicely. I like to use either a box grater, or the shredding blade on my food processor.

Leftovers: The leftover enchiladas do re-heat fairly well, but of course, they aren’t quite as good as when fresh.

Leftover sauce: You will likely have leftovers sauce on hand. You could use it for other enchiladas, tacos, quesadillas, burritos, etc.

Nutrition facts: Nutrition facts are an estimation. They are calculated using 3 cups of cheese (versus 4 cups). Also, not all of the sauce was used in the final recipe.

Recipe is inspired by Laura in the kitchen. The chile relleno sauce is adapted from Isabel Eats.