Spicy Ground Beef Chiles Rellenos (4 points)

Craving something hot and saucy, cheesy and spicy? These surprisingly easy chiles rellenos are filled with ground beef, a spicy chile sauce and melted cheese.

This blog (and my kitchen) has been quiet recently. I realize that it seems like I’ve dropped off the face of the blogosphere but I’m not gone forever, I was just taking a hiatus. Things have gotten so busy with the details of our upcoming move.

Believe me, I am beyond thrilled to be moving to Long Beach. But, a cross-country move takes some planning. First, we were so excited to spend the summer on the beach that we decided to break our lease early and move in June. Our management company, on the other hand, didn’t share our enthusiasm. After some back and forth, we struck a deal- they would let us out of our lease if we found the next tenant.

After some Craigslist adventures, we found great tenants. They signed and we were ready to move on. Except, I then realized just how much still had to be done. A moving company had to be enlisted, a new apartment had to be found, new cars had to be researched and, of course, I had to find a new job.

Before this, moving meant renting a u-haul and paying some friends with pizza. But because Mr. Hot and Spicy’s new job offer included professional movers, it made more financial sense to move our things across the country than to sell and then buy new. But I do wonder what the in-home estimators thought as they marched through our one-bedroom apartment taking inventory of our fine collection of Ikea press-board furniture. “Lady, this is just insulting, now I’m hauling doll furniture.”

Everything else, I’m still working on. Because we will definitely need at least one car in Long Beach, I’ve had to research what sort of lovely new (to me) vehicle I want. And, because, I need to pay for said car, I need to find a job. I’ve stopped being a blog writing machine and started being a resume writing machine.

The point is that I’ve become a bad blog owner. But I do have an amazing dinner to share. Remember the El Pato sauce I was raving about? Remember the cheesy (and yet healthy) chiles rellenos I love? I’ve put the two of them together for a rich, filling dinner. These chiles rellenos get loaded with lean ground beef, fresh beans, shredded cheese and a light chile sauce. The best part is that the cheese and the chile sauce blend together in the oven to create a hot, spicy cheese sauce. So good!

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef, 95% lean, or ground turkey, 90% lean
1 can El Pato tomato sauce, 7 3/4 ounces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 can beans (or 2 cups homemade)
1/2 cup shredded cheese
8 poblano chiles, washed and dried

Directions:

First, let’s prep the poblanos. I’ve actually decided that it’s easier to clean out the seeds before charring the skin. To clean them out, cut along the length of the poblano and across the top. You are cutting a T-shape.

With a knife, you can cut out the main membrane with the seeds. Use a spoon to scrape the rest out. Remember, membranes=spicy. Also, don’t touch your eyes afterwards and don’t touch anyone else’s eyes.

Now you can char the skin. The easiest way to do this is to use your broiler. Place the peppers into the broiler. You’ll start to hear the skin blistering. After 8 minutes, check on the peppers. The skin on the peppers should be puffy and blistering, light brown to dark brown. Flip the peppers and char the skin on the other side. Remove after 5 minutes or so.

Place the peppers in a sealed plastic bag for 5 minutes. This steams the peppers and loosens the skin. I make these chiles rellenos so often that I keep a Ziploc bag just for that use.
Open the bag and let the peppers cool slightly. After steaming, the skin should come off nicely. You just need to find a good spot to pinch and a big chunk of skin usually comes off. Don’t worry about getting it all off, just enough.
Next, brown the meat in a skillet until most of the pink is gone. Stir in the can of El Pato tomato sauce. Add the salt. Simmer over low heat until the sauce has been reduced by half.
Now, set up an assembly line for stuffing the chiles. You want to stuff each chile with a 1/4 cup of beans, 1/2 cup of meat and 1 tablespoon of cheese.