Chile Rellena Casserole / Mrs Angela Sullivan

 

Chile Rellena Casserole

from the Kitchen of Angela Sullivan

Independence, MO

 

My family spent 29 years living in New Mexico. We grew up on Hatch peppers (an Anaheim pepper grown in Hatch, NM... they have wonderful flavor.) Our favorite dish was Chile Rellenos. They are a delicacy there. One of the women from our church taught Mom how to make them. They are delicious, but very tedious to make.  When making rellenos, you roast and peel the peppers and then stuff them with Monterey Jack cheese. These are then battered in an egg batter and pan fried. For a family of 8 kids, this required between 3-4 dozen peppers. If we had company, it could be double that amount. This casserole contains all of the traditional flavors, but requires much less work.  The peppers still need to be roasted and peeled. We usually do that when the chile harvest is in and then freeze the peppers for later. For the casserole, I cut the stem off and split the pepper to remove the seeds (that's where most of the heat is). You can also purchase the whole green chilies, canned, in the Mexican food aisle. I'm not sure how many cans it would take to make the casserole, but would expect it to take between 1 - 2,  30 oz cans. So... here's the recipe.

 

 

Chile Relleno Casserole

18-24 Anaheim peppers, roasted, peeled, and seeded

1 lb. Monterey jack cheese, grated

3 cups milk

1 cup flour

6 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix the milk, flour, and eggs together.

Spray casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray.

In the casserole dish, layer 1/2 of the chilies -- top with 1/2 of the egg mixture and 1/2 of the cheese. Layer the remaining chilies and pour the remainder of the egg mixture over. Top with the remaining cheese.

Bake in oven for about 50 minutes. (Egg batter will set similar to the way a quiche does.)

We usually serve this with Spanish rice, salad, and chips and dip.