The OLD-FASHIONED Way to Make Chiles Rellenos (Crispy Outside, Melted Cheese Every Time)

📖 Get La Cocina de Bertha, every recipe in this kitchen written down (372 pages): https://berthascookbook.com Mija, cut into a chile relleno with me. If the batter always slid off in one wet sheet and the cheese stayed cold in the middle, your batter was fine and your cheese was fine. The chile was WET. Here is the whole old-fashioned way: the roast, the one dry jacket that makes the batter grip, the egg whites that puff it golden, and the cheese that runs out the moment your knife goes in. ⭐ WHAT YOU NEED (makes 6) • 6 poblano chiles, big, FLAT, smooth and shiny • 1 lb melting cheese in a BLOCK: Oaxaca, Chihuahua, or Monterey Jack (never pre-shredded, page 182), cut in thick fingers and left at room temperature • or my father's birthday way: a spoon of picadillo plus one finger of cheese (page 288) • 6 eggs, out of the fridge 30 minutes • 1/2 cup flour for the jacket, plus 1 tablespoon for the batter • Salt • Oil, about 1 inch deep in a heavy pan ⭐ THE CALDILLO (the thin tomato broth) • 5 Roma tomatoes, 1/4 white onion, 1 garlic clove • 1 spoon of fat or oil • 2 cups chicken broth • 1 pinch dried Mexican oregano, salt ⭐ THE METHOD 1. ROAST the poblanos over a gas flame, a hot comal, or under the broiler, turning, until the skin is truly BLACK and blistered all over. Do not forget the shoulders by the stem. (page 156) 2. SWEAT them in a covered bowl, 10 to 20 minutes. 3. PEEL with your fingers and a paper towel. NEVER under running water. (page 157) 4. One slit down the side, shoulder to an inch before the tip. Pull out the seed pod, leave the stem on. Taste a corner of each one if children are eating. 5. Fill with 2 fingers of room-temperature cheese. Not too full. Close the edges, toothpick if needed. 6. THE SECRET: pat each chile DRY with a towel, then roll it in flour and shake off the extra. The flour jacket is what the batter grips. 7. THE BATTER (make it last): whites in a clean bowl, beaten to STIFF peaks, you can tip the bowl. Yolks in ONE at a time (page 215). Fold in a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon of flour, gently. 8. Oil at about 350°F. Test: a spoon of batter should puff and float up golden in seconds. 9. Hold by the stem, coat in batter, lay it in SEAM SIDE DOWN. Spoon oil over the top. 2 to 3 minutes, turn ONCE, 2 more minutes. Two at a time, never more. Drain on a rack. ⭐ THE CALDILLO METHOD Simmer the tomatoes 8 minutes, blend with the onion, garlic, and a little cooking water. FRY the sauce in hot fat 5 to 6 minutes until bright red turns brick (page 294). Add the broth and the oregano rubbed between your palms, simmer 10 minutes, salt. Thin, a broth and not a gravy. ⭐ CRISP OR SOFT My mother: caldillo in the bowl, relleno on top, crust stays crisp. My grandmother: the relleno slipped INTO the simmering caldillo for 1 minute, soft like a dumpling. Both roads are old. THE HONEST WORDS: • Batter slid off → the chile was wet, or no flour jacket. • Flat and greasy → whites not stiff, oil not hot, or the batter sat too long. • Cheese did not melt → cold cheese, or pre-shredded bag. • Cheese ran into the oil → too full, or the seam did not go down first. • Bitter → burned past the skin into the flesh. Blacken the jacket, not the chile. WHO PROFITS: two rellenos with rice and beans are about $17 at the restaurant near me. Six poblanos, a block of cheese, six eggs, and tomatoes are about $12 at my store. Six rellenos, about $2 each. THE HABIT: when poblanos are cheap, buy twelve. Roast, sweat, peel, seed, and freeze them flat with paper between them. Wednesday night, the hard part is already done. The ones that tore become rajas con crema (page 156). And the stove after, with the oil spattered on the back and the burners? That is the other half of my life: 🧼 Clean The Mexican Way → [link to cleaning channel] If your rellenos always came out soggy with the cheese cold in the middle, it was never because you were careless. Nobody ever showed you. Tell me in the comments: cheese house or picadillo house? I read every one.