I’m a Texas girl and when I found out about my allergies, one of the very hardest things to give up was Tex Mex. No corn, no flour, no cheese, no eggs…at first that all seemed to add up to no Tex Mex and I’m not going to lie, I was pretty upset about it. Last summer at the farmer’s market I saw some beautiful poblano peppers and decided to fix this gaping hole in my life. I started experimenting with chile relleno adaptations and this probably took more effort than any other recipe I have come up with, but it was worth it. This is a work intensive recipe but it isn’t difficult and it freezes really well so make a big batch and save some for another night when dinner will be wonderfully easy to make up for the work you put in on the first round!
4 poblano peppers
1 chicken breast
1 quart low sodium chicken stock
manchego cheese (sheep’s milk)
1 packet gluten free taco seasoning
olive oil
Set your oven to broil and rub a very light coating of olive oil all over the poblanos. Place them in a baking dish and broil them for 12-20 minutes, turning every 5 minutes or so, until the skin has charred and bubbled.
While the peppers are in the oven, bring the chicken stock and 1/2 of the taco seasoning to a boil. Add the chicken breast in the stock and boil for 10 minutes then cover and simmer for 20 more.
When the skin on the peppers has bubbled and the peppers look like the picture above, peel the waxy skin from the peppers then slit them lengthwise – one side only, leave the pepper intact as much as possible – and scrape the seeds out as well. Turn the oven to 350 and set the peppers aside on the counter for now.
After 20 minutes of simmering, pull the chicken breast out of the stock and shred it using 2 forks. Add the shredded chicken back to the stock to soak up the flavor.
Place the seeded, skinless peppers back in the baking dish and place slices of manchego cheese inside the peppers. Scoop chicken, with just a little of the stock into each pepper and then add one more small slice of cheese on top of the chicken and pull the sides of the pepper back together. (Note: If you are going to freeze some, freeze them at this point in the recipe.)
Bake the rellenos at 350 for 20 minutes then enjoy the fruits of your labor!!
I pulled the seam apart a little in the final picture so you can see inside them a bit.
healthy meals with sarah 