State Senator Carrie Hamblen's Not-Yet-But-Will-Be-Famous Chile Rellenos
Preparation: Chiles
- Clean the chiles. That means remove the skin and remove the seeds by slicing about an inch or 2 opening from the stem down. Rinse out the seeds and remove any of the veins of the chile.
Cut slivers (3 to 4 inches long, approx. ¼ inch wide) of Muenster cheese and stuff into the chiles. Muenster is best as it melts but only oozes a little. You will still get a good cheesy bite with every piece of relleno.
Preparation: Batter
- It’s pretty much equal parts crappy light beer and flour. Whisk the batter until the flour is no longer lumpy. You may need to open another beer and add a little as you may have a thick batter. It should be the consistency of pancake batter. Add garlic salt and pepper to season the batter. You can make this earlier in the day, or right before you fry. The chiles take a lot of time to prep so you can make this earlier in the day and then not worry about it.
Cooking:
- In a frying pan, place about ¼ to ½ inches of cooking oil. Use Vegetable or Canola…DO NOT USE OLIVE OIL. That is just sacrilegious.
- Keeping the stuffed chiles moist, (you may need to sprinkle with water or run under water….they just need to be wet enough for the flour to stick to), roll the stuffed chiles in flour, and then in the batter, then place in the pan. You want your oil to be hot but not to the point where you will catch the pan on fire. Fry until crispy. If you are making a bunch of rellenos (because really…the mess for 4 is the same mess for 40), you can keep rellenos warm in the oven until you are ready to serve.
Awesome reheating fact:
- You can reheat them by just re-crisping them on a dry, no stick skillet. The oil in them allows them to recrisp. Don’t reheat in the microwave. That just makes them gross.
