Chile Relleno with Tequila Shrimp

I don't know about you but normally when I think about a Chile Relleno there's only one thing that comes to mind and that's a nice big chile stuffed to the gills with cheese, coated in a light batter and deep fried. The cheese oozes out on the plate and the spicy heat of the chile warms the palate. It's crisp and creamy at the same time and oh so fattening. Well that's not the version we had last night.

A chile relleno literally means "stuffed chile" and any chile can be filled with everything from chorizo, to creamy chicken, to chile verde to shrimp, as was the case last night. Adapted from a recipe in John Conley's book, Salsa Brava Cocina, this version loads roasted Poblano chiles with sauteed vegetables including sweet corn, zucchini, sweet onion and red bell pepper along with perfectly cooked shrimp finished with a flash of tequila.

What exactly do I mean by "flash of tequila"? Well, let's just say if I hadn't stood back far enough when the tequila ignited, the eyelashes I'm missing from rubbing my itchy allergy eyes would have been joined by the rest of the hair on my head. Not a good thing so for heavens sake when you do that - step back and don't panic. The fire goes out pretty quickly and I say that with confidence because the microwave which is above the stove is still intact and the flames went far, far above that! LOL

I took this recipe a step farther and created a rich creamy slightly cheesy sauce to go inside the relleno to keep the filling moist. The bonus is that the whole thing can all be prepped in advance then finished under the broiler just before serving, which makes it just about perfect in my books. Download Chile Relleno with Tequila Shrimp

By the way, for those of you that are unfamiliar with chile peppers, poblano chiles are relatively mild in flavor with a meaty texture making them a perfect candidate for stuffing; however, the skin is rather tough and the flavor and texture of the pepper is enhanced when it is roasted and the skin is removed. I've included instructions for performing this little task in the recipe. Don't let it scare you - it's easy and worth the effort.

Also if you're liking the sound of stuffed peppers, check out the others we've enjoyed here in the past.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Stuffed Green Chiles

  Turkey Stuffed Anaheims

Comments

[Nanan]

This looks SO good!!!! I (almost) want to go find Pablano peppers (hehehehehe)(hey I can tomorrow when I go to Whole Foods in New Orleans!) I love how you added the cheese sauce - as I love sauces!!!!

[June]

I love sauces too and it really did add to the whole thing. I also like that the chile still had a little "bite" to it as far as texture goes. It was extremely mild in flavor though so we both added some hot sauce to give it a little more kick. We're hopeless aren't we?

[Mags]

I love stuffed poblanos and I figure I could sub out the shrimp for chicken, don't ya think?

We finished planting the garden tonight and decided to plant anaheim peppers instead of poblanos this year. I still have a gallon baggies of poblanos left from last year!

[June]

Mags, I think you could easily sub chicken for the shrimp. As for planting anaheims, I really prefer them because they aren't quite as mild as poblanos in fact, they can be darn right assertive.Good for you!