Chile Rellenos

About

Forget tacos, you’re here for Chile Rellenos. It turns out, even the original batter for Chile Rellenos is keto-friendly! It takes a little time and patience to roast the poblano peppers, but the reward is a deep, darkened, pepper filled with a blend of ooey, gooey cheeses. Are you salivating yet?

*Please note you will need more olive oil than what is noted in the ingredient list for frying. The ingredient list reflects the nutrition that will be consumed.

Ingredients

4 pepper poblano peppers, raw
1 ½ cup, shredded colby cheese
1 ½ cup, shredded pepper jack cheese
4 tablespoon olive oil
2 large raw egg
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon onion powder

Instructions

Start by roasting 4 poblano peppers. Do this directly over a stove burner without using a pan on medium-high heat. You can adjust the heat according to how your poblanos are roasting. One at a time, use a pair of tongs to rotate each poblano over the open flame until the skin darkens and bursts. Crackling sounds mean it’s roasting! This process may take 20+ minutes.
Allow the roasted peppers to cool until you can touch and manipulate them. Leave the stems on, but remove all the blackened skin that has peeled away, revealing a soft but roasted flesh. Do not rinse the skin with water, or you’ll rinse away the flavor. Then, slice each pepper once down the middle, so each pepper can open up like a pocket.
Use a spoon to scrape out the seeds of the peppers. Then, fill each pepper with approx. ¾ cup of a mix of the colby and pepper jack cheeses. You may also use shredded monterey jack cheese here, for less spice. The peppers should be full while you can still hold them shut with your fingers. Set the peppers aside for a short time.
For this step, you will need a ½ – 1 cup of olive oil. Start heating the oil in a cast iron skillet, giving about a ½-inch height of oil. Choose a skillet that’s not much larger than a single stuffed poblano, if possible. Separate your 2 eggs, and whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and remaining spices.
Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. You should have a fluffy batter that has a lot of air bubbles and can coat the back of a spoon. Don’t over mix the egg whites, or your batter will run too thin. However, a batter that completely holds its shape is too thick.
When the oil is hot enough to fry the batter, and the stuffed peppers are at room temp, it’s time to fry! Lay one stuffed pepper down in the bowl of batter, pinching the pepper’s opening shut. Sweep more batter over the top of the pepper, covering it all but the stem. Pick the pepper up, wipe away any excess batter, and carefully lay the coated pepper down into the hot oil.
Frying each side of the pepper should take no more than 1 minute, but typically less. Use a pair of tongs to rotate the pepper in the oil to fry each side to a golden, flaky, crisp. You may have to hold it in place for the top of the pepper near the stem to fry. You may also wish to scoop out any leftover bits in the oil between peppers to avoid burning.
Fry all 4 poblano peppers and set them aside to cool slightly, but not too long before the cheese settles. You can soak up excess grease with a paper towel before serving.