Chile Relleno Burritos

A friend gave us a ton of poblano and Anaheim peppers from his garden (thanks, Greg), so I roasted them all, peeled and seeded them, and put them in the freezer. They didn’t stay in long, though, because I kept thinking about the poblanos and how to get the taste of a chile relleno without all the fuss. Believe me, I have tried in the past to peel and seed a poblano and still keep it whole enough to stuff and fry. That’s going in my been there, done that category. My version here basically lines a tortilla with the split and flattened prepared poblano, so that when it’s rolled up, it gives you the same sense of the stuffed pepper, without the fried aspect. That poblano taste makes a world of difference to what is essentially a beef and cheese burrito.

I also made use of my freezer salsa in two ways. I added a little to the meat and cheese mixture, and a little to a fresh peeled and diced tomato as a more traditional salsa for garnish. Don’t worry about it masking the poblano—poblano is the star of the dish.

I didn’t get many pics because for some reason, the kitchen was a hotbed of activity that was making me crazy, even though there are only two of us plus one dog in the house. As you’ll notice, some of the poblanos were green and some were red. I only ate the green ones and they had the traditional flavor of poblanos. My husband ate both and preferred the red ones, which tells me they might have been sweeter and with a less pronounced pepper taste. I might have mentioned in an earlier post that of the bell peppers, I prefer green and he will only eat red, so this preference seems to continue into other types of peppers.

Salsa two ways

Quick fry

Constructed

Chile Relleno Burritos

Servings: 4-6, 1 pepper per burrito
Time: 45 mins with prepared peppers
Difficulty: moderate
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You can read about both the freezer salsa used in this recipe and how to prepare the peppers here: https://kitchenportfolio.wordpress.com/2014/09/19/roasted-salsa-for-freezing/

6 poblano peppers, or one for each burrito, roasted, peeled, and seeded

1 lb ground beef

8-12 oz Monterrey Jack cheese, grated

1-2 tablespoons Roasted Freezer Salsa (for seasoning beef)

1/2 cup salsa for garnish

sour cream for garnish

flour tortillas, soft taco size or larger if your peppers are large

If your peppers have not been previously prepared, follow instructions to roast, peel, and seed them. When seeding, split the pepper from stem to tip, trying to keep the pepper as much in one piece as possible. This dish is forgiving, so don’t worry if your peppers are not in single pieces. A single poblano when split will fan out into somewhat of a triangle shape that fits the top half of your tortilla (see photo), leaving the bottom section free for folding up when rolling. I like to wrap our burritos and soft tacos with one end open and just the bottom edge folded up in the rolling process—looks like a cornucopia. Fold one side over, fold the end up about an inch, then fold and wrap the second side over.
Brown ground beef, drain off fat, and season with roasted salsa. If using regular salsa from a jar, I suggest straining it so your beef mixture is not watery. I do that quite often with commercial salsa and reserve the liquid for other recipes.
Add cheese to beef mixture and simmer until melted.
If your peppers were previously prepared and refrigerated or frozen, quickly fry each one in a little olive oil, then place on a tortilla.
Place 2-3 tablespoons of the beef-cheese mixture down the center of the pepper.
Garnish with salsa and sour cream.
Roll and eat.

What else can you think of for lining tortillas before filling and wrapping?