One of my goals at Christmas was to learn to make chili rellenos. The first batch came out okay but I had to use Anaheim chilis because I could not find pablano peppers.

There are pictures in my Christmas tamale thread.

Anaheim' are a good substitute for flavor but are not ideal to stuff. They are too narrow and do not have a lot of room inside.

My market finally got a stock on pablano peppers. They worked out much better.

For those unfamiliar, a chili relleno is a pepper stuffed with cheese, covered with an egg batter and deep fried.

I have found that prepping and peeling the peppers is the critical step. You need to blacken the outside of the peppers so the skin can be removed.

You need to do this without over softening the peppers, so they can be sliced, deseeded, and stuffed.

You can do this in a broiler, or by hand over a stove burner. I have tried both and concluded that over the burner is better.

I am still working on this step, and purchased four more pablano's for more practice.

The batter is simply whipped egg whites with the yokes and baking power mixed back in. You cover the peppers in flour, coat with the egg mixture and fry in oil.

I used a cheese called Queso Quesadilla. Not sure what that is but apparently it is a cheese that melts easily. Hopefully, it is not an equivalent of American cheese.

This second batch was pretty tasty. I think I have the final product down, I just need to work on making the individual steps easier.

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I like those.  I order a combo at a place in MS that has a chili relleno, a burrito, and an enchilada.

Nice!  One of my favorite Mexican dishes.

I made a couple of changes to my chili relleno method and I got a much better covering.

Per a suggestion from a chef I know, I held the rellenos for 30 minutes in the refrigerator after the initial flower coating.

I then coated again and dipped in the egg mixture.

I also used a smaller container for the flower. In the past, the flower would start to clump from the previously dipped rellenos. This helped prevent it.

I also used more eggs since it allowed me to better submerge the rellenos in the egg batter.

I used a smaller pan and cooked one at a time. This allow me to cover with more oil while limiting the amount of oil that I used.

I also did a much better job of blackening and deseeding this time. I did most of the blackening under the broiler, catching the corners with my stove burner.

I have used both the broiler and the stove burner methods, and this worked the best. The skin fell right off rather than having to scrape parts to remove it.

Making chili rellenos is fairly involved and makes a mess as you can see from the last picture.

Overall, the result was really good.

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Looks like the mess was worth it.  Nice!

I have never had them but look like something I need to look for the next time we go out.

I would eat those I am thinking.

Looking good.  When I go for Mexican food, I try to find some sort of combo that has chili relleno.

Looks like you nailed the batter!