Plus, Five New Mexican Chile Rellenos to Try Today
by Candolin Cook
photos by Stephanie Cameron
As is the case with many beloved recipes, the origin of the chile relleno (stuffed chile) is steeped in legend. One popularly accepted version asserts that nuns in Puebla, Mexico, invented the relleno for soon-to-be emperor Agustín de Iturbide in August of 1821. Allegedly, then general Iturbide was on his way back to Mexico City after triumphantly signing the Treaty of Córdoba (which established Mexican independence from Spain), when he decided to stop in Puebla to celebrate the day of his patron saint, San Agustín. To mark the historic occasion, nuns at the local Santa Mónica convent whipped up the first batch of chiles en nogada—green poblano chiles stuffed with picadillo (ground meat, fruits, nuts, and spices), covered in a white creamy walnut sauce (nogada, named for nogal or walnut), and garnished with red pomegranate seeds. The tricolored dish was said to represent the newly sovereign country’s flag.
Historians, however, have pointed out that not only had Indigenous and mestizo peoples been making versions of chiles rellenos for, perhaps, hundreds of years before Mexican independence, but there is no documentation of chiles en nogada or the Puebla nun story until 1925. That the supposed “neoclassical” dish did not become common until the 1930s, they argue, suggests that not only was this particular relleno recipe not the first, but it may be less than a century old.
Regardless of its inception date, the patriotic relleno has gone on to become a staple of Mexican cuisine and at holiday dinner tables. To try chiles en nogada locally, check out a tasty traditional version at Delicias Café in Albuquerque or, for a more unique presentation, order the “Cholula” at Sazón in Santa Fe. In the latter, Chef Fernando Olea molds a roasted chile poblano into a tower filled with ground lamb, pork, and beef; nuts; dried fruits; and spices. The relleno structure is then placed in a cool pool of nogada, and bejeweled with pomegranate seeds and a balsamic-jalapeño reduction.
Of course, the chile relleno most New Mexicans know and love differs significantly from Puebla’s and other regional variations—which often use anaheim, pasilla, or poblano chiles and a tomato-based sauce—but its origins are similarly murky. In the classic New Mexican version, a roasted and peeled New Mexican green chile is stuffed with cheese (e.g., cheddar, asadero, Monterey Jack), then coated in flour, dipped into a frothy egg batter, and fried in oil until the outside is golden and the inside is molten. The crunchy pepper is finished with a hearty douse of spicy New Mexico red or green chile sauce, and sometimes broiled with a bubbly top layer of meat and cheese. In the absence of proper documentation, it is hard to pin down exactly when New Mexico restaurants began offering cheese-stuffed rellenos. But we know at least one restaurant in the United States, Luna’s in San Francisco, began serving similar “chili reinas” in the 1890s (though these couldn’t have been as good as New Mexico’s, since they used green bell peppers).
Over the years, New Mexican restaurants have put their own delicious spins on the regional dish. In the 1990s, Geronimo boldly tried a filling incorporating smoked gouda and grilled artichoke hearts. Today, the National Hispanic Cultural Center’s La Fonda del Bosque offers a mouthwatering rendition with caramelized shiitake mushrooms and onions, roasted garlic, and goat and asadero cheese. But, while the flexible relleno will continue to evolve, the comfort of a classic New Mexican green chile and cheese relleno is sure to remain timeless.
