Spice is Nice

A couple of years ago we went to New Mexico on vacation. We spent our time in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and I fell in love with all the different kinds of chilis and the different ways you can use them with other ingredients to create all kinds of dishes. I came home wanting to try to find ways to use Sourthwest ingredients with French techniques, since I really love French cooking. I did work on that project for a while but when winter came I succumbed to beef bourguignon, coq au vin, cassoulet and all those good stick to your bones french stews I imagine were meant to ward away the Mistrals in Provence.

In honor of the beginning of March, I made rellenos stuffed with chicken, using fresh poblano peppers and some of my cache of New Mexico spices. I get mine from Chimayo to Go. They sell spices and corn flour and everything wonderful you need to make your own New Mexico feast.

First, I roasted 4 chicken thighs with a little season salt and pepper.

I add a pat of butter to each thigh and a little water and cover them with foil and roast for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees.

I also roasted 4 gorgeous Poblanos, also at 400.

Then I shredded the chicken.

And peeled and seeded the peppers.

I grated about 1 1/2 Cups each of Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack cheeses.

I set all of those aside and made my sauce. I made a roux by melting some butter. Ideally, I’d only use 1 stick but I had a stray piece that looked excluded so I threw it in too.

After the butter melted, I added a tsp of Guajillo pepper.

And  1/4 C flour. and mixed that all together.

Pretty color!

Then I added cream. A lot of cream. Maybe 2 cups but enough to get a thick-milkshake consistency, stirring all the time, of course.

You could use milk but why?

After that was all put together and reached the right consistency and seasoned with salt as needed, I removed it from the heat and poured a few small ladles full into the bottom of a square pyrex dish.

I filled one half of the open pepper with chicken then topped with the cheese combo,

Folded the empty side over the top and placed in the dish.

To top it all off, I poured some sauce over the chills until they were covered. Then I layered on a healthy helping of the cheese, then more sauce and cheese and finally covered the whole thing with the rest of the sauce.

Then into the oven, 400 degrees fro 30 minutes and voila!

Serve with sour cream and enjoy. (Even picky thirteen year old daughter ate them!!!)