If you’re looking for something spicy and a little unique to make for Cinco de Mayo this year, then this is the recipe for you! I combined three of my favorite Tex-Mex recipes into one. Fire-roasted poblano peppers, pork tamales, and rich, smoky red chile sauce. They were absolutely delicious!
Roasting peppers is easy, and with a little experimentation, you can control the smokiness of flavor by the duration of time you roast them. As you can see from the picture, I like a deep level of heat in my peppers, so they’re fully charred by the time I remove them from the heat. And if you have folks who are sensitive to spicy food, you could use fire-roasted red peppers in place of the poblanos. Both variations are great and have that authentic Tex-Mex flavor.
Have a wonderful Cinco de Mayo!
Ingredients:
8 Poblano peppers
1 cup shredded pepper Jack cheese
For the Stuffing:
8 prepared pork tamales
2 cups cornbread
2 eggs
1 white onion, chopped
1 cup red Chile sauce *see below
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
For the Red Chile Sauce:
6 ounces dried Chile peppers
6 cloves garlic, sliced
4 cups fire-roasted tomatoes
4 cups vegetable broth
1 white onion, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
For the Peppers:
1) Set your oven to broil.
2) Wash the peppers and place them on a foil-lined baking pan.
3) Place the pan in the oven and broil the peppers, turning them every 3-5 minutes until the entire surface is blackened. The darker the color, the deeper, smokier flavor you’ll have in your pepper. As you can see from the picture, I like my peppers to be really dark!
4) Remove the peppers from the oven and place them in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the peppers steam for about 15-20 minutes until the skins have loosened.
5) When the peppers are cool enough to handle, gently remove the skins from the peppers, leaving the tops and stems. With a sharp knife, make a slit down one side of each pepper, careful not to cut through the other side, and remove the seeds. Set the peppers aside.
For the Red Chile Sauce:
1) Combine the tomatoes, broth, garlic, and onion in a stock pot over medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 10 minutes.
2) Stir in the dried Chiles, cover the pot and remove it from the heat. Let the mixture steep for 15 minutes.
3) Using an immersion blender, blend the mixture until it is smooth.
4) Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a small saucepan, scraping the solids in the strainer with a wooden spoon to extract as much of the Chile flavor as possible. Discard the solids.
5) Place the pan on the stove on medium heat, and stir in the butter until it has melted. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste and reduce the heat to low to keep the sauce warm.
For the Stuffing:
1) Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat and cook the onions until they are soft.
2) In a large mixing bowl, break the tamales up with a spoon or pastry cutter. Then add the prepared cornbread, breaking it up as you did with the tamales.
3) Add the onions, eggs, seasonings and 1 cup of the Chile sauce to the bowl and incorporate the ingredients together.
To Prepare the Dish:
1) Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
2) Lightly spray a 9×12 baking dish with cooking spray.
3) Carefully stuff each pepper with the tamale stuffing, and arrange the peppers in the baking dish, opening side up.
4) Spoon the Chile sauce over each pepper, followed by a light sprinkle of the cheese. Place the pan in the oven and bake the peppers for 10-15 minutes until heated through and the cheese has melted. Serve any remaining Chile sauce and cheese on the side.
