My husband loves my cooking, but when we first got married, his taste buds hadn’t grown up yet. The only things he wanted me to make were hamburgers, tacos, and pizza. When I talked about cooking some not-so-ordinary meals, he told me he wouldn’t eat them. Needless to say, to someone who loves to cook as much as I do, this was a bit of a disappointment. After we had been married for a couple of months, I came to the conclusion that the hamburger-taco-pizza routine wasn’t working for me–I was going to have to cook our meals separately. So one Friday night I made myself this Chile Rellenos Casserole, and I made him a plain old hamburger. We sat down to dinner, and both of us enjoyed our own individual meals. It wasn’t until lunchtime the next day that his taste buds suddenly did a 180. While he was talking to somebody on the phone, I got hungry, went into the kitchen, opened up the refrigerator, and pulled out the leftover casserole. Just as I did that, he suddenly interrupted his phone call and called out to me from across the room, “Hey, don’t eat all of that!”

 

I was naturally puzzled and looked over to him for an explanation. “It looks good! I’m going to have some.” I couldn’t believe my ears, but sure enough, when he got off the phone, he tasted it and loved it. After that, I continued to cook him new dishes. He tried them and realized that he liked more foods than he thought he did. Eventually his taste buds grew up, and now he likes almost all of the foods I cook. So if somebody in your family is stuck in a hamburger-taco-pizza rut, you might want to give this recipe a try. It has all the wonderful flavor of the chile rellenos dishes served in Mexican restaurants, and it might just work wonders for you–like it did for me.

This recipe calls for canned chiles, and when you buy them, make sure you get the whole ones, not the diced. You’ll need to wash them and remove the seeds. I usually run my finger along one side of the chile to open it up, and then I just wash the seeds away with the running water. Dry them on paper towels, and then grate the cheeses.

Reserve 1/2 cup of each of the two cheeses, mixing them together in a small bowl. This will go on top of the casserole later, so you can place it in the refrigerator for now.  In a medium-sized casserole dish, approximately 8 x 11 (9 x 13 is too big), layer 1/2 of the chiles and all of the cheddar cheese.

Then layer the remaining chiles. . .

. . . and all of the jack cheese.

Separate the eggs. I have a thingamajig for separating eggs. I think I got it at one of those kitchen gadget parties. And yes, thingamajig is a real word!

Beat the yolks and add the evaporated milk, flour and salt, beating until frothy.

Beat the whites separately for about a minute.

Then combine the two egg mixtures and beat for a few seconds longer so that they are well-mixed.

Pour the egg mixture over the chiles and cheese. Bake at 300 for 1 hour.

Then spread the tomato paste over the top. Sprinkle with the reserved cheese you placed in the refrigerator. Bake 1/2 hour longer.  Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

When I served this for dinner tonight, my husband said, “Yummy!” It’s been almost 29 years since that first time he tried it, and his taste buds have never looked back!

Serving Suggestion:  Serve with Spanish Rice.