Chili Relleno Lasagna

Note: Poblano peppers have a very bitter outer skin. To use in recipes, you must remove this skin before hand. I use my oven’s broil setting. Turn broil on high and lay peppers on top rack. You want to char all sides of the peppers. You’ll notice the skin start to shrivel and turn black as this happens, rotate the peppers so all sides char. Once most of the pepper looks charred, remove them and place in a plastic bag. The heat from the peppers will cause steam to build up and make removing the skin a lot easier. Set aside to let it steam. Once they have cooled off you need to take them out and deseed and remove the skin and stems from each pepper. If they were steamed correctly, you should be able to gently remove the charred bitter skin. It’s ok if the pepper breaks as it’ll be laid flat later. It’s important to try to get as much of the skin off as possible. Gently remove the stem and open the chili up to remove the seeds inside. In the end you should have a large flat triangular cooked and skinless green poblano pepper that’ll be used as the “noodles” for your chili relleno lasagna.

Cook rice according to package instructions. I like to use two cubes of tomate or tomato flavored chicken bullion to season my rice. It adds a pretty red color to the rice and has a great flavor. I just drop it into the water as its cooking. I also like to my rice a little moist, so I add a tad bit more water in the end to keep it from drying out later. Once rice is finished, set aside.

Cook ground beef in a skillet. Drain oil or fat once cooked thoroughly. Add taco seasoning and amount of water specified on the seasoning package. Also add cumin and garlic powder. You need to taste your meat to make sure it is to your liking, as some seasoning mixes have more salt than others. If your meat tastes bland, add a little salt to taste.

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Now that you have all the main components ready, it’s time to layer. Take a 9×13 pan and lightly spray it with a nonstick spray. First, add half of your rice to the bottom, spread so it covers the pan evenly. Then sprinkle half the the meat over the rice. Take cheese and generously sprinkly over the meat. Next, lay down enough pepper to cover the meat and rice. Normally, this only takes about four of the peppers. You can tear them to fit the empty spaces in the pan. Repeat this process with the remaining rice, meat, cheese and peppers. Finally, to finish off your creation, get your prepared salsa and spread on top of the top exposed layer of poblano peppers. Cover with the Velveeta cheese slices.

Bake at 350ºF for 20–30 minutes or until it bubbles. Remove from oven, slice and serve.