Deconstructed Chiles Rellenos — Let’s Make a Mexican-Inspired Casserole

Every now and then, I run out of ideas for main dishes to make with ground beef. So, I jumped when I noticed a recipe for a casserole named, “Chile Rellenos,” in one of Southern Living’s annual recipe books. Both my husband and I love Chiles Rellenos. However, the individual peppers can be time consuming and difficult to prepare from scratch — from broiling the poblano peppers, to mixing up the ingredients and stuffing the peppers and then frying the peppers in a fluffy egg batter. Why does my fluffy egg white batter always fall off the chile peppers during frying? My “Deconstructed Chiles Rellenos” casserole tastes surprisingly similar to the real dish and it is much easier to prepare. Simply brown the ground beef, stir together the ingredients for the cream sauce (no cooking required), then layer the ingredients — including canned chiles — into a casserole dish and bake. How easy is that? This recipe was a hit and satisfied my cravings for Mexican-inspired cuisine.

Favorite Mexican Dish

I bet that everybody can easily name their favorite Mexican dish. My husband would pick “Chile Rellenos.” I have to admit that pungent, green chiles which are filled and baked with creamy cheese just can’t be beat, especially when fried with a light, airy batter. We have tried Chile Rellenos from Florida to Arkansas to the Texas-Mexican border of Corpus Cristi. And, my husband loves all of them. So, I’m hopeful that this deconstructed Chile Relleno casserole will get the same response.

My first experience dining at a “real” Mexican restaurant was in Foley, Alabama, on our way to the Gulf Shore with white, sandy beaches for a short vacation. We stopped because we were starving and really didn’t have a clue as what to order. Our waiter brought a thin, creamy white cheese sauce for dipping chips. The thin sauce ran off the chips and down my toddler’s chin. Eventually he gave up and just ate the sauce by the spoonful. That dinner was a revelation that Mexican cuisine is more than Taco Bell. I fell in love with Mexican cuisine — including Chile Rellenos.

Recipe Inspiration

I love Southern Living magazine recipes and used them extensively back in my catering days. However, it can take alot of space to store all those magazines and organizational skills to cut out, organize and save the recipes. Years ago, I discovered that you can purchase a recipe book which is complied of all the recipes in the magazine for that year. That’s a great solution to the problem. I forgot about those books until recently. In the Jan-Feb magazine, the editor-in-chief of Southern Living — in his “Life at SL” column — mentioned that most recipes prior to 2007 had not been digitalized and placed on the internet. He invited readers to submit their favorite vintage recipes which had stood the test of time along with story of how they had been used. (Southern Living, Jan-Feb 2026, Vol 61, No 1 page 8) Hum, I have many recipes bookmarked from those vintage issues — I love the strawberry salads and dessert recipes as well as all the cookies variations. And, Southern Living provided many ideas when I was just learning how to cook shrimp. I got out the recipe books and browsed through the pages carefully looking for a recipe to answer the Editor’s invitation. One of the books fell open to the “Chile Relleno” casserole recipe. It is a new recipe and I decided to try it out.

Recipe Shortcuts

This recipe takes several short cuts compared to making traditional “Chile Rellennos.” Rather than using fresh poblano peppers which you must broiled and skin, this recipe uses canned chile peppers. This step saves alot of time and effort. Usually traditional Chile Rellenos are breaded and fried in a batter which includes beaten egg whites. My recipe substitutes a white sauce which includes three whole, beaten eggs. This gives the casserole an eggy flavor. Rather than cooking the white sauce prior to adding to the casserole, the ingredients are simply mixed together and poured over the other chiles, cheese and ground beef. This step also saves time and effort.

Recipe Ingredients

My recipe is adapted from the one in of those vingtage Southern Living annual recipe books. I used that recipe as inspiration. Chile Rellennos can be stuffed with Mexican-style cheese or a ground beef filling. My casserole includes both ground beef and cheese. The ingredient list includes cheddar cheese rather than traditional Mexican-style cheese. Although not as authentic; using cheddar cheese means that I will have a good idea of the flavor of the casserole. I had alot of green onions on hand, and added them liberally to the dish. My seasonings were cumin, ancho chili powder, garlic salt, salt and black pepper,

Here are the ingredients (except white sauce) for my casserole:

I used two (4 oz) cans of green chiles and pound of ground beef.

To make the casserole, I browned the ground beef — I adding in the yellow onions and spices. For the layers, I placed half the green chiles in the oiled casserole dish followed by half the cheddar cheese. Then I added all the ground beef mixture and green onions. The top layer consisted of the remainder of the green chiles and the rest of the cheese.

Egg & White Sauce

The casserole is topped with a white sauce which is rich in eggs. Here are the ingredients.

To make the sauce, mix the flour with small amount of cold milk. Stir to break up clumps of flour. Stir in the eggs. Then add more milk and water. If you wish, add a few dashes of Tabasco Pepper Sauce. No need to cook the white sauce before pouring it into the casserole dish — it will thicken as the casserole bakes.

Pour the sauce over the casserole. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Uncover, cool slightly so it can be handled. Here’s my casserole.

Add a vegetable or salad, and we have supper! All the ingredients — chili peppers, cheese and ground beef plus eggy white sauce — all meld together. It makes a satisfying and easy supper.

Enjoy!

And, here’s a link to my blog post where I attempted to make “real” Chile Rellenos using Hatch peppers. That was an adventure! https://beyondgumbo.com/2022/09/11/hatch-chile-rellenos/?preview_id=23561&preview_nonce=536ccb8328&preview=true&_thumbnail_id=23694

Next task is to decide which recipe and story to submit to Southern Living magazine for their “vintage recipe” story memory invitation.