Fire Roasted Chile Relleno Rice

This dish is extremely flexible....and seriously delicious.

A blend of 3 different chiles gives a complex level of "heat" instead of just "one note" flavor.

It's flexible for several reasons.

• Purpose:  It could be served with bagel chips or pita chips as an appetizer or dip. Or it can be a side dish to complement a variety of TexMex or Southwestern main dishes. 
• Adaptable:  Use your favorite cheeses and fire roasted chiles.  
• Serving:  You can serve it in individual ramekins or family style in a casserole. 

The recipe is adapted from Tyler Florence's book - Family Meal.  Back in November I was lucky enough to win an autographed copy from Amir and Chrystal at Duo Dishes courtesy of Alexia Foods (thanks guys!).

Notice all of my "try this" tab markers.

I've made several Tyler Florence recipes in the past and they have always been successful.  His ultimate roasted chicken is insanely good and my go to hollandaise sauce is his version.   So I was thrilled to win this book.

But before I could make it, I had to trudge through knee deep snow drifts on my deck to get to my grills.

Ok, that might not really be me.  It MIGHT be a toy soldier BUT it IS knee deep on him.  Sorry...we haven't had much snow this year.  This is only the second "dusting", humor me.

The main differences between the book version and what I did are

• I fire roasted mine on my Big Green Egg (Best grill/smoker/wood fired oven....just saying) instead of baking in an oven.
• I used a blend of three chiles (poblano, cherry, and habanero) instead of using canned green chiles.
• I added a little panko bread crumbs and smoked paprika.

Served family style ala Tyler Hamilton's book.

Fire Roasted Chile Relleno Rice
adapted from Family Meal by Tyler Florence

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked rice
• 8 oz monterey jack cheese, shredded*
• 1 cup fire roasted chiles*
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup*
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 Tbsp panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika

Instructions

1. Preheat a charcoal grill set up for indirect heat to 375f. 
2. Mix rice, cheese, chiles, sour cream, condensed soup, salt and pepper together.  
3. Spoon mixture into a greased casserole dish (or greased ramekins) and top with the bread crumbs and paprika.
4. Bake on the grill until the top crust is browned and the cheese is bubbling, about 30 minutes.

Notes

• That is not a cup of shredded cheese.  It is an 8 oz block of cheese shredded which was almost 3 cups of shredded cheese.
• I used 2 poblano, 4 cherry, and 2 habanero peppers.  [How to fire roast chile peppers]
• Yeah, I know.  But if Tyler can use a can of cream of chicken soup, then I can too!

Fire roasting adds smokiness and tames heat just a little.

Switch to indirect heat for roasting the chile relleno rice.

It's done when the top browns and the cheese bubbles up.