Recipes: Chile Relleno Pizza

One night while I was on lunch at work, I got a huge craving for Chile Rellenos.  The craving then started morphing into a plan…how could I put all the wonderful flavors of this great Mexican dish into one masterpiece.  I was thinking of a casserole, but after bouncing the idea off my wife, she said “You know what would be good?  Incorporate it into a pizza using sweet Mexican corn cake as the crust.”  And so, our Chile Relleno Pizza recipe was born!  The ingredients are:

1 pkg Chi Chi’s corn cake mix

1 can sweet creamed corn

1 can refried beans

3 servings of minute rice

1 1/2 cups salsa

4 Oz ground turkey

1 poblano pepper

1/2 pkg taco seasoning

2 cups Mexican shredded cheese blend

The first thing you are going to have to do is roast the poblano.  My method is to raise the top rack close to the broiler, and blister the skin of the pepper until it chars, which takes around five to ten minutes.  Put the poblano in a brown lunch bag, seal it, and let it set for 30 minutes.  The skin will peel off easily.

After taking the poblano out of the oven, lower the temperature to 400 degrees and mix the corn cake batter together.  We have a nice deep dish pizza stone that we use, so pour the mixture into the stone and pop it in the oven for 40 minutes.

While the corn cake is baking, make the rice on the stove top, brown and season the turkey, and if you care to make the salsa instead of using a jar, I will add my easy salsa recipe at the end.  Otherwise, your favorite store-bought salsa will work.  When the rice is ready and fluffed, add 1 cup of salsa to it and fold it together…quick and easy Spanish rice!

When the corn cake is done, remove it from the oven and start layering your pizza.  First the refried beans, followed by some Spanish rice, then sprinkle the seasoned turkey.  After peeling the poblano, dice it and spread it evenly across the top.  Take a half cup of the salsa and swirl it over the top, add the cheese, put the stone back in the oven for ten minutes and you are ready to enjoy this sweet and savory concoction!

Chile Relleno Pizza..my comfort food!

My salsa is super easy to make.  I chop up 4 scallions, 1/2 a green bell pepper, 1 medium jalapeno pepper and sweat them in a medium sauce pan until soft.  I then put a tablespoon of diced garlic in before turning the heat down.  Put in a 28 Oz can of crushed tomatoes and simmer on low heat, adding a squeeze from half a lime and stirring occasionally.

This is a very tasty dish that I hope you all will try when you get a chance.  This is one of my absolute favorites!