I Love New Mexico

April 2020. Just like everyone else, we’re sheltering in place. We’re also looking for carb free recipes to comfort us without expanding our waistlines. We were specifically looking for a carb free chile relleno recipe last night.

Not like everyone else, we’re getting to do it in the Land of Enchantment, for which I’m grateful. I love where I live.

Here’s to all of us surviving and thriving during this unprecedented time.

The first week at home, my husband and I had no boundaries for eating. It was basically everything in sight and then some. Green chile cheeseburgers from Pantry Dos, Frito Pie from Posa’s, along with a bag of their amazing tortilla chips and some tamales for the freezer, green chile chicken enchiladas from Tomasita’s, huevos rancheros from Tia Sophia. By the way, all of those places and more in Santa Fe are open for takeout right now, so please consider takeout whenever possible. We are all in this together.

And then every night we had ice cream with either chocolate or caramel topping. And nuts. Who can go without nuts on their ice cream during a pandemic?

After eight days, I weighed myself. I had gained six pounds in just over a week! Besides all that, my gut was a wreck. When they removed a portion of my colon seven years ago after my cancer diagnosis, they removed the part that likes gluten. And I was treating that part of me with absolutely no care.

So last Sunday, we made a pact. Minimal carbs, minimal sugar, and no more sweat and yoga pants. We put on our jeans and suffered through Monday and Tuesday. And I started trying to cook.

Last night we had our own version of healthy New Mexican. Lettuce tacos (ground beef with garlic and a bit of Chimayo red chile powder) with sides, Herdez guacamole salsa, pork rinds for dipping, and carb free chile rellenos. My gift to you today is the recipe for those rellenos. They were delicious. I want one for breakfast right now!

I cooked mine in the air fryer at 400 degrees for 12 minutes and they were perfect. If you don’t have an air fryer, the conversion tables I’ve seen would suggest that you put these in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. It’s not an exact science, but you’ll know when the cheese is melting and your rellenos are browning.

I have bags of roasted green chiles in my freezer, which are optimal. Each fall I leave the stems on the meatiest whole chiles in the bunch and freeze those separately, marking the bag as rellenos so that I can easily find them. My green chile is Sandia Big Jim Medium that I get at Wagner’s Farm in Corrales. They’re meaty, tasty, and just the right amount of hot. I’ve been a Wagner’s fan for decades. If you don’t have a local source for whole roasted chiles, here’s one.

Cut a lengthwise slit in your thawed whole chiles. The slit should be about 1/2 of the length of the chile, but not all the way to the end. You’re doing to stuff this slit with cheese and you want to be able to close a portion of the slit as much as possible. Otherwise your cheese will end up oozing out, although I can safely say that this recipe tends to keep the melting cheese in place.

I used Monterey Jack cheese to stuff my chiles, but you are welcome to use whatever appeals to you most. I cut my cheese into 1/4 inch square width by 2 – 3 inch long slivers, depending on the length of my chile. I then slid this cheese sliver into the slit in the chile.

In a bowl, I beat one egg and added a half cup of heavy cream. In a separate bowl, I placed crushed pork rinds, seasoned with garlic salt and black pepper to taste.

I use UTZ pork rinds, which I buy from this link at Amazon in bulk because they are tasty without being too pork-ish (is that a term?).

I started my air fryer on preheat at 400 degrees for 12 minutes. While it was preheating, I gave my chile a bath in the egg/cream mixture and then placed it in the pork rind mixture, coating it well in both bowls. Because I wanted to be careful about the cheese, I simply laid the chile in each bowl and then spooned the contents of each bowl over the top. In the pork rind bowl, I pressed the pork rinds onto the chile so that they were somewhat securely in place.

If you need to find an air fryer, here’s the one I use, which is an Instant Pot Product: https://amzn.to/2S1JTnD Toby and I both love this Air Fryer and I’m finding that I’m using it on almost a daily basis.

This link is an affiliate link, so if you purchase using this link, it won’t cost you more, but I will get a small commission for sharing it with you.

I placed my four chiles in the air fryer and left them alone. No tossing or turning. And check out that sunset I got to watch while I was battering the chiles!

Of course while all this was going on, I had the ground beef on, the lettuce leafs washed, the onions and tomatoes chopped and the salsa out.

It made for a great, very healthy, almost no carb dinner. Let me know if you try it!