Chile Relleno, Restaurant-style

I love Mexican food.  We've talked about this, but I'm not sure if I ever told you that my most favoritest thing to order at a Mexican restaurant is chile relleno.  I really like how the pepper gets cooked to death and is filled with processed cheese and overcooked ground beef.

I'm not joking.  I really do like those qualities in certain foods.

So, that's me.

Then, one day, my sister Julianne left some super duper processed queso in our fridge after housesitting.  I don't BUY that stuff, even though I love it, but clearly I wasn't going to let it go to waste.

Also, I had some random ground beef in the fridge that had already been cooked and the fat had congealed and it smelled like cat food.  I couldn't wait to eat it.

Hence, a restaurant-style gloppy chile relleno was born.

And eaten.

And loved.

YUM.

Here's what you need, for 4:

• 2 green bell peppers
• 2 cups cooked, crumbled ground beef
• ⅔ cup queso, or any white melting cheese that you like
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ½ cup grated monterrey jack cheese, or other cheese of your choice

How easy and delicious does THAT sound?

So delicious!

First, prepare the peppers.  Turn your oven to 400F and cut each bell pepper in half, then scoop out the seeds.

Place the pepper halves cut side down on a baking sheet or roasting pan, then roast the peppers for 10-20 minutes until they start to wilt a little bit - you can make the peppers as mushy or .... erect not mushy....as you would like.

Meanwhile, make the ground beef filling.  Mix the cooked beef with the queso and cumin - microwave the ingredients to soften them for 30 seconds if you need to.  Taste, and add more cheese for creaminess or cumin for flavor.

Thank God for chemicals.

When the peppers are nicely wilted, pat them dry if they are wet on the inside.

Turn your broiler on high, too!

Then, scoop some filling into each pepper.

Top each pepper half with some grated cheese, and broil them for 2 minutes or so until the cheese on top is bubbly and the filling is heated through.

Nice.

Yum.

Listen, I know this isn't super duper hardcore cooking with fancy schmancy ingredients like we get into sometimes, but it's GOOD, and that matters to me WAY more.

I also know that sometimes chile relleno are healthy, sometimes are deep friend, and sometimes have a crazy crunchy and eggy coating on them.  I like those kinds, too.

So, there.

Enjoy this one, guys!