Thanks for this Darienne. I'm a native Texan but I don't recall that I've ever encountered a Chile Rellenno casserole before. I'll have to look through some old community and church cookbooks and the like and see if there are any that I just missed.
I've never liked Chile Rellenos. My mother loved them and would always order them and it was one of the few Mexican dishes she made at home. I thought they were always way too greasy and soggy. hers and the restaurant versions Maybe I just never had a good one but I gave up long ago.
Funny that Lisa Fain makes a sidewise comment on the use of bell peppers. Really Lisa? Oh wait, she's a lot younger than me I'm sure and I think she grew up in Houston?, or maybe it was Austin? I grew up in a small town. There were no poblanos available so everybody, including the restaurants, made Chile Rellenos with bell peppers. I was in grad school at UT, ca 1968, when I went with a Hispanic friend who was a student at St. Edwards in south Austin to a little Mexican restaurant on South Congress. He ordered the Chile Rellenos, which was his favorite dish, and offered me a bite when I told him I couldn't stand the dish. It was my first encounter with a poblano and I had no idea what I was eating.
