New Mexico Green Chile Relleno Mini Cornbread Bites–the perfect snack to go with celebratory beers after a big day of chile roasting in hot, humid Nashville.
Roasting and peeling a a half dozen cases of Hatch green chile gives you plenty of time to think up new and interesting green chile applications. A few examples from our archive:
Green chile twice baked potatoes, green chile hominy casserole, green chile gougeres, green chile posole, green chile green beans, green chile corncakes…then just good ol’ green chile cheese burgers and enchiladas.
We’re big fans of the power of the mini cornbread muffin at cocktail hour. Hot from the oven they are snatched up in one pass. Why Nashville restaurants and bars, especially ones into Southern-style foods, won’t get in on this simple, inexpensive, easy snack completely escapes us.
The combo of cornbread with green chile is makes perfect sense. All you folks lucky enough to live in New Mexico, or anywhere with happy access to fresh Hatch chile, your fingers tingling from heat even though you wore gloves, we know how that wave of fatigue hits after a day of roasting and peeling. The problem is, you want to enjoy some green chile after all that work and to celebrate the special season. But whatever you whip up has got to be easy–something that doesn’t take a lot of ingredients, effort, or time, but showcases all the goodness of beautiful New Mexico green chile and tastes great with icy old beer. Those green chile enchiladas can wait until later.
Here you go!
Stir up the quick cornbread batter, add a little green chile and a chunk of cheese. Bake and enjoy!
We’ve got some other variations too Cornbread Barrel Bungs
Very minor assembly required.
New Mexico Green Chile Relleno Cornbread Bites
1 cup self-rising cornmeal mix
2 tablespoons oil
About 3/4 cup buttermilk
About 4 ounces sharp Cheddar or Jack cheese, cut into 24 cubes (about 3/4 inch each)
About 1/2 cup chopped, roasted New Mexico Hatch green chile
Heat the oven to 450 F. Grease 24 mini muffin cups. (We have two little non-stick pans of 12) Combine the cornmeal mix, oil and buttermilk in a small mixing bowl. Add enough buttermilk to make a pourable creamy batter like pancake batter. If you don’t have enough buttermilk, add a shot of water to the batter. Blend well. Evenly, spoon the batter into 24-greased mini muffin cups. Spoon about a teaspoon of green chile in the center of each muffin. Place a cube of cheese in each. Bake about 12 minutes or until the muffins are nicely browned around the edges. Allow to cool a few minutes. Loosen and remove from the muffin pans. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 24.
