Easy Chile Relleno Pizza

Chile Relleno Pizza is an easy 5 ingredient vegetarian pizza which echoes the flavors of a cheese-stuffed, batter-dipped, roasted chile pepper. I just skipped the frying aspect, and tossed it on a pizza crust instead.

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This pizza can be enjoyed year round because the basic ingredients--eggs, salsa, roasted peppers--are accessible year round. It's got enough heat to make it interesting, and it's a meatless pizza that appeals to vegetarians and omnivores alike. You don't need a lot of preparation--a quick trip to the grocery store should set you up just fine--and making pizza at home is often faster than take out.

How do I make pizza at home faster than delivery?

Good planning is one of my keys to success in the kitchen--which sounds lofty but simply means that I've got a roll of parchment paper next to the foil and wax paper in the drawer, a pizza stone that lives in my oven and another that lives on my grill, and I'm likely to save that last cup of taco meat or that bit of leftover cooked potatoes because I'm thinking "I could put this on a pizza".


At any given moment you could open the door to the fridge or freezer and find a wide variety of vegetables and meats that would make a decent pizza. It's in my daily plan on Friday mornings to make a batch of pizza dough--something I do while the dogs are eating their breakfast.


If it's just two of us I'll still make a pair of pizzas but I'll divide the dough into thirds and save one in the freezer for a busy Friday. If you're interested in exploring more about making pizza at home, here's my Pizza Primer post--a brain dump (with images!) of my pizza wisdom from the past 20 years of making pizza at home.




By incorporating small changes to my kitchen routine I set myself up for success with our family's weekly Friday Night Pizza Night--and you can do this in your kitchen as well. But only if you like pizza. If you don't care for pizza, please check out this terrific video from Playing For Change--The Weight featuring Robbie Robertson.

Peppers are another vegetable that is easy to roast when ripe and freeze for later (along with eggplant,  butternut squash, and pumpkin). I have taken the easy way out and walked a dog down to the local grocery store to pick up a quart of freshly roasted Hatch chiles. When your pepper plants are laden, or your farmer's pepper crop fills up your share box, or the farmer's market is bursting with peppers . . . put some up for later use.


I like to lay roasted peppers on a tray in the freezer until firm, then transfer them to zip top or vacuum-sealed bags. I use them up well before the year is out. No roasted peppers in your freezer? Pick up a can of roasted green chiles at the grocery store, make this pizza, then perhaps roast and freeze some peppers next time they are in season. It's up to you!

When we took our Epic Local Eating Family Road Trip we ate terrific Tex-Mex food featuring Hatch chiles from New Mexico in, of all places, Cody Wyoming. The restaurant was (and this is not a restaurant review post, it's just a 'hey if you're in the 'hood and hungry, check this place out' comment) Zapata's.

Shoot, if I can get freshly roasted Hatch chiles in Ohio each August, or in Minnesota each September, and get enough to make salsa verde (using locally-sourced tomatillos and onions) as well as freeze a bunch of roasted chiles for later use, why wouldn't Hatch chiles make it up to Wyoming?

After a long, hot day seeing some of the sights of Yellowstone National Park we arrived, sunburned, sweaty and dehydrated, just happy to sit down out of the sun and guzzle that first pitcher of water while munching on chips and salsa. My spouse and I kept up our vacation tradition of ordering 2 different entrees and splitting them so we could try more things. One of us ordered the Chile Relleno.


That chile relleno was so memorable--gooey cheese oozing out of the chile pepper, all wrapped up in an omelette with salsa verde and more cheese. The spicy tang of salsa verde was such a nice contrast to the creamy cheese. I was hooked. I've since made an Easy Chile Relleno Dip, eaten the dish at multiple restaurants in Ohio and Minnesota--and now it's time for a pizza.

For more recipes using Hatch chiles or any similar hot chile pepper, please see my Hatch Chile Recipe Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating seasonally from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store. For more pizza options, broken up into Vegetarian, Meat Toppings, and Savory Pizzas with Fruit, please see my Visual Pizza Recipe Index.

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Easy Chile Relleno Pizza
By Kirsten Madaus

Chile Relleno Pizza is an easy 5 ingredient vegetarian pizza which echoes the flavors of a cheese-stuffed, batter-dipped, roasted chile pepper. I just skipped the frying aspect, and tossed it on a pizza crust instead.

Prep time: 00:10
Cook time: 00:10
Total time: 00:20

Yield: 1 pizza
Ingredients:
olive oil (about 1-2 teaspoons)
1 pound pizza crust of your choice (see options here)
2 eggs
¼ cup salsa verde
1 roasted Hatch chile pepper (or the chile pepper of your choice)
½ pound Oaxaca string cheese or 2 cups shredded cheese of your choice
a generous pinch of salt and several grinds of pepper

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. If you've got a pizza stone, let it live in the oven and preheat it too. If you don't, but you find yourself making pizza often, invest in one and it will pay for itself in the found money from not ordering in pizza all the time. Here's an Amazon affiliate link to a pizza stone similar to mine.

If you'd like to grill this pizza instead, crank up your grill as hot as it'll get and let it preheat while you fix up the pizza. If you've got a grill stone, preheat it as well.

On an oiled piece of parchment paper, stretch out the crust into the shape it's feeling today, and brush it lightly with olive oil. It's better if you can encourage a rim around the edge.

In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and salsa verde. Set aside.

Chop the chile pepper into small pieces. Set aside.

If using Oaxaca string cheese, tear the cheese into strips, as shown. Set aside.

To assemble, pour the egg mixture on the pizza dough, spreading close to the edge.

Scatter chile peppers and cheese on top.

Finish with a generous pinch of salt and several grinds of pepper.

Bake for 5 to 8 minutes on the parchment paper, then shimmy the pizza off the paper and bake directly on the stone for another 3 to 5 minutes until the cheese is browned and bubbly.

If you're grilling, slide the parchment paper directly onto the grill stone or grill. Cover and cook for 4 to 6 minutes until cheese is browned and bubbly.

Cool on a wire rack for 3-5 minutes, then slice (Amazon affiliate link to my pizza slicer) and serve.