If you’ve ever been to New Mexico or have been following my website for a couple of years, you are probably familiar with the question “Red or Green?”. If not, then let me briefly explain. When you place an order in a New Mexican restaurant you will most likely be asked “Red or Green?”… red chile or green chile. Of course your answer could be either one of these, but there is actually a third answer … “Christmas”. When you order Christmas you get both red and green chile. Therefore, in the spirit of the holiday season, I thought I would make a Christmas Pathiri (stacked crepes with red and green chile).
Last spring I shared my vegetarian Green Chile Pathiri with Pinon and Queso Fresco. This Christmas Pathiri is similar, but different. The crepes are dipped in green chile sauce then layered with whole, roasted red and green chiles, chicken (or turkey), toasted pinon (pine nuts), and cheese. In taste it’s a little like green chile chicken enchiladas, but with a greater depth of flavors. It’s texture is lighter and, because of the reduction in cheese, it’s probably a little healthier.
One very important ingredient that I don’t show in the pictures, is the fried egg. The first night we had these crepes with chile and chicken, we didn’t add the egg. But when I served the leftovers a couple of days later, on a whim, I topped each serving with an over easy egg. Bobby and I both agreed that the egg took this dish from very goooooood to GREAT.
Stacked Crepes with Chile and Chicken Recipe
Recipe Author: MJ of MJ’s Kitchen
Serves 4 – 6 as a meal
Crepes – Prep and Cook time 1 hour
Dish assembly – 30 minutes
Bake time – 40 minutes
Rest for 5 to 10 minutes
Ingredients
8 – 10 crepes (See crepe recipe below)
2 cup green chile sauce (homemade or canned)
10 whole, roasted chiles, a mix of red and green – roasted, stems and seeds removed*
6 Tbsp. toasted pinon (pine nuts)
½ cup diced onion
2 cups diced cooked chicken or turkey
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup grated cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
*See Kitchen Notes.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325° F.
- Toasting the pinon nuts – Heat a small heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Add pinon nuts. Slowly toast, stirring occasionally until lightly toasted. (Pinons do tend to stick to the pan more than other nuts so flipping them for an even toasting doesn’t always work. You’ll need to use a heat proof spatula of some type.) Once toasted, transfer to a small bowl.
- Prepping the red and green chile – Cut each chile open to make a flat chile. Depending on the size of the chile, you might need to cut each chile crosswise into 2/3 and 1/3 pieces. You don’t want the chile to extend past the edges of the crepes.
- In a bowl, mix together the diced onion and cooked chicken.
- In another bowl, mix together the feta and cheddar cheese.
- Using a spray cooking oil, lightly coat a cast iron skillet large enough for the crepes to lie flat but as close to the sides of the skillet as possible. Move the skillet to the assembly area.
- Dip a crepe into the green chile sauce coating both sides.
- Place the crepe in the skillet. Top with a layer of chile (equivalent to 1 to 1 ½ chile pods), a few pinon nuts, about ¼ cup chicken/onion mixture, and some cheese.
- Dip another crepe in the chile sauce and top with more of the same ingredients.
- Continue to stack the crepes and the ingredients until you’ve used up the whole chiles and cheese.
- Top the last layer of ingredients with another crepe dipped generously in green chile sauce.
- Pour half of the remaining green chile sauce over the top of the assembled crepes.
- Bake @ 325° F for 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and increase the temperature to 350° F. Pour the rest of the green chile sauce over the top and return the skillet to the oven for another 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let rest 5 minutes.
- Slice carefully with a very sharp knife into 4 or 6 servings.
- Top each serving with a fried egg if desired (sunny-side up or overeasy).
- Serve with a simple side salad of lettuce and tomato.
Crepes Recipe
Makes about 15 crepes
Prep and Cook Time – about 1 hour
Ingredients
3 eggs
1 cup flour, sifted
1/8 tsp. salt
1 ½ cups milk
1 Tbsp. minced chives (optional)
Butter or margarine (to coat the crepe pan before adding the crepes)
Instructions
- Whisk the eggs in a large bowl.
- Sift the flour and salt into a cup or small bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the eggs and whisk.
- Add some of the milk, whisk, more flour, whisk, more milk, whisk. Continue until all of the flour and milk have been incorporated into the eggs.
- Let rest for at least 30 minutes.**
- To make the crepes, slowly heat a crepe pan or 8 to 10 inch, nonstick skillet over medium low heat. When hot, coat with a touch of butter.
- Add ¼ – 1/3 cup crepe mixture to the pan and gently swirl to coat the pan with batter. (If the pan is too hot, the crepe mixture with splatter. Turn the heat down a bit.)
- Cook for 45 to 60 seconds until light brown. Flip and cook about 30 seconds or until crepe starts to puff and becomes light brown on the other side.
- Place on a paper towel and cover to keep warm. I use a tortilla warmer with a paper towel inside.
**If you are going to make this dish on the same day that you make the crepes, then prep the other ingredients while the crepe batter rests. The crepes can also be made up to 3 days in advance and refrigerated until ready to use. You’ll only need 8 to 10 crepes for this dish; therefore, you should have 5 to 6 extra crepes for another meal.
Kitchen Notes
Roasted Red and Green Chile -You can use all red chile with green chile sauce or do what I did and use both red and chile as well as the green chile sauce. This dish would have been picture perfect if I had alternated the red and green layers but sometimes my brain isn’t thinking “picture” when I’m cooking. 🙂 It really doesn’t matter how you layer it, the taste is the same.
Now that we’re in the off season for New Mexico chile we have to rely on frozen chile or canned. My preference has always been frozen, but if you can’t find it, then you might be able to find cans of whole chile. I still have lots of red and green chile in my freezer but for those of you who don’t, check out this list of New Mexico chile suppliers. Many of these suppliers still have plenty of frozen green chile that they would gladly ship your way. I’ve never seen frozen red chile, so if you can’t find it, do not fear. You can still make this with just green chile.
Green Chile Sauce – You can make your green chile sauce from scratch or you can buy it. Check out your local markets for jars of New Mexico Green Chile Sauce or buy it through one of the New Mexico suppliers. You could also substitute your favorite salsa or enchiladas sauce as the dipping sauce. You could also forgo the green chile sauce altogether and use the egg dip batter that I used in the Green Chile Pathiri.
Crepes – The crepe recipe makes about 15 to 16 crepes, more than needed for this recipe. Therefore, save the extras for another meal. When I made this dish a couple weeks ago, I actually used leftover chives crepes that I had made for Swiss chard and feta wraps. There are so many things you can do with crepes, that having leftovers is never a problem.
Cheese – We really like the combination of white cheddar and feta in this dish. However, you could also use a Monterey Jack, Parrano, or Fontina. What you want is a rather salty, fresh cheese and a milder, creamier cheese to help hold the layers together.
If you like these Stacked Crepes with Chile and Chicken, then you’ll also enjoy my other stack crepes and green chile recipe.
Green Chile Pathiri with Pinon Nuts and Queso Fresco
I’m from Virginia and made your red chile recipe with some dried chiles a friend sent from NM. I fell in love! I will be making this recipe Sunday. I’ve just moved to NM two weeks ago so I’m very excited to try the cuisine and learn more about cooking with chiles. Your site is bookmarked and I’m following you on Pinterest.
Oh Jan, thanks so much for your comment! Very happy that you liked the red chile. Sounds like you’re already hooked. Two weeks in this wonderful state?! You’re going to love it here and you’re really going to love the fall when the green chile comes out. As you’ve probably already found out, there is a huge difference in flavor between dried red and fresh green chiles and even fresh red chile. It’s amazing how one plant can produce so many different flavors. Glad you found my website because there are lots of recipes to get you started and you’ve picked one of my favorites to start with. Let me know how it goes and if you have any questions. Thanks again for you wonderful comments and welcome to New Mexico!
Thanks mj! The recipe turned out to be completely amazing. I have to browse through and find another one to try this weekend. There a local market near me and I found a huge bag of dried medium red chiles. So I made enough to freeze! Enjoying your pics of New Mexico as well.
I need to begin exploring the state!
Oh Jan…thanks so much for letting me know. I’m so glad that you like it!!!! It will be fun to see what you make next. 🙂 If you like the NM pictures, you’re going to love tomorrows post. 🙂
Oooh looks absolutelty delicious and droolworthy!!Love the chilies and the egg idea absolutely takes it over the top 🙂
Thanks Soni! I love the “droolworthy”! 🙂
Another cool dinner idea from you MJ! And it’s so fitting since we are all in green and red mood. =D
Maybe i can use cashewnuts instead of pine nuts, what do you think?
Thanks Helene! I thought the same thing. Trying to get into the Christmas mood here. 🙂 Cashews would be interesting. Quite different in flavor, but then so are pecans and I think they would be good here as well. So give cashews a go!
This looks delicious and so pretty. The addition of a fried egg sounds like a terrific idea, too!
Thanks Amy! Yep…the fried egg was pretty darn good. 🙂
Wow! My mouth is watering, MJ. This looks so delicious and I wish I could reach into the photo and grab a serving! I love everything about this recipe. Great post!
Thanks Bill!
Woa – what a beauty this stack is! I’ve heard of sweet stacked crepes, but never seen anything like this festive savory stack! Gorgeous!
Thanks Shashi! I’ve never had the stacked sweet crepes. You’ve got me curious.
Wow crepes and chilli, never thought of making that.
This is brilliant!!!!
Thanks so much Raymund!
Wow, amazingly delicious looking recipe MJ. Those succulent layers are gorgeously suggestive — I want this for breakfast right now! I will definitely be ordering “Christmas” when I visit and, I don’t know, I think you did well with the presentation – the red and green comes through quite distinctively without the alternating layers and looks very festive to my eyes. I’ll be engaging in an intense pinning session later this evening (busy time of year…) and look forward to sharing this beauty ♡.
Thanks so much for all the sharing Kelly and your comments! If you ever get to my part of New Mexico I’ll take you to my favorite New Mexican restaurant where you can order Christmas on any dish you want. Deal? 🙂
100% deal!! 😀
This looks awesome, MJ! What a wonderful combination of flavors…especially the addition of an egg over easy…love it! I have to remember to say “Christmas” because I love both red and green roasted chiles. Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe…I will be trying it soon!
Thanks so much Jodee! Christmas is fun and tasty wawy to enjoy chile. 🙂
Oh, my gosh. What a masterpiece! I’m not big on adding fried eggs to dishes, but Bill would think he’d gone to heaven if I served his with an egg 🙂
Thanks Liz! My husband is the same way…Put an egg on top and he’s in heaven. 🙂
I love the Christmas colors of these crepes and I would definitely order the Christmas plate. That is a stack of goodness in that skillet and it looks so hearty-delicious. I hope you are enjoying the holiday spirit, MJ. 🙂
Thanks Ray! I am definitely getting into the holiday spirit. For me this is the slow time of year, so I have more time to decorate, cook, read for fun, relax and just get into the spirit of the season. 🙂
One of the most fabulous Christmas dish ideas I have ever seen! Your description alone makes me so hungry I feel like eating all my stock of chile, but the photos are simply unbelievable. I cannot even imagine how good your crêpes must taste… I would definitely take the Christmas version (at least the first time I visit a New Mexico restaurant). This looks so much better than most Christmas cakes… I’d happily change it for any buttercream layered cake…
Your a sweetheart Sissi! BTW- As I mentioned, I used some chive crepes that I had made a few days before. The idea of the chives in the crepes came from you and they were so good! And me too…I would take this dish over a buttercream layered cake any day. 🙂
Thank you so much, MJ. I’m so happy to learn you liked chives in crepes!
And I noticed some white (Feta) in between too. A perfect Christmas dish and it looks so tasty too.
Thanks Angie! Yes, the white is feta and a white cheddar.
OMG that looks so good MJ and love the Christmas touch (did not know that). Pinon nut are the best too. And the egg great addition.
Thanks Evelyne! Now you know if you ever make it to New Mexico. You can have Christmas 365 days a year. 🙂
You’d expect to find this in the fancy restaurants, not at home. I love this.
Thanks so much Maureen!
Oh my that dish is a thing of beauty. Order Xmas, huh. I love crepes anyway. Your stack came out soooooo nice. I am impressed. Oh yeah I would definitely love an over easy egg on this princess.
Thanks so much Carol!
Wow these crepes look so delicious! I wouldn’t mind this stack 😀 (maybe without the chicken a little :P)
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
It’s just as good without the chicken Uru!
I do love crepes and as it is the Christmas season, I do agree that both red and green chillies should be present. Great to have a fried egg with this meal too xx
Thanks Charlie! Yep…the fried egg is a must. 🙂
Oh my!!! These look amazing! I’ve done Christmas lasagne (NM Red and Green chile), but the crepes must give a depth of extra richness. I must gain some confidence with my crepe-making so that I can try this! I appreciate you MJ…you’re so creative with our NM cuisine and so happy that you share it with the world!!
You’re so kind Diana!!! I have to admit that my crepe making improved tremendously when I got a real crepe pan. Let me know if you want a link to what I use. I’m loving sharing NM cuisine with the world an people like you here in NM. 🙂
Yes. Please! That would be a great resource to have…
Looks like a great gift idea for you! Here’s a link to where I bought it. http://www.amazon.com/De-Buyer-5303-24-steel-crepe/dp/B0019N4ZHQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1368113934&sr=1-1&keywords=crepe+skillet
This is a spectacular dish. I’d love to make this and it all looks so precise and perfect. The flavors must dance in your mouth. Great recipe. I’m printing this off to try.
Thanks so much Vicki! I hope you get a chance to make. It’s really a fun dish to make.
MJ you have tempted me beyond what you can imagine. The triumvirate of the three Cs…chili,chicken and cheese sounds insanely good.
Thanks Taruna! Haven’t seen “triumvirate” used in ages and I love how you used it here. 🙂
MJ….these look AMAZING! Your photos…are fabulous! I don’t know how I’d decide between red or green. So I’d be ordering Christmas all year round. Not a bad thing at all! : )
Thanks so much Anne! Ordering Christmas is never a bad way to go. 🙂
Definitely a fried egg for me! Love them, and love this recipe. So pretty! And perfect for Christmas. Terrific dish — thanks.
Thanks John! Oh yes…the fried egg is a must.