Prep and Cook time 1 hour
Dish assembly – 30 minutes
Bake time – 40 minutes
Rest for 5 to 10 minutes
*See Kitchen Notes for more information and links
See Kitchen notes for link to crepes recipe. For this dish substitute the green chile powder in the recipe with minced chives. Crepes can be made up to 3 days ahead.
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.
Cut each chile open to make a flat chile. Scrap off any seeds. If you want to reduce/remove most of the heat from the chiles, carefully remove the veins that run the length of the pods.
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.
Pour green chile sauce in a wide bowl or pie pan - any dish large enough to be able to easily dip a crepe and coat with the green chile.
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.
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.
Continue to stack the crepes and the ingredients until you use up the roasted chiles and cheese.
How to Make Crepes - Use this recipe to make the crepes. Substitute the green chile powder in this recipe with minced chives. 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.
Homemade Green Chile Sauce - Options
Roasted Chiles - Use freshly roasted, canned or frozen. If you have to used canned, then it's going to be hard to find roasted red; therefore, just use green. To purchase frozen roasted red chile, check out The Hatch Chile Store.
You can use all red chile with green chile sauce or 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.
Cheese – The combination of white cheddar and feta works quite well. However, you could also use 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.
Recipe author: MJ of MJ's Kitchen