Description
This Rajas Con Crema recipe uses fire roasted poblanos in a cheesy, Mexican Queso style sauce. It packs so much flavor and is really easy to make in under an hour!
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 large poblano peppers
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- 1/2 of a sweet yellow onion
- 1 jalapeño, remove stem and seeds
- 1 ear of fresh corn
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 3/4 cup Mexican crema table cream
- 8 ounce block Monterey Jack Cheese
Instructions
- Turn on the gas stovetop to medium heat. Roast the poblanos directly over the flame, rotating every minute or so with tongs until blistered and charred on all sides. Alternate cooking method: If you don't have a gas stove, turn the oven on broil and roast them on the top rack until charred, rotating to get all sides blistered.
- Transfer the roasted poblanos into a gallon size ziplock bag or into a bowl covered tightly with plastic wrap. Allow the poblanos to steam for 15 minutes.
- As the poblanos are steaming, slice the onion into thin strips, cut the corn off the cob, mince garlic and jalapeño, and shred cheese. Cooking Tip: Cut the corn as close to the cob as possible and use a sharp knife rather than serrated. Slowly cut it as the corn has a mind of its own and wants to fly everyone. You can also cut it over a bowl, if that's easier to catch it.
- Once the poblanos are finished steaming, remove the seeds, stems and charred skin from poblanos. It's ok if a little bit of the skin remains. It will be difficult to get every last bit.
- Next, cut the poblanos into strips, also known as rajas.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Into a large skillet over medium heat on the stovetop, melt the butter. Toss in the onion, corn and jalapeño, and salt and cook for 6 to 8 minutes until softened, stirring every few minutes. Note: If the butter starts to burn, drop the heat to medium low.
- Add in garlic and rajas and cook for 1 minute. Decrease the heat to medium low.
- Break the cream cheese into pieces and add it to the skillet, allowing it to melt for about 2 minutes. Stir well. Decrease the heat to low, and add in the Mexican crema and 3/4 of the cheese. Stir until nice and creamy and all the ingredients are incorporated.
- Transfer the Rajas con Crema to a baking dish and top with remaining 1/4 cheese. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Serve: Allow this rajas recipe to cool for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy on tacos, burgers, chicken, nachos or dunk a tortilla chip into it!
Notes
- Make sure to get the poblanos really charred on every portion of the pepper. This will help them to peel really easily.
- Don't skip the steaming in a bag portion. The skin will be much more difficult to remove without steaming. The skin of poblanos can be a papery and touch texture, so you want as much off as possible.
- If the poblano skin is shriveled and the seeds look on the darker side, you may be dealing with a less fresh poblano and it might have more heat. If you don't want the rajas con crema to be too spicy, you may want to use less of the jalapeño or leave it out entirely.
- When adding the cream cheese into the skillet, break it up into smaller pieces so it can melt faster.
- Use a block of Monterrey Jack versus pre-shredded. Pre-shredded, bagged cheese uses an anti-caking agent that helps the cheese not to stick. A block of cheese that you shred yourself will melt much better.
- Working with poblanos and jalapeño means hot oils can sometimes end up under your nails, make sure to wash your hands really well or wear gloves.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: appetizers
- Method: stovetop & bake
- Cuisine: mexican