How to cook poblano peppers

Poblano chiles are a mild green chile typically used to prepare chiles rellenos, rajas con queso, and crema de poblano. They need to be roasted and peeled before cooking to remove the tough outer skin which is difficult to digest. Roasting also adds flavor.

Can You Use Poblano Peppers Without Roasting? Absolutely. Just like any other chili pepper, poblano peppers can be eaten raw or cooked into many meals. Roasting them is not necessary, though they are delicious roasted.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Rub all sides of the poblano pepper generously with oil and place on a baking sheet. Roast for 6-8 minutes on each of the three sides by carefully turning pepper over with tongs, until the skin is charred and blistered evenly around.

You can easily roast peppers on the grill. With your grill preheated to a high temperature, place poblano pepper directly on grill grates. Use tongs to flip pepper occasionally, until the skin blackens and bubbles, 2-3 minutes on each side. Don’t allow it to turn white or catch fire.

When you ripen and dry poblano peppers into ancho peppers, their heat rises due to the ripening. Green poblano peppers are much less spicy than when they are ripened into red poblano peppers. So note that when using anchos, the flavor will definitely be more pungent.