I thought I might try to make chile rellenos, so I picked up some Anaheim chilies. Only the recipes I’ve found assume you’ve roasted and ‘skinned’ a chile before. Not me. When I eat fresh chiles they’re raw. I assume I just put the chiles into a hot oven to roast them, but for how long? What do they mean ‘skin the chile’?
Cut your chile in half, deseed and take out the stem. Rub them with a little bit of oil - veg oil is fine. Put them on a broiler pan skin-side up and broil them on the second rack from the top. Broil until the skin is black and blistery, then plop them into a paper bag, roll up the bag, and let them sit for about 5 minutes. The skins should come right off with a little rubbing. If I’m roasting something more potent than a jalapeno, I use rubber gloves.
At this point, your peppers can be easily chopped and added to anything.
+1 on the method. I’ve always put them into a cold bath after the roast, but YMMV.
You can also do them on a gas stove top. Or on a BBQ grill.
If they look almost burnt, they aren’t roasted. If they look black and beyond redemption, they are just right.
This is the quickest way, but you need to prick them otherwise they can explode and you don’t want all that juice and flesh spraying everywhere…
Once they are good and burnt pop them in a plastic bag for a couple of minutes to sweat and the skin will come away easily. Some people recommend washing them but I find this washes away the juices and flavour.
Thanks for the answers. I’m guessing a 450ºF oven? Or should I just turn it on ‘broil’?
Strangely, the gas company hasn’t figured out how to run a pipe 200 or 300 feet from the main to my house.
Sucks to be you. 
¡Bastardo grande! 
IANACook, but why is this required?
My Mexican former-gf used to put chilies right on the gas stove burner next to the flame and rotate them until she got the desired doneness. Made a bit of a mess on the stove, tho.
I use several kinds of chilies in cooking frequently, but just chop them up raw. Doesn’t seem to be a problem.
However, IANACook. Did I say that before?
Develops flavor.
I do them on the stove, as well, and then throw 'em into a bag for 5 minutes or so.
It won’t be a problem. It’s just taste a little different.
Ah, here’s a nice video of Zarela Martinez showing how to roast chiles for Mexican dishes.
AAAAHHHHH!!! The FOOD!!! It’s moving ON IT’S OWN!!!
Despite the title, she didn’t show how to roast them on a griddle. I wonder if I can use a cast iron skillet on the coil? I do have a gas burner. Several, in fact. But they’re Svea 123s and I’m hesitant about roasting chiles over a white gas flame.
I just toss them on the grill, no pricking or deseeding or anything like that. Rotate them as they blacken, and then peel as needed. Of course, this is because my grandparents have told me (and they seem to be correct) that frozen green chiles last longer if they’re frozen after they’ve been roasted but before they’ve been peeled. Basically peel as you go.
All of that said, I am a native New Mexican who developed a taste for chile later in life. So I haven’t done it often. But the last bushel I bought in NM and took back to DC and roasted there lasted a very long time in the freezer by the method above. I know you just have a few chiles right now, but that’s how I at least roast them.
Come on! You’re a Straight Doper, you can extrapolate. 
Basically, you do the same thing. Just turn them from time to time. I only do dry red chiles on the griddle, because the griddle just doesn’t give me a good enough all-around roast like leaving them on the burner (or the broiler) does, so I tend not to pan/griddle roast green chiles.
Yeah, WTF is up with that? I started my Mexican cooking adventures with Zarela Martinez’s Food From My Heart about eight years ago and I very much respect the woman, citing her and Rick Bayless as perhaps being the best introductions to Mexican cooking for most people, but what the hell were they thinking with that stupid stop motion intro?
edit: Oh, I should add, the poblano corn casserole she makes at the end of the video was one of our favorite recipes from Food From My Heart. The other thing I like doing with roast poblanos and corn is turning them into a cream of poblano and corn soup. Yummers!
I second the BBQ method. I usually do a bunch at a time, so I have some for other dishes. One of the redeeming qualities of a gas grill.
Well, that was a waste.
Since I don’t have a gas stove I tried roasting them under the broiling element. The chiles got nice and black on the outside. I put them in a bag for five minutes, and then tried to remove the ‘skin’. Not as easy as the video made it appear. For one thing, they didn’t want to come unstuck. Of the three chiles I tried to roast, I have two small flat ones. They wouldn’t stay in ‘pouch’ form. On the other one the pepper was very thin and very stuck to the ‘skin’. I have what amounts to a couple of pieces similar to canned Ortegas. Not at all worth trying to make rellanos.
I think part of the problem is that the chiles up here are nowhere near as big as the ones I’ve seen in the market in L.A. The other problem seems to be that the chile was ‘cooked’ during roasting, whereas if I had a gas stove I could just burn the outside off without cooking the inside.
Often first attempts are unsuccessful. C’est la guerre.
Don’t worry if you can’t get all the skin off–you generally won’t. Just get as much of the black off as you can. I like to leave a few flecks of black on.
Do you know exactly what types of chiles you’re roasting? I generally roast poblanos and the New Mexican-type green chiles.
They’re Anaheims. Small ones.
Thinking back to my Mexican gf, who bought big chiles at L.A. markets, she claimed she put them on the flame just enough to soften the outside, not cook the inside. Maybe that’s the trick – quick, high heat, not prolonged, low heat.
I stayed with friends once who had an electric stove and needed to roast some chilis. We used his propane torch to char the outsides, torch in one hand, chili held with long metal tongs in the other. That might be an option for you but it will take a little longer.